Dictionary of Old Occupations
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Definitions of jobs Shingler - Sickleman
Shingler: worked in the manufacture of iron or steel. Shingling is a stage in the production of bar iron or steel, where the metal is reshaped.
Ship Chandler: supplied goods to ships, e.g. food.
Ship Engineer: the engineer on a ship. What else?
Ship Master: the Captain or a ship, sometime refers to the ship's owner.
Ship Stager: worked in a shipyard, building the wooden scaffolding around ships under construction.
Ship’s Husband: managed the expenses and receipts of a ship, as a representative of the owners.
Shipwright: repaired or constructed ships.
Shirt Sewer: person who repaired shirts. Remember that a shirt was a valuable item of clothing, and would be repaired rather than replaced.
Shoe Clicker: a tradesman who cut leather for making shoes.
Shoe Finder: sold specialist tools to cobblers.
Shoe Smith: a Farrier who trimmed horses hoofs, and fitted horseshoes.
Shoe Wiper: shoe polisher; the lucky person who cleaned mud and dirt from the shoes of passers-by.
Shoemaker: manufactured shoes.
Shop Boy: a male shop assistant.
Shop Girl: a female shop assistant.
Shot Firer: used the explosives for blasting rock in quarries.
Shrager: maintained trees but cutting branches back as necessary.
Shrieve: an alternative name for a Sheriff, possibly a contraction of 'Shire Reeve'.
Shrimper: fisherman who caught shrimp.
Shuffler: coal shoveller on a boat, or a farm Labourer.
Shunter: a railway worker. When rolling stock is shunted (moved) about to form trains, the Shunter had the dangerous job of coupling the carriages and wagons together, which meant getting in between them, leading to a high risk of injury. Some shunters used a 'shunting pole' which allowed them to reach between wagons and carriages to fasten the couplings without getting between them.
Copyright: Jane Hewitt. This dictionary is authorised for use on www.familyresearcher.co.uk only.
Shuttle Maker: made the shuttles for looms in weaving mills.
Shuttler: operated shuttles in the weaving industry, or an alternate term for a Shuttle Maker.
Sick Visitor: checked up on sick people to ensure they were genuinely entitled to receive benefits. Before the Welfare State, sick people received financial benefits from Friendly Societies, often depending upon their political or religious connections, and often after paying regular premiums to the society. This might be considered an early form of health insurance.
Sickleman: harvested crops.
This dictionary is my own work, and copyright Jane Hewitt. I sometimes find unauthorised (i.e. stolen) copies of my website content appearing on other people's websites. If you should read a group of identical glossary definitions elsewhere on the web, consider whether such sites are reputable or not.
Britain's Historic Ships: The Ships That Shaped the Nation by Paul Brown
The British Isles have a long, rich and celebrated seafaring history stretching from the earliest times through the victories of Drake and Nelson, the voyages of discovery of Cabot and Cook and the defence of the realm by vessels of all types in the present century.
Much of this history is recorded in literature and in museums but reaches its most tangible form in the large number of historical ships that have been preserved and are continually restored as monuments to a proud past. This fully updated second edition explores 20 of the most celebrated and accessible ships and offers a comprehensive history of each vessels design, construction, active service and subsequent restoration and preservation. Presented in order of each ships launch date, each entry is written by the acknowledged expert on a particular vessel, gives full specification details and is sumptuously illustrated with contemporary photographs, historical illustrations and a full set of scale plans.
In addition to the featured entries, an appendix presents all of the necessary contact details and opening times where applicable. The appendix also lists (and provides details for) other vessels of historical importance including a small number of working replicas such as the Matthew and the recently commissioned eighteenth-century frigate The Grand Turk, featured in the recent Hornblower television series. Principal vessels include: Mary Rose, HMS Victory, HMS Trincomalee, SS Great Britain, Cutty Sark, RRS Discovery, HMS Warrior, HMS Belfast, HMY Britannia, HMS Alliance, HMS Cavalier, Gypsy Moth IV and HMS Plymouth.
