This question is focused more on navies and military ships from the American civil war era and onward but any helpful info from the civilian maritime trade of the time is also welcome.
What i'm specifically wondering is as more and more steam ships appeared in navies and began to overtake the more traditional ships of the line what happened to the types of sailors who's skills no longer became needed? People like Carpenters Mates, sailmakers, seamen who worked the rigging, etc. did they suddenly find themselves out of a job?
Well, the switch from steam to sail took several decades, and was extremely expensive at first. Steam powered ships were also far from "safe" as all the various fine details were worked out with boilers on ships. So there was a long transition period between the two.
I believe that the British Navy was the first to transition to an all steam navy, but this was also during/towards the end of their Empire, sometime in the 1800s I believe? But they also had the funds to handle the switch. Other nations either stayed with sail ships for much longer. I believe the Italian Navy still has a sail ship in service, the AMERIGO VESPUCI