PART TWO
Read on, otherwise - go to home page - and restart
Warrant officers were called 'Sir' by
their subordinates and 'Mr' by their superiors and pre 1949, many of their
number were saluted by all those junior in rank to them. The navy salute of 18th
and 19th century was quite different to that of the 20th century when just the
right hand is used and touching ones cap as a sign of diffidence had been
abandoned. These plates
All officers, including warrant
officers, had their function/duties/uniforms explicitly described in KRAI and
QRAI [respectively, Kings Regulations and Admiralty Instructions when the
monarch was a king, and Queens when not] which governed every conceivable aspect
of the royal navy and was considered to be the R.N., bible. Then as now, warrant officers started
as lowly ratings at the foot of the lower deck ladder, so we must take a quick
look at the rates they would have held on the way up.
are taken from the Boys Training Manual of Seamanship 1880 and the QRAI of that
year too, and tell of the rules for saluting. The navy had many obscure
rules and customs, some of them extant to this day, which can cause confusion.
As an example, I will expand on the name Mr as used in the navy. Mr is used officially for speech and for writing by an officer senior to the
warrant officer being addressed. In Victorian times, the word Mr was used
by officers senior to lieutenants to address lieutenants socially [they
were called lieutenants officially] and I found that in 1918 this was still the
case. More research revealed that the style is on-going at least up to 1980, as
indicated in the following reference source "Titles and Forms of
Address" published by A and C Black [Publishers] Limited of London ISBN 0
7136 2072 2 you'll recognise that you need a refresher
in etiquette. Additionally, and from the same source [1980] all ranks below a
lieutenant are addressed as Mr both for speech and in writing, officially and
socially, exactly the same as for the warrant officer. Thus, the sub lieutenant
shares the same comprehensive style with a warrant officer, even though the
latter is not commissioned. The style Mr was used for all in the gunroom and for
warrant officers, but as the navy changed and modernised for the twentieth
century, the rules of etiquette, or more specifically the rules printed in books
of reference, didn't! It was also used as a "put down" by a senior officer
angered by a mistake made by his subordinate officer, whereupon he would shout 'Mr
[so and so] I'll see you in my cabin', usually his sea cabin.
LOOK @ GIBSON Robert. The right hand plate above is rather sad. Warrant officers could be awarded the LSGC medal and were allowed to wear it as long as they had the qualifying time on the lower deck before being promoted officer. This man was obviously promoted to Acting warrant officer whilst relatively young and one assumes that if he had been confirmed a proper warrant officer in normal time, he would not have been awarded his 'gong'. However, as you see, he had 15 years on the lower deck for substantive rate reasons, and therefore qualified. What a sad state of affairs for the poor man! |
Plates
showing the uniform regulations for the CPO in 1900. On the left hand plate,
ignore the small amount of text top left above the title of CPO......
All uniforms had four buttons, or space
for four buttons. Officers actually had the four buttons, but ratings not
dressed as seamen, had three buttons on the right side with a button hole only
where the top button would have been, and the top button on the left hand side,
though sewn on, was always hidden under the collar flap. This was the start of
three buttons on the jacket front for ratings {chief petty officers and below
and from 1972 fleet chief petty officers/warrant officers} and four for all
other officers. A senior CPO
worked his way up to become a warrant officer but it took a long time and was
usually 'into dead man's shoes'; however, as one would expect, those with
outstanding abilities made it early whilst still young. As you will read a
little later on, one's chances of promotion to the wardroom from the lower deck
without first going through the warrant rate [and then only a few of them at
that] was literally impossible in one period which lasted for 50 years, and
virtually impossible at other times.
Lower deck titles were much the same
as they were in my day {from 1953 onwards} - boy 2nd class, boy first class,
ordinary seaman, able seaman etc, but
they were biased towards the seaman branch with executive officers representing
the equivalent on the upper deck. When
a CPO was not qualified in either gunnery or torpedoes this anchor is the badge
her wore on his jacket collar. Compare it to the size of the anchor a leading
seaman wore on his left arm - both thumbnails have been set at 8%
In those days though, boys, in particular, but others also, were 'different' from my time. In my time, young boys came from one source only and that was HMS Ganges [HMS St Vincent entries were older, past their 16th birthday on joining and were known as 'juniors' not 'boys'] but in the late Victorian period, boys in the fleet came from many different training ships each claiming to be better than the other, and many a senior officer had his preferences and demanded boy's from the school he patronised. After the second world war when Ganges returned to its function of training boys, Ganges boys' were acclaimed to be the best [I was one in 1953] but whether they were or not, they were the only true boys, they having joined at age 15¼.
