Naut. An officer subordinate to the gunner, whom he assists in all departments of his work (cf. quots. 1769, 1846).
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., viii. 35. The Master Gunner hath charge of the ordnance … the rest of the Gunners, or quarter Gunners to receive their charge from him.
1702. Royal Declar., 1 June, in Lond. Gaz., No. 3815/2. The Trumpeter, Quarter Gunners, Carpenters Crew [etc.].
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1780), s.v., The number of quarter-gunners in any ship is always in proportion to the number of her artillery, one quarter-gunner being allowed to every four cannon.
1804. Med. Jrnl., XII. 476. One of his Majesty’s frigates, on board of which her husband served in the quality of a quarter-gunner.
1846. A. Young, Naut. Dict., 242. Quarter-Gunner, in a ship of war, an able seaman, generally one of the gunner’s crew, appointed to act as his assistant under the gunner’s mates.
