assistant-purser

Updated: May 21, 2025

In fact, he had been a sailor; he had made two voyages to India and back as assistant-purser, or purser's clerk, on board a P. and O. boat, but some disagreement with his commanding officer concerning negligence, or impudence, or drink, or laziness he had been charged in different situations and at different times with all these vices, either together or separately caused him to lose his rating on the ship's books.

Sir Walter Besant - In Luck at Last