Below Deck Showdown: How a Galley Hand Power Play Over Rank Turned Jenna and Ellie Into Rivals

Below Deck Down Under served up a rank check this week, and it got messier than a beach picnic in a windstorm. On the Monday, April 6 episode, a simple guest greeting turned into a title tug-of-war that spilled off the boat and into interviews after filming.

What actually happened on deck

Daisy Kelliher asked Ellie Dubaich to swap spots with Jenna Woudberg while welcoming guests, because their roles were different. Jenna, who is the second stew, figured that made her the more senior interior presence and therefore the one who should be front and center. Ellie pushed back, at one point calling herself a 'sous chef ' since she was working in the kitchen.

Chef Ben Robinson cut through that in a confessional: 'Sous chef' was not the job. He said he had casually referred to Ellie as a 'chef assistant' earlier, but the actual title that fit was 'galley hand.' Translation: helpful in the kitchen, not second-in-command of it. The episode did not resolve who outranks whom in that moment, which of course meant the real drama was waiting off camera.

How we got here: the off-camera fallout

After filming, Ellie and Jenna kept debating where they each sat on the ladder. Ellie finally weighed in during a March interview with Us Weekly, saying she never meant to ruffle feathers and was just relaying what happened after stew Joe Caron left and production reshuffled the positions.

Ellie joined season 4 expecting to be on the interior team. Then the deck chairs moved: a stew slot disappeared, a galley spot opened, and she agreed to pivot to the kitchen. That switch turned into a flashpoint when Daisy and Jenna pushed the idea that someone else might have lost a job if Ellie had not taken the galley role.

'I was on my way to being a second stew because Captain Jason wanted the most experienced leadership team... When he asked me to change, I was happy to change. That is all I was saying.'

Ellie also made a pointed comparison to underline her experience, noting she started working at sea back in 2016, which she says was around when Jenna was in third grade. Her takeaway: it made sense to her that Captain Jason Chambers would have considered her for a leadership role, but she did not mind moving to the galley when asked.

What did bother her was the response.

Ellie called Daisy and Jenna's pushback mean-spirited and unnecessary, and said that vibe might tell you a lot about how they approached her this season. She described the friction with Daisy as a one-sided situation that began this season and will evolve on screen. Ellie insists she is not carrying a grudge, though: she says she does not have a problem with Daisy, Daisy just seems not to like her. As for the bigger picture, Ellie says she is fine to move on.

Who claimed what, in plain English

• Daisy Kelliher: Asked Ellie and Jenna to switch greeting positions based on their roles.
• Jenna Woudberg: Believes her second stew title outranks Ellie's kitchen role for guest-facing duties.
• Ellie Dubaich: Working as a galley hand, briefly called herself a 'sous chef'; says she originally was tracking toward second stew before the reshuffle after Joe Caron left, and she willingly moved to the galley when Captain Jason Chambers asked.
• Chef Ben Robinson: Says 'sous chef' is not accurate for Ellie; 'chef assistant' was an informal label he used, and 'galley hand' is the correct title.

Below Deck Down Under airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo. New episodes hit Peacock the next day.