purser

noun, 1. an officer on a ship who keeps the accounts, 2. the head steward in a passenger vessel (COD)

“Well, about one day a week, Tom’d miss us, the purser. ’Cause we’re all in the same boat. There was no money.”

“He was the purser on the ferry, on the old Wolfe Islander. He used to collect your money for your fare across on it.”

“Tom, who was the purser on the boats, said, ‘He’ll never pay for a fare again’. So I never paid for a fare again in the days when you had to pay for the ferry.”

“So when you said ‘stowaway’, now I understand because you had to pay. So people would try to jump on?”
“They would, but we had a purser to paddle around, and he wouldn’t miss you.”
“What would they do to you?”
“Nothing. I mean if you had no money, what can you do? Can’t get money out of stone.”