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ship's company

ship's company

3 4.5
All the people who work on a ship, including officers and sailors
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : tripulación del barco
  • The captain requested a roll call to ensure that every member of the ship's company was present.
  • the entire ship's company

Examples

  • I shall cut the water allowance for the entire ship's company.

  • Discipline was strict and swift to maintain law and order among the ship's company, and sailors learned right from wrong quickly under these unforgiving circumstances.

    Academic text (2007)
  • Account for all ship's company.

  • I call this ship's company to bear witness.

  • The ship's company will remember that I am your captain, judge and your jury.

  • The ship's company will bear in mind... ...we are at sea under the articles of war.

  • But I am alive and not drowned as all my ship's company was.

  • It's the custom for the captain to address the ship's company on Commissioning Day to give them his policy and tell them the ship's programme.

  • After a successful expedition, the ship's company was rewarded with half the booty, mainly consisting of cattle.

    Academic text (2005)
  • I suppose, in a way, it's gratifying to feel that out of a ship's company of 244 men, 243 have behaved as I hoped and expected they would.

Synonyms

crew
vsship's company
1.3

A group of people who work together to do a job, like running a ship or making a film

includes both officers and enlisted personnel as members
company
vsship's company
329 2.4

A group of people organized to do a specific job, like soldiers or a ship crew

is used specifically for the entire workforce on a vessel

How Big

ship's company
  • Specialized
3 4.5
crew
1.3

Surface Forms

Morphology

ship's + company

The meaning is directly built from 'ship's' (the possessive of ship) + 'company' (a group or unit of people), so a learner can infer 'the group belonging to the ship' — i.e. the crew. This possessive + group-noun composition is a common, cross-linguistic pattern and requires no idiomatic knowledge, making it readily understandable to a B1 learner who knows both constituents.

Etymology

Ship's company comes from a simple image: the ship's people who form a company, a group on board. So today it means 'the entire crew', all officers and other people who work on the ship.