Naval Ranks - Officers

Most military forces use approximately the same set of ranks, traditionally with enlisted men running from private through variations of sergeant while officers run from lieutenant through general.¹ But navies depart from this, using their own ranks which overlap some with the more traditional terrestrial lists, but usually mean different things.²

An Admiral

We'll start at the top. Most English terms come from either Romance or Germanic languages, including military ranks. But Admiral is an Arabic word, derived from the Arabic term "amīr al-baḥr", meaning "Commander of the Seas". This passed through Sicily in the 11th century, eventually Latinized as Amiral, to which English added a "d" later on.

Initially, admirals operated alone, but as fleets grew, so did a need for a deputy, who usually commanded the fleet's van (leading portion) while the Admiral stayed in the middle with the main body. He was known as the Vice Admiral (as in Vice President). Later on, as fleets grew even more, they needed a third admiral, to command the rear portion of the fleet, hence Rear Admiral. All Admiral ranks are known as "Flag Officers" because they were officers that had a specific flag that they would fly to designate what ship they were commanding from (hence flagship). In the US, at least, the term Flag Officer has become generic across the services, and is used to include Generals as well as Admirals, but this isn't the case everywhere, and some countries restrict its use to Admirals.

Below the rank of Admiral is often found the rank of Commodore. This comes from French for a senior knight/area commander, and is sometimes a rank and sometimes a title given to a Captain in certain circumstances. During the Age of Sail, it was a title given to a senior Captain placed in command of a group of ships.³ During the Civil War, the USN formalized it as a rank, which lasted until 1899, when it was abolished, and the existing commodores promoted to Rear Admiral, which was a 2-star rank, equivalent to Major General. This caused great confusion everywhere, particularly when the lower half of the seniority list was paid the same as 1-star generals, not 2-star generals. To make matters worse, in WWII, the rank of Commodore was reintroduced to allow Captains to take on more responsibility without producing a glut of Admirals after the war. Postwar, most retired, and there matters rested until 1982, when dissatisfaction with the fact that the Navy lacked a one-star rank lead to the introduction of Commodore (initially Commodore Admiral, simplified in 1983) as a distinct 1-star rank. This was tremendously unpopular, particularly as Commodore had become the traditional title for senior Captains in seagoing commands, such as the commanders of destroyer and submarine squadrons. By late 1983, the name was changed to Rear Admiral (Lower Half), abbreviated RDML, as opposed to the two-star Rear Admiral (Upper Half), RADM. For some reason, this system persists today.⁴

Next up, we have Captain, which is by far the most confusing rank in military terms. For the Navy, it's an O-6, the highest non-flag rank and equivalent to an Army Colonel. For the other services⁵ a Captain is an O-3, a fairly junior officer. Weirdly, these two ranks share a common origin, but the British conspired to confuse everyone.

The problem dates back many centuries, to the days when the typical warship was a merchant vessel with a bunch of soldiers onboard, who would fight boarding actions with enemy vessels. There were two senior officers on each ship. The master, who was a professional seaman and probably the man who sailed the vessel in peacetime.⁶ And the army Captain who commanded the troops aboard the ship, and who, because he was actually a member of the military, had overall command, with the master advising him on specifically naval aspects of commanding the ship. As the professional naval officer corps developed, this structure remained largely in place, with the Captain remaining the ship's commander while the master eventually became a warrant officer⁷ responsible for the ship's navigation and handling, although these were skills the Captain himself had.

But as the size of ships rose, it seemed odd to make the captain of a small brig or sloop the same rank as the captain of the largest ship of the line. As the naval officer corps was now dedicated to its craft and could handle ships quite well on its own, it made sense on smaller vessels to combine both the master and the captain, and the resulting position (and rank) was known as Master Commanding, or Master and Commander. In 1794, the British shortened this to just Commander, where it has remained ever since. For a while, Commanders were in an awkward position because they were too senior to serve under another officer but not on the Captain's List for promotion, and there were many more Commanders than Commander slots. This was eventually mitigated by using Commanders as the senior Lieutenants on the biggest ships.

Next down we have Lieutenant Commander, a rank that was actually invented by the Americans. The nascent USN had many small gunboats and other vessels, and these were often commanded by Lieutenants (which we'll come to shortly). These Lieutenants, many quite senior, were given the title of Lieutenant Commanding, which in an entirely predictable process became Lieutenant Commander. Later on, this rank was copied by the British when they found themselves in need of another rank between Lieutenant and Captain.

Lieutenant is a French word meaning literally "holder in place of" ("lieu tenant"), and originally just meant the officer who held a position while the senior officer was away.⁸ It, like Captain, came to the Navy from the days when Army officers commanded warships, and by the age of sail, a ship would have a number of Lieutenants based on its size, with a strict numerical seniority among them, the First Lieutenant outranking the Second and so on. They were the most junior proper officers, and would stand watches and run the ship for the Captain.

But in that case, why is a naval Lieutenant an O-3, equivalent to an Army Captain, and not an Army Lieutenant (O-1 or O-2)? This dates back to how naval officers were trained in the age of sail. Boys, usually in their early teens, were taken to sea as midshipmen at the discretion of the Captain, and trained by the officers of the ship in seamanship, gunnery, navigation, and the other important skills of running the ship. In their late teens, Midshipmen would be examined by a board of Captains who would certify them for promotion to Lieutenant. The problem is that to be promoted, a potential Lieutenant needed a shipboard berth in that rank, and there was always a shortage of slots relative to the pool of both "passed midshipmen" and existing Lieutenants, as well as more need for leadership than could be provided by the establishment of Lieutenants. So many passed midshipmen stayed on the books, initially as ordinary midshipmen, and later on in a special rank of that name. Because the wait for a Lieutenancy could take years, some passed midshipmen gained enough experience to be placed in charge of a watch, and were given the rank of "Master's Mate"⁹ (RN) or "Master in line for promotion" (USN). Eventually, these awkward ranks were abolished. The RN called their Master's Mates "Sub-Lieutenant", while the USN chose Lieutenant (Junior Grade) for its Masters in line for Promotion. The RN had essentially abolished the Passed Midshipman rank,¹⁰ while the USN had not, and it chose the term Ensign for officers fresh out of the Naval Academy. On the surface, this was an odd choice, as Ensign is also the term for the national flag flown by ships. Again, the French are to blame. Originally, the ensign was the flag of a senior officer, essentially a general, and it fell to the most junior officer to carry said flag. This officer was titled "Ensign-bearer", later "Ensign". A few European armies retain the rank, along with the USN, which adopted it in 1862.

The term Midshipman is still used to refer to a trainee officer, and it also dates back to the days of sail. In that era, officers mostly lived and worked aft, while the common sailors were berthed forward. Midshipman began as experienced sailors who were halfway between the two, although somehow the term was appropriated for officer candidates instead.

Next time, I'll look at the history of the enlisted ranks, who do most of the actual work aboard ships.

For more detail on the history of these ranks, see this article, which was my main source for this post. Do note that it was written by a coast guardsman, and spends a great deal of time on the Revenue Cutter Service, the predecessor to that organization.