Cabin boy

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

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.

  1. ^ Concise Oxford Dictionary, Oxford University Press 1999, entry "Cabin boy"