What is a Bosun and what does he do?

Ship: Regina Maris
Date: 10th of April 2025
Position: North Atlantic Ocean
Geographical Position: 44°52.426′N 025°01.715′W
Etmal: 139 nm
Total: 11,390 nm

As you might know, we are currently doing a handover, where the students take over the jobs of the crew — for example, Captain, Officer, Bosun, Engineer and Cook.

The Captain takes care of navigation and coordination, the Officers command the watches, the Engineer monitors the engine room to make sure all mechanical systems work, the Cook — well… cooks for everyone on board — and the Bosun is responsible for repairs on deck, like fixing sails, ropes and other things that might break or rip. The Bosun also commands the sail handling.

Kaja, Leonore, Mathilda and myself are the Bosuns for the route between the Azores and Amsterdam. Not everyone can do the job at the same time, so each person takes on the role for three days, then hands it over to the next.

A few people were wondering what a Bosun actually does, but there are many different definitions of the role with different responsibilities.

Before we departed, I helped get the ship ready for sea by tying down crates and preparing ropes for the people rigging the schooner sail.

Yesterday, we even set the flying jib! (It’s a jib set high in the air to catch the most wind and is one of the trickiest sails to pack away again.) One of the clawlines on the square sail ripped, so I — or the next Bosun — will need to replace it. But we’ll have to wait until there’s no wind, so the ship isn’t rocking so heavily.

Right now, we’re running with the engine and the schooner sail (to stabilize the vessel), because there isn’t enough wind to sail properly. The rocking of the ship is intense, which is why almost no one came to breakfast today. There’s really not much to do at the moment except keeping an eye on things on deck — which honestly makes me a bit sad 🙁.

Today, nothing particularly special happened. A lot of people are still in their cabins because they’ve been seasick since the 7th of April.
I’ve got a bit of a headache, but I’m doing fine — and my time as Bosun is, sadly, already over now…