What is "seaman"

Seaman \Sea"man\, n.; pl. Seamen. [AS. s[ae]man.] One whose occupation is to assist in the management of ships at sea; a mariner; a sailor; -- applied both to officers and common mariners, but especially to the latter. Opposed to landman, or landsman.

Able seaman, a sailor who is practically conversant with all the duties of common seamanship.

Ordinary seaman. See Ordinary.

Seaman \Sea"man\, n.; pl. Seamen. A merman; the male of the mermaid. [R.] ``Not to mention mermaids or seamen.''
--Locke.

"a sailor," Old English sæmanna (plural); see sea + man (n.). Similar formation in Dutch zeeman, German Seemann, Old Norse sjomaðr.

n. A mariner or sailor, one who mans a ship. Opposed to landman or landsman.

1. n. a man who serves as a sailor [syn: mariner, tar, Jack-tar, Jack, old salt, seafarer, gob, sea dog]

2. muckraking United States journalist who exposed bad conditions in mental institutions (1867-1922) [syn: Elizabeth Seaman, Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman, Nellie Bly]

Seaman is a naval rank and is either the lowest or one of the lowest ranks in most navies around the world. In the Commonwealth it is the lowest rank in the navy. The next rank up is able seaman, followed by leading seaman, which is followed by the petty officer ranks.

In the United States, it means the lowest three enlisted rates of the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard, followed by the higher petty officer ranks. The equivalent of the seaman is the matelot in French-speaking countries, and Matrose in German-speaking countries.

The term "seaman" is also a general-purpose for a man or a woman who works anywhere on board a modern ship, including in the engine spaces, which is the very opposite of sailing. This is untrue in the US Navy where a sailor might be a seaman but not all US Navy sailors are a 'Seaman' as they might be an Airman, Fireman, Contructionman, or Hospital Corpsman. Furthermore, "seaman" is a short form for the status of an "able-bodied seaman," either in the navies or in the merchant marines. An able-bodied seaman is one who is fully trained and qualified to work on the decks and superstructure of modern ships, even during foul weather, whereas less-qualified sailors are restricted to remaining within the ship during times of foul weather — lest they be swept overboard by the stormy seas or by the high winds.

Seaman or Seamen may refer to:

is a virtual pet video game for the Sega Dreamcast. It is one of the few Dreamcast games to take advantage of the microphone attachment. The narration is voiced by Toshiyuki Hosokawa in the original Japanese-language version and by Leonard Nimoy in the English-language version and the face of Seaman is actually that of the game's producer, Yoot Saito.

A limited edition game titled Christmas Seaman was released in Japan on December 16, 1999 alongside a translucent, red Dreamcast. In 2001, Seaman was re-released in Japan for the PlayStation 2 as Seaman: Kindan no Pet - Gaze Hakushi no Jikken Shima (シーマン~禁断のペット~ガゼー博士の実験島), the first edition of which came with a microphone. A PC version for Microsoft Windows was planned, with the Seaman being able to interact with the user's applications. No release date was specified, and it was later cancelled.

A sequel called Seaman 2 was released in Japan for the PlayStation 2 in 2007.

Seaman, a Newfoundland dog, became famous for being a member of the first American overland expedition from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast and back. He was the only animal to complete the entire trip. He was purchased for $20 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania by Captain Meriwether Lewis while he was in the city awaiting completion of the boats for the voyage in August 1803, for his famed Lewis and Clark expedition.

During the expedition, around May 14, 1805, Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, performed surgery on one of Seaman's arteries in his hind leg, that had been severed by a beaver bite. In early 1806, as the expedition was beginning the return journey, Seaman was stolen by Indians and Lewis threatened to send three armed men to kill the Indian tribe. Lewis & Clark's Corps of Discovery ate over 200 dogs while traveling the Lewis and Clark Trail, but Lewis' Newfoundland dog Seaman was spared.

The final reference to Seaman in the journals, recorded by Lewis on July 15, 1806, states that "[T]he musquetoes continue to infest us in such manner that we can scarcely exist; for my own part I am confined by them to my bier at least 3/4 of the time. My dog even howls with the torture he experiences from them."

Due to a transcription error in Lewis' journals, the dog was once thought to have been named Scannon. However, during Donald Jackson's 1984 study of Lewis and Clark place-names in Montana, he found that Lewis had named a tributary of the Blackfoot River Seaman’s Creek (now Monture Creek) and concluded that the true name of the dog was "Seaman".

In her book Lewis and Clark and Me: A Dog's Tale Laurie Myers reports that Lewis and Clark scholar, Jim Holmberg, discovered a book written in 1814 which listed epitaphs, and inscriptions. The book lists an inscription of a dog collar in a museum in Virginia. This has also been reported by Timothy Alden. The inscription reads: "The greatest traveller of my species. My name is SEAMAN, the dog of captain Meriwether Lewis, whom I accompanied to the Pacific ocean through the interior of the continent of North America." Holmberg's research was published in the February 2000 issue of "We Proceeded On", the newsletter of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation.

In 2008, Seaman became the official mascot of Lewis & Clark College's Pioneers.

A monument to Seaman stands in front of the Custom House in Cairo, Illinois. Other monuments and statues that include Seaman can be found in St. Louis, Missouri, St. Charles, Missouri, Jefferson City, Missouri, Lincoln, Nebraska, Fort Atkinson State Historical Park in Fort Calhoun, Nebraska, the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center in Sioux City, Iowa, Washburn, North Dakota, Overlook Park in Great Falls, Montana, in Fort Clatsop National Memorial in Seaside, Oregon, Cascade Locks Marine Park in Cascade Locks, Oregon and in Columbia View Park in Saint Helens, Oregon.