RANKS OF NAVAL OFFICERS.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 7914, 4 August 1917, Page 3 (Supplement)

RANKS OF NAVAL OFFICERS.

Every one of our readers will doubtless have noticed that officers of tho Royal Navy have gold bands round tho cuffs of their coats, and it is interesting to note what ranks the various bands signify.

If the band is not continued round in a straight line, but has a curl or loop, the wearer is either a fighting officer or an engineer. Paymasters, surgeons, and others have the gold band without thc loop. A sub-lieutenant has one gold hand with a loop; a lieutenant-commander has three two thick and one thin with a. loop ; a captain four thick rows and a loop; a commodore one treble thick gold hand with a loop; a rear-admiral a band treble thick and another thick band. An admiral has one hand treble thick and three thick rows with loop. Officers of other brandies of the service wear the go]d hands of their rank, but without the loop. Royal Naval Reserve officers and Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve officers have the gold bands waved. A! bit oi purple between two rows of gold lace indicates an engineer; scarlet, a doctor; white, an accountant; and light blue, a naval instructor.