Receives working orders for deck gang from chief mate and passes them onto AB's and ordinaries Tantamount to foreman, he is on deck directly supervising maintenance operations
The bosun on a ship is the officer whose job it is to look after the ship and its equipment. an officer on a ship whose job is to organize the work and look after the equipment = boatswain
() boat + swain (“boy, servant”) c.1450, from late Old English batswegen, from bāt (“boat”) + Old Norse sveinn (“boy”).“” in the Online Etymology Dictionary, Douglas Harper, 2001