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Preserved Killick is Aubrey's shrewish steward, inherited from Captain Pallas when Aubrey assumes command of the Sophie in Master and Commander. He also comes to unofficially care for Maturin, particularly his long-suffering uniforms and clothes, and never resists the opportunity to nag either of them (though mostly Maturin, his habits generally leaving him looking much shabbier than Aubrey) for their carelessness in appearance.

He is also known to listen in on their private conversations, steal from the captain's private stores, and drain more than his fair share of wine from the captain's table. Despite all these shortcomings, he is a highly valued, fiercely loyal and well-respected member of Aubrey's crew. Killick follows Aubrey from ship to ship, and it is no surprise that larger dictionaries define killick as a small anchor.

Killick's star does fade slightly in the nineteenth book, The Hundred Days, when an assistant at one of Aubrey's dinners "in a paroxysm of adolescent drunkenness, spewing improbable jets of Madeira," contrives to trip Killick and the poor steward cracks Stephen's sacrosanct narwhal horn (p.89). Eventually, the horn, which the superstitious crew believes will bring good fortune to the ship, is restored, as is Killick's standing among his fellows. [This description of Preserved Killick is courtesy of Wikipedia]

Description from book jacket

Fair and long-legged, independent and articulate, Janie Crawford sets out to be her own person—no mean feat for a Black woman in the ‘30’s. Zora Neale Hurston’s classic 1937 novel follows Janie from her nanny’s plantation shack to Logan Killick’s farm, to all-Black Eatonville—where she gathers in “the great fish-net” of her life. Janie’s quest for identity takes her on a journey during which she learns what love is, experiences life’s joys and sorrows, and comes home to herself in peace. Published in 1937, 219 pages.

Cornelius Killick

American privateer who helps Richard Sharp to escape from a fort in the 'Bassin D'Arcachon', the Teste de Buch just below Bordeaux, in a novel from Bernard Cornwall's Sharp series.

Killicks – In Fiction