cabin boy

Cabin boy, 1799.

A Cabin boy or ship's boy is a boy (in the sense of low-ranking male employee, not always a minor) who waits on the officers and passengers of a ship,^[1] especially running errands for the captain.

Cabin boys were usually from 14–16 years old and also helped the cook in the galley and carried buckets of food from the galley to the forecastle where the ordinary seamen ate. They would have to run from one end of the ship to the other carrying messages and become familiar with the sails, lines and ropes and the use of each in all sort sorts of weather. They would have to scramble up the rigging into the yards whenever the sails had to be trimmed. They would even begin to stand watches like other crewmen or act as helmsman in good weather, holding the wheel to keep the ship steady on her course.

In the famous trial of Regina v. Dudley & Stephens (1884) 14 QBD 273 DC, two sailors and a cabin boy were shipwrecked and cast adrift in a small boat without provisions. To save themselves, the sailors killed and ate the cabin boy. They were later convicted of murder, despite their claimed defense of necessity.^[2]

Royal Navy officers

Several prominent British Royal Navy officers begun their career as cabin boys. The list includes officer that achieved an admiralty rank before 1801.

Admiral of the Fleet Sir Cloudsley Shovell

Admiral Sir Francis Drake

Admiral Sir John Hawkins

Admiral (General) Richard Deane

Admiral (Colonel) William Rainsborough

Admiral Sir John Narborough

Admiral Sir William Penn

Vice Admiral Sir William Batten

Vice Admiral Sir John Lawson

Vice Admiral (Captain) Badilow

Vice Admiral Sir Thomas Tiddeman

Vice Admiral (Captain) James Peacock

Vice Admiral (Captain) William Goodson

Vice Admiral Sir Christopher Mings

Vice Admiral Sir John Harman

Vice Admiral Sir John Berry

Rear Admiral Sir Richard Stainer

Rear Admiral (Captain) Anthony Houlding

Rear Admiral (Captain) Deacons

Rear Admiral (Captain) Robert Sansum

Notable cabin boys

• Hobart Bosworth -- Cabin boy on the Sovereign of the Seas who became a famous actor.
• Michael Healy -- Cabin boy who sailed on the American East Indian Clipper Jumna in England in 1854. He quickly became an expert seaman and rose to the rank of officer on merchant vessels.^[3] He became the first African-American to command a ship of the United States Government.
• Thomas Nickerson -- Cabin boy on the Essex who later wrote about the shipwreck and subsequent 3 months of survival at sea.

Popular culture

Nautical portal

• Cabin Boy, a 1994 film
• Cabin Boy, a song by Tom Robinson from the 1984 /1997 Castaway Northwest CNWVP006 album War Baby
• Captain Pugwash, a British television children's animated series about a hapless Captain and his crew; Tom, the cabin boy, is depicted as the most intelligent member of the crew.
• Treasure Island, where the main character Jim serves as a cabin boy on the boarding of the ship the Hispaniola.

References

1. ^ Concise Oxford Dictionary, Oxford University Press 1999, entry "Cabin boy"
2. ^ Simpson, A. W. B. (1984). Cannibalism and the Common Law: The Story of the Tragic Last Voyage of the Mignonette and the Strange Legal Proceedings to Which It Gave Rise. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226759425.
3. ^ http://www.uscg.mil/history/people/HealyMichaelIndex.asp

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