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The Cabin Boy

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A cabin boy is a crew member on a ship, almost always the youngest person aboard, who waits and performs various errands on a ship, such as relaying messages, carrying buckets of food across the ship, scrubbing the deck, and keeping the wheel steady during good weather. They're typically at the very bottom of the ranks on a ship.

In stories, the cabin boy tends to be either a preteen or a young teenager, though they can sometimes be in their late teens or a young man. Either way, they're far younger than the rest of the crew. In a story set at sea, if the cabin boy's not the protagonist, they'll usually be a Tagalong Kid of sorts. If they're a cabin boy to a pirate ship, they'll generally be the least villainous one aboard, as Children Are Innocent.

Almost Always Male. Even in the days of fiction where females can be seen in various roles on a ship, such as captain, first mate, navigator, etc, you're unlikely to see a cabin girl anytime soon (or at least not an openly female one; there's the occasional Sweet Polly Oliver posing as a cabin boy). Compare the Plucky Middie, who is the youngest and lowest ranking of a ship's officers, and often isn't much older than a cabin boy despite his authority over the crew.


Examples

    open/close all folders 

    Anime and Manga 
  • One Piece:
    • Coby used to be the cabin boy of Alvida's pirate group until he opted out and joins the Marines. There, he starts again as a cabin boy, along with his friend Helmeppo, until some time later (after training with Vice Admiral Garp) they become proper Marine officers.
    • Shanks and Buggy, two rather famous pirate captains, used to be cabin boys for the legendary pirate crew, the Jolly Roger Pirates.

    Comic Books 

    Film — Animated 
  • Disney's animated feature Treasure Planet adapts the Robert Louis Stevenson novel Treasure Island and updates it to a Schizo Tech future where the story is Recycled In Space. The primary protagonist is Jim Hawkins, a dissolute youth who gets the Call to Adventure to find the fabled booty hoard of pirate Nathaniel Flint. Under the wing of Professor Delbert Doppler, Jim comes aboard the RLS Legacy as a cabin boy. While Jim initially chafes at the idea, the lack of options while shipboard compels him to resign himself to the drudgery. Fortunately, Jim develops a knack for the work. Notably, The Dragon Scroop likes to mock Jim with the term "cabin boy."

    Film — Live-Action 
  • Cabin Boy is about a foppish "Fancy Lad" who mistakenly boards a fishing boat ran by filthy, foul-mouthed sailors, who make him their cabin boy.
  • Capt. Mendoza presses Jack into service as cabin boy aboard his pirate ship in Long John Silver.
  • Primal has a modern-day version: Rafi is the son of Captain Morales and is travelling with him on the Mimer. He works in the galley helping the cook. He assists Frank in the Hunt for both Loffler and the animals, and refuses to abandon ship with the rest of the crew.

    Literature 
  • In the first novel of the Bio Of A Space Tyrant series by Piers Anthony, the protagonist lampshades the above-mentioned belief when a member of his family is forced to become the cabin boy of a Space Pirate, and he worries if they're going to become a Sex Slave instead (there's a lot of Rape as Drama in this series, so it's not an idle concern).
  • Rudyard Kipling wrote Captains Courageous in 1897, centering on Harvey Cheyne, Junior, a Royal Brat at age 15. He tumbles overboard during an Atlantic voyage, and gets rescued by a Portuguese fishing boat. Although the boat already has a boy aboard to handle the drudgery duties, and despite Harvey's thorny pomposity, the fishermen allow Harvey to serve aboard as apprentice cabin boy. Life at sea for months results in a slow but steady Character Development, to the point where Harvey becomes the Captain's accountant.
  • In the Eighth Doctor Adventures, one of Sabbath's agents in Trading Futures is named Roja, and is also the cabin boy on Sabbath's time ship. The Doctor points out that "Roja the Cabin Boy" is a cheap gag based on an urban legend.
  • Eric, or Little by Little: To escape the shame of being an accused thief, Eric runs away from Roslyn School and becomes a cabin boy aboard the Stormy Petrel, a ship going to and from Corunna. Eric is subjected to abuse from the sadistic skipper that includes Knee-capping and A Taste of the Lash.
  • In the Liaden Universe novels, Gordy Arbuthnot serves as cabin boy on his cousin's trade ship until he's old enough to formally sign on as an apprentice trader.
  • He's not explicitly called one, but Pip in Moby-Dick serves a similar role on the ship. At one point, he ends up adrift in the ocean for hours, and is mentally unbalanced by the time he's rescued. Captain Ahab takes a liking to him after that, enjoying spending them with somebody as mad as he himself is.
  • In the Poe novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, the heroes are lost and running out of food. They eventually decide to draw lots to decide who to cannibalize, and the one chosen ends up being an unfortunate cabin boy named Richard Parker. This led to an eerie coincidence when later in real life, a starving crew decide to kill and eat their cabin boy, who happened to be named Richard Parker.
  • The Neverending Story: Bastian fantasizes that he ought to run away to sea, become a cabin boy and from there become rich and famous after he steals the titular book. Bastian is very passionate about books, so it's natural he'd imagine himself in a scenario out of Treasure Island. Towards the end, he does briefly become a cabin boy as payment for passage over the sea.
  • The background for a minor character in the Safehold series was that his Harchongian father was sold to a pirate captain as a "cabin boy", and eventually rescued after the pirate attacked the wrong ship. (Since the term was put in quotation marks in the novel, it's likely the duties weren't the usual ones.)
  • In Temeraire, "Baggy" (a nickname, his real name is never mentioned) is one of the ship's boys onboard the Allegiance and is one of the sailors rescued by Laurence and Temeraire when the Allegiance sinks. Since Temeraire is short of crew, Laurence later decides to swear him on as an Ensign, making him a Plucky Middie instead.
  • In Treasure Island, narrator Jim Hawkins serves as the cabin boy on Captain Smollett's ship.

    Live-Action TV 

    Radio 
  • The Navy Lark: According to CPO Pertwee, the very first member of the The Pertwee Family to serve in the Royal Navy was a powder monkey (a term for a young boy aged between 9-14 years old who would haul gunpowder from stores to fighting deck in the Age Of Sail) on HMS Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar.

    Video Games 
  • In Grabbed by the Ghoulies, a minor enemy is an imp with a sailor cap named Roger the Cabin Boy. Apparently, he's actually old enough to have been two days from retirement.

    Western Animation 

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