supercargo

plural supercargos · plural supercargoes

1. Synonym of supracargo
   1. historicaleconomicsAn officer on board a merchant ship who is in charge of the cargo and its sale; if there are two such officers, the senior one, the other being the subcargo.

      [A]t night, when the boat sailed along easily before a light breeze, and the sailors were gathered on the upper deck, while the captain and the supercargo lolled in deck-chairs, smoking their pipes, I saw him dance with another lad, dance wildly, to the wheezy music of the concertina.

      1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter LVIII, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC, page 314

   2. obsoleteeconomicsAn agent or representative of a company in charge of its overseas business.
2. figurativelyAny overseer or superintendent; also, an agent or representative; or an intermediary; a go-between, a middleman.