Spacefarers

Captain Rafael Torres is:

"...a Lodgemaster in the Federated Brotherhood of Spacefarers..."

-Poul Anderson, "Margin of Profit" IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, December 2009), pp. 135-173 AT p. 138 -

- whereas Captain Bahadur Torrance is:

"...a Lodgemaster in the Federated Brotherhood of Spacemen."

-Poul Anderson, "Hiding Place" IN The Van Rijn Method, pp. 555-609 AT p. 557.

This is no big deal. In both cases, the name of the trade union has been translated from Anglic to English for our benefit, in any case. Anglic probably uses some gender-neutral term but it hardly matters. The word, "...astronaut...," is also used on p. 557. In 1956, when the original version of "Margin of Profit" was published, although not yet read by me, I was not yet familiar with the word, "astronaut," but "spaceman" could refer either to a space-suited male human being or to an extra-terrestrial. On screen and in comic strips, I liked "cowboys" but preferred men in spacesuits whereas many of my contemporaries preferred footballers. Why? It can only be because of some random neurological interconnections - which also made us either good or bad at maths.

Films of Poul Anderson's Technic History would have to present some dialogue in Eriau or Planha with subtitles so why not entire scripts in Anglic with subtitles? - although that is probably asking too much.

Later in the series, the relevant union for van Rijn's company is United Technicians. This is exactly the kind of change that has happened to names of trade unions in our lifetimes.