Until just a few days ago I had only seen the word ‘beset’ used in maritime context to refer to a ship surrounded and stuck in the ice. Then the Pan Viva off Unalaska is reported on a Coast Guard press release as 'beset by weather" and a day or two later off La Push the tug Luther loses steering and is “beset by weather”.
What’s going on? It’s like a viral meme sweeping through the Coast Guard’s press release people.
It’s not just a CG meme, the press release people have become their own meme. They get medals and ribbons for talking about it. The best (worst?) example I found is this one, General Patrick Ryder:
The guy has been nothing but a talking head since joining the Air Force yet has more medals than General Hap Arnold who commanded the 8th Air Force in WW2.
Just as a word choice, I have no problem with beset. It’s sufficiently neutral without being bloodless.
And as a press release your list of go-to verbs has to be limited or you’ll fall into sports-writer talk where you try to change the verb meaning the same thing in every sentence.
I was talking challenge coins with a shipmate & he told me how an admiral once gave him a self made challenge coin. The coin wasn’t for a ship, a group, base or even a specific operation. The admirals challenge coin was about himself, with his picture & personal motto on it?
FWIW, the bottom five (!) rows are service, campaign, and unit commendation ribbons.
Interestingly, I believe the Air (and Space?) Force is the only service in which public affairs is a primary career field for officers. Correction: apparently the Navy also has a small allotment for PAO directly from OCS, though a transfer from another community seems to be more normal.
Used to be the path for Coasties was enlisted-warrant officer-direct commission as a lieutenant (0-3). Not sure if that is still the case.
Seems doubtful usage would drop off suddenly in 2008 as shown. Might be some kind of error. More likely usage followed the same trend line as previously from 1900.
The manual’s definition: Beset. Situation of a vessel surrounded by ice and unable to move.
In ice navigation the usage differs; instead of 'beset by weather" it’s simply “beset”
This is from the manual: " When a ship is beset, awaiting ice-breaker assistance to get moving again, it should keeppropeller(s) turning slowly to keep the ice away"
No need to say 'beset by ice" because that’s what " beset" means in a maritime context.
The word means, "surrounded, attacked on all sides, hemmed in. It might be said that you are beset “by weather” if the weather is precipitation but in the cases mentioned above the CG is talking about wind. Except in wild imagination, the wind is usually from one direction only and therefore you are not beset.
Likely the CG was using the term ‘beset’ in a figurative sense, as in one is 'beset by troubles" rather than literally surrounded as is the case of a ship trapped in sea ice.