UK merchant ships continue to do this - same attitudes.

Working with some organisations, I've even talked to people who remembered the good old post-war days where officers cruised their warships around the crumbling empire; ships running on a class/caste system where your racial inferiors did your laundry and service, and your class inferiors did all the marine work.

I've even heard of junior officers being punished for doing their own laundry since it breaks down the hierarchy.