Medical
A full medical staff consisting of a doctor and surgeon, but also pharmaceutical dispensers, physical therapists, a dentist, nurses – in short, everything needed to deal with anything from sea-sick passengers to an emergency appendectomy to delivering a baby.

Engineering
These are the men who kept the ship running. Crewmen with the designation of greaser, oiler, and fireman kept the giant boilers and steam turbines rolling to drive the ship forward. There were also master electricians and electrician’s mates, all overseen by the Chief Engineer and his immediate reports, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd (and possibly 4th or 5th) engineers. All sea-going repairs were carried out by engineering, be it a faulty lift, a sticking door, a navigation light needing replacement, or a stove burner that won’t come on.

Stewards
Overseen by the Chief Steward, this group included male and female stewards and stewardesses who took care of the passengers. A steward was often assigned several cabins to attend. Also falling into this domain were all the cooks, bakers, sous chefs, grill masters, pastry makers, and etcetera who fed 3,000 people three times a day. To wash all that down, the Chief Steward was also in charge of wine, spirits, water, tea, coffee, cocoa, and more, as well as the master sommeliers, bar men, cellar men and more who kept track of all of this. On her maiden voyage the Queen Mary carried 40,000 bottles of beer, 6,000 gallons of ale on draft, 10,000 bottles of wine and another 5,000 bottles of hard liquor. Also in the Chief Steward’s domain was housekeeping, laundry, the gym, and swimming pools. The Chief Steward also took charge of often the youngest members of the crew, the bell boys, and in the days when you needed them, the lift operators.

Pursers
As you might expect from the word “purse” the Purser’s office took charge of the on board banking and money changing, as well as supplying safe deposit boxes for passengers. While the ship’s medical department oversaw any needed vaccinations and checked to make sure passengers were not infectious when they left the ship, the Purser was in charge of making sure that immigration and passports were in order for passengers and crew. As one might expect from someone used to dealing with minutia, his office also watched the shipboard libraries and coordinated shipboard entertainment from live concerts to the latest movies shown in the ship theaters. The onboard shopping arcades also fell under the Pursers watch. Passengers were also offered the option of buying photos made of them by the ship’s photographer and printed onboard the vessel, and to make sure everyone looked their best, the Purser’s office looked after the hairdressers and barbers. Finally, all the liners had their own shipboard newspaper and reporter/editor to knock out daily editions of shipboard life news.

Deck Officers
This last group includes the Captain, First Officer, Second Officer, Third Officer, Junior Officers, Quartermaster, radio operators, navigators, and a Master at Arms who enforced security.