That definition of handsomely is supported by the dictionary:
To a large or generous degree; substantially.
‘she was handsomely rewarded for her efforts’
I assume that the helm commands taught at the CG academy must match the ones taught at boot camp. I suspect that particular officer was demonstrating that his knowledge was broader than that of his shipmates.
Not in my navy. The command handsomely means gradually and carefully ie ‘Heave in handsomely’ ‘Lower away handsomely’. Nothing to do with looks etc. ‘Roundly’ would mean the opposite ie fast, with speed.
Such terms have more or less dropped from general usage though. My experience of the most common usage was in lowering and hoisting seaboats by hand with separately handled falls fore and aft. That’s a drill much loved for cadet sea training as all hands are needed to hoist and there’s lots of opportunities to yell really nautical commands. Nobody does that these days.
The whole point of using commands is to avoid ambiguity, the context for both sender and receiver has to be the same. Both parties using commands have to be working off the same list.
This is the purpose of the helmsman response “Command” - it’s the correct response to getting a command not on the list. At least it is if it’s on the list.
This is also why a list of commands can’t be shown to be incorrect by coming up with another list that shows a different meaning for a specific command.
I well remember those days. Handsomely was a term used as you say. Others were “marry the falls”, run away with it and some terms unsuitable for polite society. The sea boat was a Montague whaler, under oars that was launched daily unless the weather was above Force 6. In rough conditions the ship would pass close astern of the sea boat then put the wheel hard over to windward of the boat creating a large slick. We oarsmen bent to the task with a will to get under the falls in relatively flat water. The boat was dropped onto the top of a swell when launched with the Robertson’s disengaging gear.
The falls were individually manned until the boat was clear of the water and it was levelled up and the falls were married and hoisting continued.
