BOATSWAIN (pronounced “bo’sun”; derived from “boat” and “swain,” a servant), the warrant officer of the navy who in sailing-ships had particular charge of the boats, sails, rigging, colours, anchors and cordage. He superintended the rigging of the ship in dock, and it was his duty to summon the crew to work by a whistle. The office still remains, though with functions modified by the introduction of steam. In a merchant ship the boatswain is the foreman of the crew and is sometimes also third or fourth mate.
BOBBILI, a town of British India, in the Vizagapatam district of Madras, 70 m. north of Vizagapatam town. Pop. (1901) 17,387. It is the residence of a raja of old family, whose estate covers an area of 227 sq. m.; estimated income, £40,000; permanent land revenue, £9000.
The attack on the fort at Bobbili made by General Bussy in 1756 is one of the most memorable episodes in Indian history. There was a constant feud between the chief of Bobbili and the raja of Vizianagram; and when Bussy marched to restore order the raja persuaded him that the fault lay with the chief of Bobbili and joined the French with 11,000 men against his rival. In spite of the fact that the French field-pieces at once made practicable breaches in the mud walls of the fort, the defenders held out with desperate valour. Two assaults were repulsed after hours of hand-to-hand fighting; and when, after a fresh bombardment, the garrison saw that their case was hopeless, they killed their women and children, and only succumbed at last to a third assault because every man of them was either killed or mortally wounded. An old man, however, crept out of a hut with a child, whom he presented to Bussy as the son of the dead chief. Three nights later four followers of the chief of Bobbili crept into the tent of the raja of Vizianagram and stabbed him to death. The child, Chinna Ranga Rao, was invested by Bussy with his father’s estate, but during his minority it was seized by his uncle. After a temporary arrangement of terms with the raja of Vizianagram the old feud broke out again, and the Bobbili chief was forced to take refuge in the nizam’s country. In 1794, however, on the break-up of the Vizianagram estate, Chinna Ranga Rao was restored by the British, and in 1801 a permanent settlement was made with his son. The title of raja was recognized as hereditary in the family; that of maharaja was conferred as a personal distinction on Sir Venkataswetachalapati Ranga Rao, K.C.I.E., the adopted great-great-grandson of Chinna Ranga Rao.
For the siege see Imp. Gazetteer of India (Oxford, 1908), s.v. “Bobbili Estate.”
BOBBIO, a town and episcopal see of Lombardy, Italy, in the province of Pavia, 32½ m. S.W. of Piacenza by road. Pop. (1901) 4848. Its most important building is the church dedicated to St Columban, who became first abbot of Bobbio in 595 or 612, and died there in 615. It was erected in Lombard style in the 11th or 12th century (to which period the campanile belongs) and restored in the 13th. The cathedral is also interesting. Bobbio was especially famous for the manuscripts which belonged to the monastery of St Columban, and are now dispersed, the greater part being in the Vatican library at Rome, and others at Milan and Turin. The cathedral archives contain documents of the 10th and 11th centuries.
See M. Stokes, Six Months in the Apennines (London, 1892), 154 seq.; C. Cipolla, in L’Arte (1904), 241.