water clerk

By that time Jim was working as a water clerk for a certain De Jongh.

For the next several years he drifts from port to port, working as a water clerk for suppliers of provisions to ships.

Forward again, to Marlow and the lieutenant's conversation about fear and honor, and Jim as De Jongh's water clerk.

In the small office on Main Street that houses Tiptonville's city hall, chamber of commerce and history museum, Fran Hearn, the treasurer and water clerk, was speaking up for marriage this afternoon.

In fact, the novel overall has a conventional chronological structure, beginning with Jim's early days and moving on from the Patna incident to Jim's stint as a water clerk in various ports, then to his eventual success in Patusan and, finally, to his death.