master-at-arms:

(short form: MA; plural: ‘masters-at-arms’)

‘Arms’ in this context are the weapons; not the parts of a person’s body that have hands on one end of them.

an officer with policing duties on a ship, either naval ship or passenger ship,

a master-at-arms on guard aboard a ship

e.g.

The master-at-arms of our ship dismissed two mariners who fell asleep on duty!

A master-at-arms can send away any civilian employee on ship from duty if he/she feels that the civilian employee is unfit to carry out orders and responsibilities.

There may be more than one master-at-arms on a large ship and the chief of those masters-at-arms (CMAA) is called a sheriff and is directly responsible to the executive officer of the ship.

As a result of the terrorist act of blowing up the twin World Trade Centre buildings in New York, USA on September 11, 2001, the masters-at-arms, who had been enjoying the peace that a small town policemen usually have, have been elevated to full fledged security duties at sea and on land.

For an article that explains the duties of a master-at-arms, please click here, for an official article that explains the development of MA’s programme, please click here, for a news article that shows us how we come across this word in our daily news, please click here, and for a news article that reports the dark side of a well-disciplined master-at-arms, please click here.

Compare: man-at-arms