lodesman

Etymology

From Middle English lodesman, lodesmon, lodysman (“pilot”, literally “lode's or course's man”), alteration of earlier lodeman, from Old English lādmann (“a leader, guide”), equivalent to lode (“way, course”) + -s- + man. Compare to lodemanage.

noun

1. (historical, nautical) A pilot; navigator.
   River and harbor pilotage, in English maritime affairs, is called loadmanage, from loadsman or lodesman, a kind of pilot established for the safe conduct of ships and vessels in and out of harbors, or up and down navigable rivers. 2009, Erastus C. Benedict, The American Admiralty
   For much of the Middle Ages, ships had only three ranks of seamen: master, lodesman or navigator, and mariner. 2011, Anne Crawford, Yorkist Lord: John Howard, Duke of Norfolk, c. 1425 -1485
   Such has always been the importance of preserving the life and cargo carried by ships that pilots (or 'lodesmen') have been employed for centuries as freelance mariners. 2014, Neil Jones, Paul Ridgway, Light Through a Lens