roustabout

[Mullins, Bill]

OED has "roustabout" going back to 1868:

1. U.S. A wharf labourer or deck hand.
1868 Putnam's Mag. Sept. 342 As the steamer was leaving the levée, about forty black deck-hands or 'roustabouts' gathered at the bows.

FROM CAIRO AND BELOW.  Appalling Steamboat Disaster.   Chicago Tribune; Oct 5, 1863; pg. 1 col 4.
"I append a list of those lost for the benefit of relations and friends:  . . .  Wm. Bent, texas tender; . . . roustabout, name unknown." [a texas tender is a waiter on the texas, or uppermost structure of a river boat.  OED has it only from 1875, under Texas ]?


with a specific entry for circuses:

b. spec. A workman in a circus. N. Amer.
1931 Amer. Mercury Nov. 353/2 Razorbacks,..Work~men who load and unload the circus train; never called roustabouts or flunkeys.

"Ten Roasted Roustabouts."  Boston Daily Globe; Aug 30, 1884; pg. 8 col 5.
"Forty minutes later, when near Greeley, the sleeping car, in which seventy-five men employed as roustabouts of the circus were asleep, caught fire and was wholly consumed."


and a specific entry for a roustabout on an oilfield:

 3. A general or manual labourer on an oil installation.
1948 H. L. MENCKEN Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 763 Roustabout, a laborer on an oil lease, not a member of the rig crew.

"Two Instantly Killed." Dallas Morning News,  1906-03-16  Page 7 col 4.
John Welch, a toolmaker, and Arthur Moats, a roustabout, who were at work cleaning out an oil well near Ochelata, in the Osage Nation, were instantly killed today by falling from the derrick eighty feet to the ground."


"Wages Increased in Gulf Coast Oil Fields", Dallas Morning News, 1918-03-18, Page 3 col 1.
"Derrick men and helpers are being paid $4.25 and roustabouts and helpers are receiving $4."