#captain rustbeard

Both, technically!

All of the Deckhands look the way they do physically because many of them en mass were thrown in the ocean (improper drone disposal, shame on you!) after the oil extraction operations on Copper 9 became defunct due to not being something that was seen as profitable and reliable in the long term. (Specifically one would later become Outpost 2 after the core collapse) So of course, a lot of them are pretty beat up, rusted over, and dirty from their time at sea + whatever came before. Needless to say, a drone and water don't exactly mix well with each other, so those who hit the sea were dead within minutes if they couldn't reach land in time. A bit of water damage is livable, but being surrounded by it as you rapidly sink is another thing.

A while after the core collapse hit and the ocean froze over, Rustbeard has started to make a hobby out of fishing those dead bodies out of the ocean. Given he was a worker drone that was initially thrown in himself (though saved by Sharkbait in a miracle's worth of good luck), he too hasn't been able to escape the wear that's overcome his body while at sea. Namely, his legs have almost entirely rusted over, making him unable to move of his own accord. So, that's where his "passion project" came in: fishing out dead drones from the ocean and rewiring what's usable to use to his advantage.

Though your zombie comparison is accurate under normal circumstances, the Deckhands alongside Rustbeard are closer compared to a hivemind I'd say. It's his way of getting around now that he's become near immobilized from the waist down, being connected and in control of all of them through a neural link.  His voice overlapping with their own as they speak, the only sign left of any sense of individuality they may have had before death. When he isn't putting his full focus into them though, they have set tasks that they do on repeat like a pre-programmed function. Otherwise, they simply idle in place, swaying with the weight of the ship, not unlike the zombie comparison.