Mariner, Seaman, Sailor, Seafarer, Lascar: what do they mean?

What is the difference between a seaman and a sailor? A mariner and a seafarer? What are the qualifications which distinguish a seaman, able seaman (AB), ordinary seamen (OB), or landsman? Was a lascar also a seaman?

This note was originally written by Alston Kennerley at the request of the Institute of Seamanship for its newsletter in 2014. It was updated by him in 2017 and refreshed for this story.

According to the Shorter Oxford Historical Dictionary (Little 1933):

Mariner. A sailor, seaman; in law anyone employed on a ship (17c)

Sailor.  One who is professionally occupied with navigation; a seaman, mariner. Also, a member of a ship's company below the rank of officer (17c)

Seaman. One whose occupation is on the sea; a sailor as opposed to a landsman. Also one skilled in navigation; a sailor below the rank of officer (old English)

Seafarer. A traveller by sea, esp. one whose life is spent in voyaging, a sailor (16c)

Lascar. An Indian sailor (16c). Gun-lascar. An artilleryman (18c)

And according to Admiral William Henry Smyth (1788-1865) in the Sailors' Word Book (Smyth 1867):

Mariner. One who obtains his living on the sea, in whatever rank. But with our old voyagers mariners were able seamen, and sailors only ordinary seamen. Thus, Middleton’s ship sailed from Bantam in 1605, leaving 18 men behind, ‘of whom 5 were mariners, and 13 sailors.’

Sailor. A man trained in managing a ship, either at sea or in harbour. A thorough sailor is the same with mariner and seaman, but as every one of the crew is dubbed a sailor, there is much difference in the absolute meaning of the term.

Seaman. This is a term seldom bestowed among seafaring men upon their associates, unless they are known to be pre-eminent in every duty of the thorough-paced tar; one who never issues a command which he is not competent to issue himself, and is deemed an authority on every matter relating to sea-craft. – The able seaman is the seafaring man who knows all the duties of common seamanship, as to rig, steer, reef, furl, take the lead, and implicitly carry out the orders given, in a seamanlike manner. His rating is A.B.; pay in the navy, 24s. to 27s. per month. – The ordinary seaman is less qualified; does not take the weather-helm, the earing, or lead; pay about 21s. to 23s. per month. The landsman is still less qualified.

Lascar. A native sailor in the East Indies; also, in a military sense, natives of India employed in pitching tents, or dragging artillery, as gun-lascars.

Dictionary definitions such as these, are pretty clear that the first four words in the title of this story have much the same meaning. This is especially true when used as collectives to refer to all earning their livings aboard particular merchant ships from boy to master.  But among crews of ships it is well understood that each of the words has more subtle meanings depending on the context in which they are used. In general conversation the terms may be used interchangeably, and if clarification is needed, explanations may easily be given.  But where there are legal implications, and certainly in social writing about the maritime world, care needs to be exercised in choosing the most appropriate term when referring to the whole body of manpower, a section of the crew or a particular individual.

As far as British merchant ship manning is concerned, surprisingly few ship-board job titles appearing in ship's crew agreements (crew lists or articles) have any under pinning legality. Listings in the 1930s identified between 200 and 300 ‘capacity’ or job names, with variants from ship to ship or company to company. In the nineteenth century, the Merchant Shipping Acts defined all who were employed in British merchant ships as ‘seamen’ except ship's masters, ship's apprentices and pilots (MSA 1894: section 742), thus stewardesses were seamen, but masters, apprentices and pilots were not. Apprentices derived their titles from their indentures and by being named in the Act.  Masters and pilots are named in several places in various acts but primarily derive their titles from their certificate of competency as master or licence as a pilot. Provision was made for voluntary certificates as able seaman from 1880, but it was after 1945 before there was enforcement. 

Meanwhile, in the latter part of the nineteenth century, an entry on crew agreements was introduced which demanded a statement of the number of ‘sailors’ ships were signing on, who could sail the ship in case of engine breakdown.  ‘Sailor’ soon evolved on agreements as a substitute term in place of AB (able seaman), for men who could not produce a certificate as AB, yet were paid at the same rate as other ABs. The use of ‘Sailor’ in agreements lingered on until after World War II. Clearly that usage was a narrower term than ‘seaman’. Under the MSA 1906, apprentices were for safety purposes additionally counted as ABs after sufficient service. The certification of ships' engineers from 1862 described them as first class engineer or second class engineer, while from 1906  (effective 1908) certificated ships’ cooks gained some legality to their status aboard ship. MSA in the last quarter of the twentieth century completely changed the legal titles of certificates of competency for all certificated grades aboard British merchant ships.

Lascars were a distinctive category, and were not defined as ‘sailors’, whether able or otherwise. The MSA (MSA 1894: article 125) refers to agreements with ‘a lascar, or any native of India’, who might be either a seaman or a passenger, and required Masters to ensure they were fully accounted for when arriving at ports in the UK.

For any one writing about merchant ship manning in history, the distinctions indicated here are important. It is too easy to use ‘sailor’, for example, without qualification, yet create in a reader's mind the idea that deck hands are being referred to, to the exclusion of the master and other officers, including engineers, and the many other grades found aboard power-driven merchant ships. Finally, there is the problem of an inclusive term for female seafarers, long found in large numbers aboard passenger ships, and increasingly on bridges and in engine rooms. ‘Seafarer’, is a term with ancient roots, but has only come into common usage in recent decades.  It appears to have no overtones such as indicated for the other terms, and is probably the best collective in the early twenty-first century to refer to all employed aboard merchant ships.

Some further guidance on the different terms for ship’s crew can be obtained from a guide for parents and teenagers contemplating a merchant seafaring career by the children’s author C. Stansfeld Hicks (Hicks 1886). This work follows the merchant shipping acts and Board of Trade publications’ usage by repeatedly using the terms seaman or seamen, and where distinction is needed master, pilot or apprentice. However Hicks asserts: ‘The term seamen includes mates, etc, up to master, as distinct from engineers (Hicks 1886: 10)’.  This reflects the persistence of colloquial, imprecise usages by professional seafarers and non-seafarers ashore of mariner, seaman or sailor.  Joseph Conrad giving evidence to one of the parliamentary investigations into manning at the end of the nineteenth century was asked the number of crew in one of the ships in which he had served. The number of seamen he gave clearly excludes a significant number of the names on the crew agreement. He was using ‘crew’ and ‘seamen’ as to mean the number of deckhands.   Looking at early (pre 1850) crew agreements particularly in small sailing ships we find the word ‘seaman’ against all aboard except the master, mates and steward. The qualification ‘able seaman’ or ‘ordinary seaman’ does not appear, but after the 1850s these distinctions become more prevalent, in the larger crew agreements of both sail and steam ships and clearly seems to follow the adoption of these terms in the Royal Navy.         

Under the MSA only seamen could benefit from the provisions for the repatriation of ‘distressed British seamen’ (DBS) from ports abroad. Masters who were landed ill or suffered shipwreck could find themselves destitute abroad, and no state support for repatriation.   Changing welfare provision for seamen meant the issue of abandonment was less of an acute concern for legislators.    By 2008, when Captain Barry Thompson (1938-2020) published his account of merchant seaman’s language, many of the older terms were falling out of use. (Thompson 2008: 21)

Finally, a personal observation. When I was at sea aboard ship the deck hands, especially, were collectively often referred to as ‘the crowd’.  Individuals were usually accorded their job title: bos (bosun), lamps (lamp trimmer), chips (carpenter), steward, cook, individual ABs, OSs, by their names, and 2/O (second mate), sparks (radio officer), and so on.