Why are passengers referred to as souls

A response to "Say souls on board" might therefore be N has 19 souls, 2 cadavers, and a dog. So no confusion there either. What happens to the "souls" count if someone dies e. Show 2 more comments. Add a comment. Breveleri A. Breveleri 3, 18 18 silver badges 19 19 bronze badges.

I always took it to imply to some extent souls "in my care", which of course to me as a member of a culture without serfdom seems disingenuous. So I speculate it may be a synecdoche emphasising the part of the person most worthy of care. Were they counted as souls in maritime commerce at that time?

Helper Helper 41 1 1 bronze badge. They're strictly counted as cargo though very special cargo, and there are procedures in place to ensure respectful handling at all times, including special storage facilities at airports, hearses, etc.

John fieg John fieg 29 1 1 bronze badge. And what is the origin of the term, which is what the question actually asks? N-ate N-ate 4 4 bronze badges. Sign up or log in Sign up using Google. Sign up using Facebook.

Sign up using Email and Password. Post as a guest Name. And, they report afterward, the announcements sound equally curious to them. It is the same when friends see me in my uniform, when they are staying with me and I am about to leave for work or have only just returned.

Their eyes skip between the face they know and the visual shorthand of my uniform. I went downstairs to say hello. Her expression, too, jumped from a blink of confusion to a smile, as I switched from the identically uniformed pilot she knew nothing of, to the neighbor she had so often cooked for.

Occasionally an airline pilot flies an empty plane. Such flights without passengers are routine for cargo aircraft, of course, but that is their purpose. It occurs rarely, when weather disruption has left an aircraft at the wrong airport or when it needs to be moved to or from a maintenance base, for example. I have flown an empty airliner only a handful of times. Even before departure, the idea that no passengers will join us is discouraging.

The ground staff may shrug when they meet us on such days. Their work is, of course, much easier without passengers, but they do not appear to like it, either. Flights with no passengers are often flights with no cabin crew either, and so one of the pilots must help close the door on the empty and silent main deck, before heading upstairs to join their colleagues in the cockpit.

Takeoff on an empty plane is different, too. The jet feels unnaturally light. On an empty flight it is a pilot who must walk through the cabin to conduct the routine safety checks that are normally performed by the cabin crew. On the , this means a long and lonely walk away from my one or two colleagues in the cockpit, downstairs and all the way back, past hundreds of empty seats that may be dressed and ready—magazines, toothbrushes, and headsets laid out—for the passengers that are not there.

Outside I can see the peaks of the snowcapped Sierra Nevadas streaming past in the gathering dusk. Correction: The original version of this story misdescribed the meanings behind some aviation phrases. Zulu time is a hour time system, not a hour time system. Contact us at letters time. Here's What They're Really Saying.

Getty Images. Skip to content Site Navigation The Atlantic. Popular Latest. The Atlantic Crossword. Sign In Subscribe. So imagine my delight when in our small plane, we could listen to the ATC on demand. ATC: [giving a new radio frequencey] point Pilot: point Pilot: point ATC: Say souls on board.

This is the ATC terminology for asking how many people are in the plane.