Punctuation please- apostrophe

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#48348 Thu, 30 Sep 04 08:04 PM

Anyone help? punctuation please for: the crews seamans book

Guest

Punctuation

Mister Micawber

#48376 Thu, 30 Sep 04 11:27 PM

the crew's seaman's book. There's only one 'crew' and one 'seaman'.

Mister Micawber

Joined on Wed, Aug 4 2004

Yokohama

Veteran Member (20,203)

'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master-- that's all.'

Punctuation

CalifJim

#48379 Thu, 30 Sep 04 11:35 PM

Mr. Micawber,

Question: Is the topic of apostrophe placement really part of "punctuation"? Since it has to do with the formation of the possessive case, I want to say it's grammar. What do you think?

I know this is off-topic for the thread, but I was curious what the general view is on this.

California Jim

CalifJim

Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004

California

Veteran Member (16,496)

"There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche

Apostrophes, Grammar, Possessives, Punctuation

Mister Micawber

#48382 Thu, 30 Sep 04 11:44 PM

Morning Jim,

It's called a punctuation mark in my Language and Linguistics dictionary, but personally I don't care how we classify it.

Mister Micawber

Punctuation

L14adybird

#48990 Mon, 04 Oct 04 07:55 PM

Thank you for your response, but I will try to explain

The Seamans Book is like a passport identification for every crew member of a vessel, so we are actually asking for all crews to produce their Seamans Book

The crews Seamens Book ?

Many crews, each person a crew member with his/her own Seamans Book or Seamens Book.

Confused, I am. Many crews but only one Seamans Book.

L14adybird

Joined on Thu, Sep 30 2004

New Member (01)

Punctuation

anon1

#48993 Mon, 04 Oct 04 08:18 PM

Mister Micawber,

I don't have the foggiest idea concerning the validity of what I am about to write. So proceed with caution.

I did a quick google search on "seamans book" on google, and in every instances (first couple of pages) it was "seamans book", no apostrophe. So I suspect that "the crew's seaman's book" is not the proper punctuation/grammar. I don't know what it is either, but I think there might be an issue with seamans.

Just passing this along.

MountainHiker

anon1

Joined on Fri, Jul 2 2004

Senior Member (2,049)

Apostrophes, Grammar, Punctuation

Mister Micawber

#49007 Mon, 04 Oct 04 11:42 PM

Thanks, MH-- I didn't have a foggy either-- it never crossed my mind that it was a little book each carries-- I had an image of a kind of ship's log. Googling gives us:

'Seamans book' - 144 hits
'Seaman's book' - 953 hits
'Seamen's book' - 58 hits
and even
'Seamens' book' - 10 hits

All of which seem to refer to the same passport-like entry book which seamen carry. The 953 hits for 'Seaman's book' includes US Embassy websites, so on both counts I'm inclined to go with 'seaman's', and would write 'the crew's seaman's books': one crew, composed of many members, each with a book. The embassy does not capitalize; other entries write 'Seaman's book' or 'Seaman's Book'-- take your choice!

Better?

Mister Micawber

Punctuation

anon1

#49009 Mon, 04 Oct 04 11:49 PM

Mister Micawber,

For some reason I thought Google ignored punctuation when performing searches. So when I searched "seamans book" I thought I was automatically covering off: seamans book and seaman's book. Obviously, that is not the case.

Glad you dug a little deeper than I did and provided a better answer.

Take care,
MountainHiker

anon1

Punctuation

Anonymous

#156808 Wed, 09 Nov 05 12:21 PM

desperate for all information on seamans passports, anyb suggestions ???

tks matt from south africa

Anonymous

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