deckhand

noun

1. A member of the crew of a merchant ship who performs manual labour.
2. A stagehand.

   “Sometimes actors set props on the spikes, or sometimes a deckhand will do it, depending on the action of the play.”

verb

1. (intransitive)To work on a boat as a deckhand; crew.

   “You deckhand for Old Sam in the summer, you guide climbers up the Big Bump in the spring, you can skin a Cat, mine for gold, butcher a moose, fix an engine.”

   “I deckhanded on a fish boat for four years and knew no fisherman likes to be called out of the blue and have his numbers demanded!”

   “Years later, I met a guy who had deckhanded on her after I did, and he was a little more equivocal.”

   “Larry ran a tugboat company from there, and sometimes my brother and I deckhanded for him.”