After 1850, engineers,
artificers and stokers had been recruited to man the steam/sail iron-clads, but
were at that time an unknown factor. These
additional men made a moderately difficult system for officers and men into a
complicated one. Both sides of the deck, upper and lower, were in a
continuous state of flux, and even without these additions, we have seen
how complicated the officer corps was with some of its members commissioned and
other not. The men, or more correctly the lower deck, but always known as the
ships company were a mixture of petty officers and seaman. Petty
officer, was an all encompassing term, and one was borne on the ships book as
just that. For purposes of employment, skills and qualifications, one was
either a chief, a first class or a second class petty officer.
The picture above shows the chief class and the first class petty officers in HMS Blake in 1896. Note over to the left a first class petty officer wearing fore and aft rig. Men were allowed to change rigs providing they did so entirely at their own expense, only getting back their money when the Admiralty actually confirmed the change of rigs. With money so tight, few could afford to do it. Today of course, the phrase "petty officer" has become "senior rate" but first and foremost, today's men and women are Warrant Officers, Chief Petty Officers or Petty Officers, and then their employment skills and qualifications are of secondary importance. Officers had a status not used today, where subordinate officers lived in the gunroom, and lieutenants and above lived in the wardroom. Lieutenants meant any officers between two rings/stripes and three, so what we call a lieutenant commander today, was a lieutenant [over 8 years seniority] in those days.
Look closely at the stripes on the cuff of the officer standing at the left of
this picture. He has 1½ and without the curl. This dates from 1902 and tells us
that he is an Assistant Paymaster of 4 years seniority. So, not all
lieutenants had two full rings, some having a ½" ring on the bottom and a
¼" ring on top, and this system is still used in the USN when the officer
rank of lieutenant is suffixed JG, meaning Junior Grade. Other lieutenants had
2½ stripes [2 x ½" + 1 x ¼"] which they wore when they had been a
two stripe lieutenant for 8 years. The term lieutenant commander didn't come
into being until 1914 yet lieutenants had been wearing 2½ stripes since
1877 and we routinely call lieutenant commanders, but in this case it was a
contraction of the term 'lieutenant commanding', where a senior lieutenants
regularly commanded small vessels. As from 1914, for social reasons, the lieutenant commander was
addressed as commander in speech.
Plates above show
uniforms in the second world war. These are important to the story because they show the rank of warrant officers after they lost their buttons in October 1918 and the rank of lieutenant commander dating from 1914. The plates were relevant until 1949 when the rank of warrant officer was withdrawn.
Staying on the same theme, there is another set of plates further on in the story which explains one of two anomalies, like, for example, how it is possible to have the same number and configuration of stripes for a rear admiral and a first class commodore. Look for this sign *** in PART THREE. The term "officers" meant all officers who wore either rings/stripes on their cuff or three buttons [warrant officers and midshipmen although the latter were styled subordinate officers]. So, when the ships complement [= officers + ships company] were to assemble for prayers, funerals, colours ceremony, photographs etc., warrant officers, whether commissioned or not assembled with the wardroom officers, and petty officers irrespective of class, with the men [the seamen], fell-in as the ships company, or just plain 'company' with a senior rates platoon and junior rates platoons. Whilst quite naturally, today's chief petty officer would take offence at being called or considered as a petty officer one rate below him, as would a lieutenant commander being addressed as a lieutenant one rank below him, the term "admiral" is still used to address any officer who has attained flag rank between rear admiral and admiral, and it would be bad style to address a rear admiral [a junior admiral] as a rear admiral in general conversation. You would address him as admiral just as you would a very senior admiral proper when speaking to him, but when writing to him, you would address the envelope Rear Admiral Flint and begin the letter with either Sir, less formally with Dear Sir or socially with Dear Admiral Flint. Notwithstanding good manners of course, my point is that a senior admiral doesn't take offence at some newly promoted captain being called an admiral, even though each is separated by three levels of rank.
