ship's company

English

Noun

ship's company (plural ships' companies)

1. (nautical) The entire crew of a ship, including the officers
   • 1719, Daniel Defoe, chapter 10, in The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe:

     [T]he whole ship's company consisted of sixty-five men.

   • 1850, Herman Melville, chapter 33, in White Jacket:

     [T]he regulations enjoin the attendance of the entire ship's company, from the corpulent Captain himself to the smallest boy who strikes the bell.

   • 1863 April 7, “The Prize Steamer Aries”, in New York Times, retrieved 3 Aug. 2012:

     The Aries had a ship's company of twenty-four men, besides four passengers.

   • 1988 December 25, “Pueblo's Veterans Look Back on '68 in Anger”, in New York Times, retrieved 3 Aug. 2012:

     Before the outgunned ship was overtaken and captured, a crewman was wounded, and he later died. The 82 other members of the ship's company underwent 11 months of brutal captivity.

2. (nautical, possibly nonstandard) All of the occupants of a ship, including crew and passengers.
   • 1879, Anthony Trollope, chapter 8, in John Caldigate:

     The whole ship's company, captain, officers, quarter-masters, passengers, and all, were quite sure that she had succeeded in getting a promise of marriage from him.

See also

• lower deck

References

• “ship's company”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.