Admiral's Cox'n

[Top-of-the-hill]

   My great grandfather ended his career as admiral's cox,n in 1874, and I understood that the job was mainly to do with looking after and sailing the admiral's official vessel.
   I heard a story yesterday of a man who held the same post in the early years of WW2, and according to his daughter, telling the story, it also seemed to involve being something like a batman. Was this something that changed over the years or can I assume that gr-grandad's work was similar?

[KGarrad]

From Wikipedia:
In the Royal Navy in the days of sail, the coxswain was a petty officer or chief petty officer who commanded the barge of a captain or admiral. Later the coxswain was the senior deck petty officer or chief petty officer aboard a smaller vessel such as a corvette or submarine, who was responsible for the steering and also assumed the duties which would be performed by the chief boatswain's mate and master-at-arms aboard larger vessels.

[Top-of-the-hill]

   The WW2 man was on a large battleship. I am not going to name the ship, as it is not my story, but perhaps the duties had changed by then.