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the title actually originates from the Arabian word amir, which simply means ‘commander’. The Royal Navy used to distinguish their admirals, not by prefixes (Rear-, Vice-, etc…), but by the flag colours red, blue and white. All of the ships under his command would fly his colour as their Ensign; therefore, you had an Admiral of the Red, an Admiral of the Blue and an Admiral of the White. The different colours did not denote seniority, just ‘who belonged to who’. The Cross of St. George was added to the white flag to distinguish it from the Royal French flag, which was white (with little gold ‘fleur de lis’, which were difficult to see at the best of times).
These flags became known as Ensigns (circa 17th century) from the Latin word insignis, meaning ‘distinguished sign or badge’. Over time, the White ensign was adopted as the sole flag of the Navy, with the Blue Ensign going to Royal Fleet Auxiliaries and the Red Ensign to the Merchant Navy.
As the British Empire matured, the various dominions and colonies adopted Ensigns as their national (and even state/provincial) flags.
is from the Old French word capitain (which superseded the earlier chevetaigne, meaning ‘chieftain’), from the late Latin capitaneus ‘chief’, from the Latin word caput or capit- meaning ‘head’.
is from the Old French word comander, from the Late Latin com- (expressing intensive force) plus mandare (commit, command). This Officer rank was introduced in the late 1700’s to denote a small (such as a sloop) ship’s commanding officer, who was not senior enough to be promoted to a full Captain.
is actually a combination of two words. ‘Lieu’ is French via the Latin locus, meaning ‘place’. This is added to ‘tenant’, again French via the Latin word tenere, meaning ‘holding’. The rank literally means a person holding the place of (or ‘having the authority, in the absence of…’) the Captain.
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Prior to the mid 1800’s, the RN rank structure for Officers was basically – Midshipman, Lieutenant, Captain, Admiral. Authority lay with seniority in rank; therefore the most senior Lieutenant of a ship became the First Lieutenant (first in line of command after the Captain), the next senior was designated the Second Lieutenant and so on down the line. This is why the nickname for an XO is Number One.
The Merchant Navy also carries on this tradition with their rank structure of 1st Mate, 2nd Mate, etc…
is a slight contraction of the expression amidships man. It’s in reference to where a sailor would live onboard a sailing ship. Officers would live in the after part of the ship (the Captain in his stern cabin) as it was the most pleasant area of a ship at sea. Ratings would live ‘before the mast’ (referring to the main mast) or towards the forward part of the ship as it was the roughest. As a Midshipman was neither a Rating (although he was trained in all aspects of seamanship), nor quite an Officer (he was only in training to become one even though he held a commission) he lived apart from (or in between) both ‘worlds’. Amidships.
As the title states, the rank is that of an Officer who holds a warrant as opposed to a commission. Originally it was granted to a highly skilled/educated master-tradesman or an artificer (from the Latin arte ‘by or using art’ + factum ‘something made’ (It’s where the slang word tiff or tiffy comes from)) who was recognised by a guild (an ancient type of union body that regulated skilled-trade standards). Because of their qualifications, "Warrants" are addressed as ‘Mister’ by Commissioned Officers and as ‘Sir’ by all Ratings.
CHIEF PETTY OFFICER & PETTY OFFICER – is pretty well self-explanatory. Petty, in this case means small or under and refers to the fact that they hold no commission or warrant as their authority (the Crown). Instead, they derive their authority from these commissions and warrants by virtue of their appointment to these ranks by the Navy itself.
again, this is a fairly self-explanatory rank. It is also the first authoritative rank as they, too, are actually appointed, not promoted. As the title implies, a Leader has demonstrated sufficient knowledge of his trade to be responsible for his actions and those of others.
The common slang word for this rank is Killick. This is derived from the rank badge, a single ‘fouled’ anchor. The most ancient anchor, and therefore simplest, is the Killick, which is a large rock (or series of rocks) bound by staves. This type of anchor is still used in the Mediterranean.
is a contraction of Able Bodied Seaman and is awarded when the sailor becomes competent at their trade. It’s also why we refer to Ratings as bodies as in "I need 4 bodies to do this task." The slang word for an Able are the initials ‘A.B.’
today the ordinary has been dropped, for politically correct reasons, in the RAN and it means that the sailor has been judged proficient at the basic level of their trade, but still requires supervision (in other words, they know just enough to be dangerous). The old slang word for the rank was ‘O.D.’, but it can still be heard today by ‘old salts’ and personnel from other RN based navies. (ie: RCN, RNZN, etc…)
the word ‘recruit’ is based on the Latin word recrescere, which means ‘grow again’. Landsman was an ancient rating for a man with no sailing skills whatsoever, that was being trained as a sailor. (Regardless of his ‘method’ of recruitment – volunteer or ‘pressed’ into service)
NOTE: Rating – in the Navy it applies to all non-commissioned sailors and is a classification or ranking based on ‘standards and performance’. The word is derived from the Latin phrase pro rata parte which means ‘according to the proportional share’, from ratus - which means ‘reckoned’.
NOTE: the expression ‘odds and sods’ (meaning ‘miscellaneous people or articles’) comes from the two lowest rates of the Navy. Just as ‘bodies’ came from Able-Bodied Seaman, ‘odds’ comes from O.D. and ‘sods’ comes from Landsman.
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