As in, the maid that is in charge of all the other maids. is it the "Matron"? the "House Lady?" Let's say that it was for a luxury passenger ship like the Titanic or something like that. Who was in charge of all the domestics that changed and washed the beddings and coordinated meals, etc. I dont quite know what to type into my Google search engine...
I typed "house servant ranks" into google and found this webpage: https://countryhousereader.wordpress.com/2013/12/19/the-servant-hierarchy/ Hope that helps!
Would you call a housekeeper a "HOUSEkeeper" even if she works on a ship and not a house? Maybe i'm thinking too much about... My MC got a job on a passenger ship working in laundry. I've been calling the woman that she reports to the "head woman".......... which sounds just terrible! I'll use "Housekeeper" as a place holder for now.
This time I googled "Housekeeper ranks on cruise ship" and found the following site: https://www.royalcareersatsea.com/pages/housekeeping This time I am worried if these job titles were used in the past or if they're more modern...
hmmm... upon further googling, there would not have been a "laundry" person per se prior to 1912. If guests wanted their shoes polished and their clothes pressed, or dried, then that was a service offered. My MC gets on to the ship as the "help".... its not really important what she does, just as long as she gets on the ship. Prior to getting on the ship, she worked in a laundry room, so I just figured she'd work in laundry on a ship? According to the Titanic Encyclopedia... all of the female crew members worked as restaurant staff or "victualling crew" but another site said that the cleaning staff were broken up and headed by a "steward" (in my case, instead of a "head woman" i can call her a "stewardess" ) I've got options now! Thanks!!
In The Remains of the Day Miss Kenton is referred to as the housekeeper, while the women subordinate to her are just maids. She's subordinate to the butler, who supervises all the household staff.
She'd be working as a laundress, and there would be a head laundress over that whole department. But you wanted to go higher than that? If we're talking historical, you might be stuck with a steward being in charge of all the services onboard. But if you want it to be a woman, hang a lantern on it and go for it. E.g., she was the steward's wife, shared all his duties, and was appointed to take his place when he died during a crossing. But now that you bring it up, I would love it if I could afford to take the Queen Mary 2 over to the UK. Of course I'd want to spend three weeks or a month over there after that, but talk about civilized!
Are we talking contemporary or historical? I've a contact who works on cruise ships, so I could ask him about today's job titles. Tell me if I should.
This ship would be closer to a historical passengership vs modern cruise ship. but thank you for wanting to do that!
You are wanting this on a ship, like the Titanic? Ships would not have maids but stewards/stewardesses. The ship had 20 stewardesses, supervised by a matron. The latter was the only permanent member of the crew, the others hired on an as needed basis to serve first class female passengers only. The Ships Purser was over the entire “Victualling” department. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crew_of_the_Titanic
