Daily AncestorDeckhand
A deckhand was a crew member of a ship, steamboat or barge who did the manual labor on deck, below the officers.
Deckhands handled general work aboard: moving cargo, handling lines, cleaning and upkeep. The word was also used in theaters for a stagehand.
The 1900 census told enumerators to return a boatman, canalman, pilot, longshoreman or sailor according to his distinctive occupation, so a deckhand on a steamboat should be written as such.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1870 to 1940 census
Moses Gray, 23, Deckhand, Steamboat
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Deckhand." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/deckhand. Last checked 2026-10-10.