Approximately ten years after the introduction of steam and the iron-clads, the navy had polarised itself into groups to accommodate steam technology but the overall plan despite much concern, had not changed much from the pre-steam days. The officers structure looked like this: CLICK HERE.
It is not part of my story, but the
introduction into the wardroom of engineering officers was like a replay of the
days of wardroom status warrant officers [Master, Purser, Surgeon and Chaplain]
in that the wardroom of the 1860 period, found them socially unacceptable. The
engineers were socially naive, engaged in artisans talk, tended to undermine
learning and knowledge [though of course they had goodly amounts of each for
their own needs] by their pragmatism. Moreover, the engineers were recruited in
many cases direct from engineering jobs in civilian life and had, as it were,
jumped the naval ladder [in both the gun room and the lower deck] and were, to
say the least, considered as upstarts. For good reasons, historians and
authors almost to a person, take the road of following famous naval officers and
the battles they fought as being the yard stick for "Naval History."
When those subjects are exhausted, they start to look for 'domestics' like
mutinies, pay and conditions [especially if by being bad, they cause mutinies]
etc, but if I were to ask you why an ERA, a chief petty officer, has his own
mess and a stoker messman, and doesn't mess with other chief petty officers when
afloat, would you know why? If you don't, it is probably because our
raconteur's have never bothered to spread the word. The answer is not a logical
split to fill up all those individual water-tight spaces on the ship or boat.
No, it comes from the 1860's when the navy were absolutely desperate to get
senior engine room and boiler room staff into our warships and would, within
reason, pay the going price to get such men. These engineers knew that, and were
able to 'call the tune' to which the hapless Admiralty had to dance.
First, the engineers demanded high wages and the navy went some way to meet
their demands, until it reached the point where the engineer would be earning as
much or more than the master or a surgeon. Then privileges above his lowly
[but needed] station were sought, when the engineer could take what leave he
wanted once the engines had been rung-off, and a naval uniform for him would be
an encumbrance rather than an asset. As steam became more and more
important ashore for transportation, factories, docks, commercial shipping, the
engineer grew in importance and touted his skills to the highest bidder.
History doesn't show us the list of bidders, but I doubt whether many could
out-bid the Admiralty especially when it was desperate to man the iron-clads,
the most powerful warships of the day. The Admiralty more than met the engineers
demands, and so started a privileged set of sailors. However, the shrewd
Admirals had made their own demands in a subtle way. They offered a package
which, just as today [thinking about the brain-drain], few other employers could
match, which for a return of service [job security], they would get the very
best machinery to play with where money would be no obstacle; money would be
spent on training, and promotion was more or less guaranteed. Their pay was
moderated and other specific attractions were added to their conditions of
employment.
Firstly, that they were skilled, knew it, were arrogant about it, and looked
down on common sailors, and so their demand for their own mess or living space
with their own steward was met in full. Then this led to them having their own
uniform, but as the uniform regulations were rewritten, they had to adhere
except that badges were not needed for engineers - it was obvious who they were!
- and that they would circumvent the traditional lower deck ladder climbing, and
enter as first class petty officers, soon to become chief petty officers, and
almost as quickly, warrant officers, commissioned warrant officers, and then
engineering officers as lieutenants. That package made everybody happy,
and the navy got back to work with the engineers below playing with their
machines, and the mariners up top, wondering whether to set sail or make
smoke? As the Admirals went to bed that day, content that they had 'tamed'
the engineer by making him sign-away his ability to make demands, they decided
that the precedent would not be repeated in the future. Within a matter of
months the boy artificer training programme had begun, and within just a few
short years, engineers touting their skills were ridiculed by the navy, unless
of course they wanted to join-up on Admiralty terms and not theirs.
Now for some pictures just to break-up the story.
Mates. A commonly used word in the navy and in the
dockyards. The old three 'standing officers', the warrant officer Gunner,
Boatswain and Carpenter [of whom much of this story is about] chose men who they
liked as people and who had proved themselves able, trustworthy and reliable, to
help them run their department. The senior warrant officers, the Chief Gunner,
Boatswain and Carpenter who were commissioned warrant officers, chose number
two's who became known as "The CHIEF
BOATSWAIN'S MATE" etc. The Boatswain, a
rank below the Chief Boatswain also had his number two, known as "The
Boatswain's Mate"
etc. When a large ship had both a Chief Boatswain and a Boatswain embarked, the
BOATSWAIN'S MATE worked under the supervision of the CHIEF BOATSWAIN'S MATE.
