crew n Cp OED ~ 16 'men belonging to and manning a ship, boat or other vessel' naut for sense 1; 3 b 'an assembly of animals,' DC (Nfld: 1770) for sense 4. See also CROWD.
   1 A group (of persons) engaged or 'shipped' by a merchant, 'planter,' or 'skipper' to conduct afloat and on shore the various branches and operations of fishing and sealing, usu on the share system.
   [1771] 1792 CARTWRIGHT i, 173 At noon the shallop Dispatch arrived from Fogo with dry provisions; also brought a calf, some fowls, and a crew of hands for St Lewis's Bay. 1792 PULLING MS Aug [The indians] are seldom seen by any of Miller's people though they must pass very near several houses inhabited by Miller and his crew. [1802] 1916 MURPHY 2 Four or five men constitute a crew to tend about twenty [sealing] nets. 1849 [FEILD] 63 [There is] a small 'crew' here; that is, a few men dwelling together to prosecute the fishing in the summer and kill seals in the winter. 1882 TALBOT 22 The vessel contained the principal portion of his own family ... these, with his fishing crew of seven or eight men, constituted his portion of the passengers [to Labrador fishery]. But there was another planter with his crew on board, so that the whole number of passengers amounted to twenty-five or twenty-six. 1895 GRENFELL 59 Some Newfoundland planters and agents provide boarded huts for their 'crowd'. . . Each 'crew'
   has a fish stage, alongside which the fish are brought in the boats. [1915] 1960 FUDGE 52 In the spring of 1915,
   while fishing on Sca[t]erie Banks with a crew of eleven dories, we made up a total of 25 [souls] onboard the
   Harry A Nickerson. [1955] 1980 Evening Telegram 16 June, p. 8 Four crews of fishermen left Carbonear for
   Labrador this week.2 A number of people functioning as a unit.
   [1918-19] GORDON 26 There is some very heavy work ahead of us, for we are such a small and weak crew. P 148-62 What a crew [of children]! P 80-63 Crew and crowd are used for groups of people, or associated cooperating individuals. C 71-96 [There was] the biggest kind of crew in [the house].
   3 Members of a family.
   P 262-58 A Newfoundlander often uses the word crew in reference to a man's family, as, 'Tom Shears' crew will be along for dinner tomorrow.' P 121-67 Our crew is not in from fishing yet.
   4 A family of beavers.
   [1770] 1792 CARTWRIGHT i, 58 I had the satisfaction of finding a large new beaverhouse; which appeared to be inhabited by a numerous crew. 1792 ibid Gloss i, x Crew of beavers. The two old beavers, and all their young ones which have not yet begun to breed. If there are more breeding pairs than one in the same house, it is said, to be inhabited by a double or treble crew.
   5 Phr call crews: of two people, to choose the players for one's team.
   T 141/65-65² Stew and Evelyn called crews on the cricket ground, where you chuck your bat back and forth, catch un six times, and then put your hand one over the other till you get up to the top.

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