Definition of "ship-boy" [ship-boy]

• A boy who serves on board of a ship. (noun)

The Century Dictionary (Public Domain)

• "He then went away to sell a considerable parcel of tea and fine grogram, with which he bought two fine girls and a ship-boy, whom he took back to his own country, adoring Tien, and commending himself to Confucius."
• "We have no ship-boy sleeping on the giddy mast, in the midst of the shrouds, or ropes, rendered slippery by the perpetual dashing of the waves against them during the storm."
• "Sailors -- from the captain to the ship-boy -- all affected to smoke, as if the practice was necessary to their character; and to 'take tobacco' and wear a silver whistle, like a modern boatswain's mate, was the pride of a man-of-war's man."