When the ship had just a Boatswain, his mate assumed the importance of a Chief
Boatswain's Mate à la
as in a large ship. In today's navy the Chief Boatswain's Mate is a
CPO, known as the BUFFER, in charge of seamanship and ship husbandry, and the
Boatswain's Mate is a junior rate, usually a seaman, tasked to run the gangway
of a ship alongside, or at anchor with a sea ladder rigged. Boatswain's
Mate is best known for his blowing of the boatswains call or whistle, which is a
'sound' salute to senior officers and a means of communicating pre ordained
orders, like go to work, have your dinner, put the lights out and go to sleep,
in a small ship. In a large ship or shore establishment we would hear a
royal marine blowing a trumpet to convey the pre ordained orders.
BELOW, YOU WILL
MEET ANOTHER MATE, THIS TIME A LIEUTENANT'S MATE, WHO WORE A SUB LIEUTENANT'S
STRIPE AND CAME FROM THE LOWER DECK USUALLY AS A VERY YOUNG WARRANT OFFICER
RAPIDLY PROMOTED FROM BEING A VERY YOUNG PETTY OFFICER, OOZING WITH MERIT,
TALENT, ZEAL AND INSATIABLE ENERGY! HAVING THE MATE RANK UPSET A LOT OF PEOPLE
WHO CONSIDERED THAT THEY HAD BEEN ROBBED OF "NORMAL" PROMOTION CHANCES, BUT THE
ADMIRALTY STOOD ITS GROUND. MATES COURSES WERE CONDUCTED IN HMS EXCELLENT
[WHALE ISLAND] AND IN SNIPPET 36C BELOW YOU CAN SEE A COURSE UNDERWAY
DURING 1914.
BELOW YOU WILL SEE 80 OR SO SNIPPETS OF GENERAL INTEREST BIASED TO WARRANT OFFICERS [WHEN NOT OBVIOUSLY OF A GENERAL NATURE] AROUND THE TURN OF THE CENTURY GOING TO AND INTO WORLD WAR ONE. THEY INCLUDE WO's LISTS AND THEIR TITLES, THEIR SHIPS AND SHORE ESTABLISHMENTS, COURSES UNDERTAKEN, WITH AN OCCASIONAL TOPICAL OR CONTROVERTIAL SUBJECT LIKE FOR EXAMPLE SNIPPET 33a. IN THOSE DAYS A FLAG LIEUTENANT WAS A LIEUTENANT, BUT FOR MOST OF MY EXPERIENCE, THAT TITLE HAS BEEN FILLED BY A LIEUTENANT COMMANDER - BACK THEN [IN 1914 AND AFTER] HE WAS CALLED THE FLAG LIEUTENANT COMMANDER: SEE SNIPPET 17.
FOR SOME SNIPPETS YOU MAY NEED TO EMPLOY YOUR MAGNIFIER APP. ALTERNATIVELY [AND THIS TIP IS GOOD FOR ALL SMALL PRINT] ADJUST THE SIZE OF YOUR DISPLAY TEMPORARILY JUST TO READ THE PAGE/FILES IN COMFORT. ON COMPLETION, REVERT BACK TO THE DEFAULT/RECOMMENDED SETTING. TO DO THAT SIMPLY GO TO YOUR CONTROL BOX AND CHOOSE 'DISPLAY' TO A HIGHER READING, OR, IF YOU HAVE A MODERN WINDOWS OS, GO TO SETTINGS, CHOOSE 'SYSTEM', PULL THE TEXT SIZE SLIDER BAR TO THE RIGHT AWAY FROM 100% [the recommended setting] UNTIL ITS TITLE READS 150% THEN STOP. AT THIS POINT YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO READ THE FILES IN COMFORT. WHEN FINISHED, GO BACK TO SETTINGS, 'SYSTEM' AND PULL THE SLIDE BAR BACK HARD LEFT TO THE DEFAULT SETTING OF 100%.
END OF PART TWO
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