Daily AncestorShip carpenter
A ship carpenter did the woodwork of building or repairing ships, whether in a yard or as the carpenter carried aboard a ship at sea.
Aboard ship, the carpenter kept the hull, masts, boats and other wooden parts in repair, caulking seams and fighting damage from barnacles and shipworm. In the late 1800s almost every large merchant vessel or long voyage carried one, answerable to the master for his work.
The 1940 census instructions use ship carpenter as a model of a precise occupation entry, alongside lawyer, music teacher and steamfitter.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1850 to 1880 census
Danl. Merrill, 36, Ship carpenter, Maine
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Daily Ancestor. "Ship carpenter." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/ship-carpenter. Last checked 2026-10-10.