A Naval Who’s Who.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLI, Issue 7, 12 August 1908, Page 8

A Naval Who’s Who.

TINGL’ISHING MARKS OF RANKS AND CLASSES. When the fleet spills its hundreds of officers and thousands of jackies ashore int the welcoming arms of the city, the average citizen is going to be somewhat nonplussed at the difficulties of telling precisely just “Who's who” in the blue book of the navy. In tile navy the different grades of officers and crew are far more numerous than in the army. Four classes constitute the naval personnel—commissioned officers, wararnt officers, petty officers, and the enlisted men. Added to these are the midshipmen, commissioned officers in embryo, possessing rank and exercising authority over petty officers and crew, but who have not yet received their commissions.. As regards the officers, there are two principal divisions, line officers and staff officers. Line officers are essentially the naval officers who alone may command ships or squadrons, and who are privileged to reach the rank of admiral, the highest in the navy. Staff officers are those whose duties are more circumscribed, while possessing full authority in their respective departments. For example, the staff officers comprise those of the medical, pay, and construction corps, and the chaplains. As compared with the army, the navy ranks correspond as follows: — NAVY. ARMY. Admiral General Vice-admiral Lieutenant-general Rear-admiral Major-general Captain Bullgadler-geueral Commander Colonel Lieutenant- Lieutenant-colonel commander Major Lieutenant Captain Lieutenant First lieutenant (junior grade) Second lieutenant Ensign Cadet. Midshipman The rank of commodore, now non-exis-tent, was equal to that of brigadier general in the army. The warrant officers arc the boatswain, the gunner, the pharmacist, the sail maker, the carpenter, and the warrant machinist. The number of petty officers is legion. Principal among them is the chief master of arms, who is vijtually the ship’s chief of police. Next in importance come the chief yeoman, the mates of the different departments, and the hospital steward. Other petty officers are the oilers, electricians, boiler makers, coppersmiths, blacksmiths, turret captains, gun captains, and others. Then comes the great body of enlisted men. It is separated into two divisions, the first containing only trained, experienced seamen who are competent to “hand, reef, and steer,” ordinary seamen, seamen apprentices, and the apprentice bovs. Tn the engineer’s division the duties lie in the engine and fire rooms, about the auxiliary machinery an'd in the various kinds of machine and tool work about the ship. Next to the engineer himself rank the engineer’s petty officers, then come the firemen and the coal passers, who are of the lowest grade. The man in supreme charge of the ship is the captain, and next to him comes the executive officer, who is the captain’s prime minister. Now, how shall one tell the rank of these navy men at a glance? It is simple, for every officer in the navy from commander to petty officer has his insignia and rank, consisting of two parts —the corps badge and the rank badge. The commissioned officers have insignia on both sleeve and collar (or shoulder strap or epaulette) for dress and full dress, respectively. For the collar, shoulder strap or epaulette, the corps badge of the line is an anchor; of the medical corps, a gold oak leaf with a single silver acorn upon it; for the pay corps, a silver oak twig with leaf attached; for the construction corps, a large oak leaf with acorns; for a chaplain, a cross. The rank badges for all commissioned officers are as follows: — Admiral, four silver stars; vice-admiral, three silver stars; rear-admiral, two silver stars; captain, a silver eagle; commander, a silver leaf; lieutenant commander, a gold leaf; lieutenant, two silver bars; lieutenant, junior grade, on*

silver-bar; ensign, the corps badge alone in silver; midshipman, a gold anchor. On the gold lace around the sleeve rhe corps badge of the line is a star. The staff corps have no star, their corps mark being in the shape of coloured cloth, as follows: Medical corps, a dark claret colour; pay corps, white; construction corps, blue. An admiral has three broad gold stripes around the sleeve; a vice-ad-miral, two broad and a narrow between;' a rear-admiral, one broad and one narrow. A captain has four half-inch stripes; a commander, three half-inch stripes; a lieutenant-commander, two half-inch stripes and a quarter-inch stripe between; a lieutenant, two half-inch stripes; a lieutenant, junior graije, a half-inch and a quarter-inch: an ensign, a single half-inch, and a midshipman, a single quarter-inch. Of the warrant officers the boatswain has two crossed anchors on His collar, the carpenter a carpenter’s square, the sailmaker a diamond, the gunner a flaming spherical shell, the warrant machinist a three-bladed propeller. None of these wear either a shoulder strap or an epaulette at any time or any sleeve lace except the chief warrant officers, who have a quarter-inch stripe of blue and gold. “Rating badges” are the distinguishing marks of the petty officers. These are worn on the sleeves of the shirt or blouse. Every petty officer has his insignia, surmounted by a spread eagle. The grade he belongs to is shown by chevrons, a chief petty officer having three chevrons surmounted by an arch, a petty officer of the first class three chevrons without the arch, petty officer second class two chevrons, petty officer third class one chevron. After the wearer has served 25 years his chevrons are in gold, but otherwise they are invariably in red. Between the chevrons and the surmounting eagle is placed in white the special mark showing what kind of petty officer the wearer is. Boatswains’ mates wear two crossed anchors, yeomen two crossed keys or two crossed pens, machinists’ mates a three-bladed propeller, boilermakers and blacksmiths two crossed hammers, quartermasters a ship’s wheel, sailmakers’ mates a pointed spike, gunners’ mates two crossed guns, masters at arms a star. Whatever his rating may- be, a distinguished marksman always wears a white gun on his sleeve. Taken altogether, everything on hoard ship—every badge, mark, or insignia—• has a relative importance and serves to place the rank and duties of the wearer before the one who knows how, to read them. Life on board a man-o’-war is at once practical and spectacular —practical because of the peculiar fitness of each object to its appointed place, spectacular because of the ceremonials which Invest the life with such significance. It is most interesting, well worth study, for that the large body of shore living citizens are ignorant of the meaning of the insignia flashing from every navy man's sleeve and of the duties which Jack performs as his daily round there is small doubt. It is a new world. Doubtless there will be many Columbuses going exploring while the big fleet is here.