Introduction

In the hierarchy of shipboard documents, lists of crews’ duties occupied a very humble place. The duty list of one ship had no great relevance to any other and was probably thrown away after use. Those which have survived are often crudely written in poor handwriting and the nature of the service demanded that they often had numerous amendments. The dearth of manuscript documents on shipboard organisation is partly mitigated by three printed works, all written by experienced seamen and the first two published during the Great Wars with France, by the well known nautical publisher Steel. ¹