local. [Dial. variant of TROUGH.] A name for various kinds of boats or barges: spec. a. Formerly, on the Severn, a large flat-bottomed sailing barge; b. in the south of Scotland and north of England, a double canoe or boat used in spearing salmon by torch-light (also pl. const. as sing.): see quot. 1825 (? obs.); c. on the south coast of England, a small flat-bottomed boat used in herring-fishing. d. attrib., as trow-fisher, -lock; also TROWMAN.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 10218. Arthur … gadered botes, chalans, & trowes.
1479. Office Mayor of Bristol, in Eng. Gilds (1870), 424. Such as bryngeth whete to towne, as wele in trowys, as otherwyse, by lande and by watir.
1778. Wesley, Wks. (1872), XI. 144. Are there fewer trows or barges employed on rivers and canals?
1825. Jamieson, Trows,… used in Roxb. and other southern shires, to denote two pieces of wood, each formed like the half or section of an ellipsis, fenced with upright boards, so as to prevent the entrance of water. These two are conjoined…. An interstice is left between the two sections, so that the water is seen distinctly through it. This sort of vessel … is used … in night-fishing on rivers for salmon.
1835. ‘Stephen Oliver’ (W. A. Chatto), Rambles Northumb., 154. ‘The trows’ … used in spearing salmon in parts of the river where they cannot be taken with a net. The trows consist of what appear like two narrow boats,… connected at the top by a piece of flat board. Ibid., 155. Some of the old trow-fishers here are of opinion [etc.].
1838. Simms, Public Wks. Gt. Brit., ii. 14. The trow-lock [in the Gloucester and Berkeley canal] is eighty-one feet six inches long.
1875. Bristol Times 17 June (E.D.D.). The Fanny was a ketch-rigged (two-masted) trow, of 120 tons…, and was used for trading purposes.
1888. Elworthy, W. Somerset Word-bk., s.v., On the south coast about Sidmouth a small fishing-boat is a trow.
1899. Daily News, 13 Feb., 7/3. The trow ‘Flower of the Severn,’… moored in the river, was carried away by the tide and wrecked.
