Also 8 capidan, (7–8 captain). [Sp. capitan CAPTAIN.] Mostly attrib., as in Capitan (or Captain) Pacha, the chief admiral of the Turkish fleet. Hence capitan galley = next.
[1688. Lond. Gaz., No. 2320/3. The Captain Bassa or Lord Adminl. Ibid. (1707), No. 4336/6. The Captain Pasha will go … with the Gallies … into the Archipelago.]
1755. Smollett, Quix. (1803), II. 150. I rowed in the capitan galley of the Three Lanthorns at Navarino.
1835. Willis, Pencillings, II. v. 96. He was formerly capitan pasha, or admiral-in-chief of the fleet.
a. 1849. J. C. Mangan, Poems (1859), 182. Many a Capitan, and bey.
