A cabin boy or ship's boy is a boy (in the sense of low-ranking young male employee, not always a minor in the juridical sense) who waits on the officers and passengers of a ship,[1] especially running errands for the captain. The modern merchant navy successor to the cabin boy is the steward's assistant.

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Thomas Rowlandson's depiction of a cabin boy (1799)

Duties

Cabin boys were usually 13–16 years old, but sometimes as young as 8,[2] and also helped the cook in the ship's kitchen and carried buckets of food from the ship's kitchen to the forecastle where the ordinary seamen ate. They would have to scramble up the rigging into the yards whenever the sails had to be trimmed. They would occasionally stand watch like other crewmen or act as helmsman in good weather, holding the wheel to keep the ship steady on her course. They could be found on pirate ships sometimes.

Royal Navy officers

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

Notable American cabin boys

  • Cori, de Scheepsjongen ("Cori the Cabin Boy"), a comics series by Belgian artist Bob de Moor about a cabin boy working for the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie in the 16th century.
  • 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 board the ship the Hispaniola.
  • "Cabin Boy", a short story by Damon Knight.
  • Renaissance Festival, The Cabin Boys, Pirate Fire Comedy act from Minnesota.
  • In One Piece, a couple of famous figures started their career as pirate cabin boys who would later grow into prominence after leaving their old crews. The Roger Pirates, the crew of the Pirate King Gol D. Roger, had two cabin boys who would later become two of the current Four Emperors, "Red-Hair" Shanks and "Genius Jester" Buggy. Their fellow emperor Marshall D. Teach (a.k.a. "Blackbeard") was a cabin boy of the Whitebeard Pirates, the rival crew of the Roger Pirates. The dethroned emperor "King of the Beasts" Kaidou was a cabin boy of the legendary Rocks Pirates. "Surgeon of Death" Trafalgar D. Water Law joined the Donquixote Family as a cabin boy where he would hang out with fellow cabin boy and cabin girl Buffalo and Baby 5 until Law was taken away from the crew by Donquixote Rosinante ("Corazon") for his own safety. SWORD officer "Red Flag" X. Drake was forced to be a cabin boy of his father's pirate crew, the Barrels Pirates, until the day of their destruction from which he escaped. Fellow SWORD officer Koby "the Hero" was abducted and forced to be a cabin boy for the Aldiva Pirates until he escaped and then joined the Marines shortly after.

References

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