CREW, the company of sailors belonging to a ship, boat, or other vessel.
The sailors that are to work and manage a ship are regulated by the number of lasts it may carry; each last making two tons. The crew of a Dutch ship, from 40 to 50 lasts, is seven sailors and a swabber; from 50 to 60 lasts, the crew consists of eight men and a swabber; and thus increases at the rate of one man for every ten lasts; so that a ship of 100 lasts has 12 men, &c. English and French crews are usually stronger than Dutch; but always in about the same proportion. In a ship of war there are several particular crews, or gangs, as the boatswain's crew, the carpenter's crew, the gunner's crew, &c.