ordinary seaman

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ordinary seaman

n. Abbr. OS
A seaman of the lowest grade in the merchant marine.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ordinary seaman

n
(Nautical Terms) a seaman of the lowest rank, being insufficiently experienced to be an able-bodied seaman
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

or′dinary sea′man


n.
a seaman insufficiently skilled to be classified as an able-bodied seaman. Abbr.: O.S.
[1695–1705]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
Translations

ordinary seaman

n (Brit) → marinaio semplice
Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995
Mentioned in
References in classic literature
It was short, and contained the statement: "We had very fine weather on our passage out." But evidently, in the writer's mind, the only important intelligence was to the effect that his captain had, on the very day of writing, entered him regularly on the ship's articles as Ordinary Seaman. "Because I can do the work," he explained.
"And the ordinary seaman, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, got up, clambered over the taffrail, and vanished.
Pace Waugh, the trip was not "round the world as an ordinary seaman" but from Copenhagen to Portuguese East Africa as a paying passenger.
JOHN SOUTER JNR, Ordinary Seaman, of Redcar Road, Thornaby.
Ordinary Seaman Douglas MacLean acted quickly on the Orlikon and expertly raked U-94's deck with gunfire--harmless to the U-boat's steel hull, but lethal to flesh and bone.
According to the War Graves Commission he was Ordinary Seaman Cyril Keith Lanman, Merchant Navy, SS Aracantaca (Liverpool) lost at sea, November 29 1940, Age 17.
Here the discussion is grounded by a reading of Francisco Goldman's 1997 novel, The Ordinary Seaman, set in the northern Caribbean outpost of Brooklyn.
The starting point of the action, and a fundamental issue in the narrative, is incompetence aboard the Sephora that reaches from the commander to at least one ordinary seaman. These failures to carry out the required tasks of seamanship, failures which were prevalent throughout the British Merchant Marine during the time of Conrad's service, help explain Leggatt's actions and why the captain-narrator (hereafter identified simply as narrator) unquestioningly accepts Leggatt's rendition of events and why he is so ready and willing to assist him.
Ordinary seaman Michael Spencer said he had used his time ashore to take in as many sights as possible, visiting the "big cathedral" as well as several museums, before scouring local comic shops.
Nelson first went to sea at the age of 12 as an Ordinary Seaman on the HMS Raisonnable.
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