A sailor; a mariner; one whose business is navigation. The term seamen, in it most enlarged sense, includes the captain a well as other persons of the crew; in a more confined signification, it extends only to the common sailors; are considered, as to their rights to sue in the admiralty, as common seamen; and persons employed on board of steamboats and lighters, engaged in trade or commerce, on tide water, are within the admiralty jurisdiction, while those employed in ferry boats are not. Persons who do not contribute their aid in navigating the vessel or to its preservation in the course of their occupation, as musicians, are not to be considered as seamen with a right to sue in the admiralty for their wages. 2. Seamen are employed either in merchant vessels for private service, or in public vessels for the service of the United States. 3. 1. Seamen in the merchant vessels are required to enter into a contract in writing commonly called shipping articles.