yawler

noun yawlers

1. One who sails a yawl. The Englishman, having had his yacht rammed by a yawler which immediately began to careen, boarded the doomed vessel, clubbed the senses, if not the life, out of a crew of mutineering sailors (a performance that is not often encountered outside of highly adventurous narratives of the sea), and rescu
2. A young boy or old man who provides support to an oceangoing fishing boat, guiding the jolly boat to shore, performing simple maintenance of the jolly boat, bringing provisions, etc. At Newlyn each lubber kept a 4-oared boat at anchor, but at Mousehole 3-oared jolly-boats were preferred. These craft were left in charge of a "yawler," a lad aged from 10 to 14, who was paid 1s. 6d. a week (fig. 3, inset).
3. A juvenile herring. Fifty years ago Gannets in twos and threes were not infrequently seen on Breydon, whither they went and fished for "yawlers" (half-grown herrings), that were plentiful there in those deep-water days.
4. One who yawls (howls). A fellow has smuggled in a cat, a famous yawler, and right in the midst of your most solemn appeal, it gives a genuine, border-ruffian screech.