Hi Piers Thank you for that, which makes sense. Looking again I see that the actual date of this voyage was February 1878. The list enumerates 2 Officers 1 carpenter 2 bosuns 30 able seamen 4 engineers 9 firemen 4 trimmers 9 waiters 4 cooks When I have more time it would be interesting to research whether this was a typical complement for the time. David On 11/08/2015 14:50, Piers Smith-Cresswell wrote: > Hi David > > In the 19th Century a "Steward" on a merchant ship usually meant the > person who was responsible for catering and generally looking > after the Captain and officers of the vessel. He had a responsibility > for stores and this was recognised by his receiving higher wages - > very roughly speaking not quite twice that of an Able Seaman, and > roughly on parity with the other "day-men" - the Bosun, cook, > carpenter and sailmaker (in early 20th Cenury sailing ship crew lists > I have, the Steward was actually the highest-paid "day-man" by a few > shillings). A "waiter" on the other hand sounds as if he was just > that - skilled at waiting on table, but without the specialist > responsibilities of a steward and doubtless paid much less. Over > time, I think the term "steward" slipped to include "waiters". I > don't know when that happened - maybe we have here an instance of > someone being particular about insisting that the right terminology > was used, maybe to distinguish THE Steward from his minions. I would > guess that there might have been a "purser" or "steward" on board as > well who would have been the 9 waiters' boss? > > Cheers > Piers > > On 11 August 2015 at 12:05, David Marshall via <mariners@rootsweb.com > <mailto:mariners@rootsweb.com>> wrote: > > In a crew list for the Parthia (a Cunard passenger steamship on the > North Atlantic run in 1874) in the list of crew occupations the entry > for "9 stewards" has been crossed out and "9 waiters" substituted. > Does anyone know why it might have been important to make this > distinction? > > David > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > MARINERS-request@rootsweb.com > <mailto:MARINERS-request@rootsweb.com> with the word 'unsubscribe' > without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > >