Royal Navy uniforms of the 18th and 19th centuries

Royal Navy uniforms of the 18th and 19th centuries were the original effort of the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

to create standardized rank and insignia system for use both at shore and at sea. The uniforms and insignia

Royal Navy uniform

The uniforms of the Royal Navy have evolved gradually since the first uniform regulations for officers were issued in 1748. The predominant colours of Royal Navy uniforms are navy blue and white...

first created in the mid 1700s, lasting until the mid 1850s, have since become immortalized in such classic Naval literature works as the Horatio Hornblower

Horatio Hornblower

Horatio Hornblower is a fictional Royal Navy officer who is the protagonist of a series of novels by C. S. Forester. He was later the subject of films and television programs.The original Hornblower tales began with the 1937 novel The Happy Return Horatio Hornblower is a fictional Royal Navy...

and Jack Aubrey

Jack Aubrey

John "Jack" Aubrey, KB , is a fictional character in the Aubrey–Maturin series of novels by Patrick O'Brian. The series portrays his rise from Lieutenant to Rear-Admiral in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. The twenty -book series encompasses Aubrey's adventures and various commands along...

novels.

History

Prior to the 1740s, Royal Navy officers and sailors had no established uniforms, although many of the officer class typically wore upper class clothing with wigs to denote their social status. The early Royal Navy also had only three clearly established shipboard ranks: Captain

Captain (nautical)

A sea captain is a licensed mariner in ultimate command of the vessel. The captain is responsible for its safe and efficient operation, including cargo operations, navigation, crew management and ensuring that the vessel complies with local and international laws, as well as company and flag...

, Lieutenant

Lieutenant

A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...

, and Master

Master mariner

A Master Mariner or MM is the professional qualification required for someone to serve as the person in charge or person in command of a commercial vessel. In England, the term Master Mariner has been in use at least since the 13th century, reflecting the fact that in guild or livery company terms,...

. This simplicity of rank had its origins in the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

, where a military company embarked on ship (led by a Captain and a Lieutenant) operated independently from the handling of the vessel, which was overseen by the ship's master.

Over time, the nautical command structure merged these two separate command chains into a single entity with Captain and Lieutenant as commissioned officer ranks while Sailing Master (often shortened to simply "Master") was seen as a type of warrant officer position. In 1758, the rank of Midshipman

Midshipman

A midshipman is an officer cadet, or a commissioned officer of the lowest rank, in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Kenya...

was introduced, which was a type of Officer Candidate

Officer Candidate

Officer Candidate is a rank in some militaries of the world that is an appointed position while a person is in training to become an officer. More often than not, an Officer Candidate was a civilian who applied to join the military directly as an officer...

position. The rank of "Master and Commander" (completely separate from the rank of Master) first appeared in the 1760s and was temporarily issued to Lieutenants in command of vessels, but without a Captain's commission. By the 1790s, the rank of Master and Commander was routinely shortened to simply "Commander

Commander

Commander is a naval rank which is also sometimes used as a military title depending on the individual customs of a given military service. Commander is also used as a rank or title in some organizations outside of the armed forces, particularly in police and law enforcement.-Commander as a naval...

".

Uniform regulations for Naval officers were first issued by Lord Anson

George Anson, 1st Baron Anson

Admiral of the Fleet George Anson, 1st Baron Anson PC, FRS, RN was a British admiral and a wealthy aristocrat, noted for his circumnavigation of the globe and his role overseeing the Royal Navy during the Seven Years' War...

in 1748, this was in response to the Naval officer corps wishing for an established uniform pertaining to their service. Officer uniforms were at first divided into a "best uniform", consisting of an embroidered blue coat with white facings worn unbuttoned with white breeches

Breeches

Breeches are an item of clothing covering the body from the waist down, with separate coverings for each leg, usually stopping just below the knee, though in some cases reaching to the ankles...

and stockings, as well as a "working rig" which was a simpler, less embroidered uniform for day-to-day use.

In 1767 the terms "dress" and "undress" uniform had been adopted and, by 1795, epaulettes were officially introduced. The epaulette style uniforms and insignia endured slight modifications and expansions until a final version appeared in 1846. In 1856 Royal Navy officer insignia shifted to the use of rank sleeve stripes - a pattern which has endured to the present day.

In 1775, during the American Revolutionary War

American Revolutionary War

The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...

, the Continental Navy

Continental Navy

The Continental Navy was the navy of the United States during the American Revolutionary War, and was formed in 1775. Through the efforts of the Continental Navy's patron, John Adams and vigorous Congressional support in the face of stiff opposition, the fleet cumulatively became relatively...

was established; many ranks, rates

History of United States Navy ratings

The History of the United States Navy ratings spans more than 200 years of American History from the United Colonies of the 1775 era to the current age of the 21st century United States Navy. Navy ratings in America were first created in 1775, during the American Revolutionary War, for use by the...

, positions, and uniforms were duplicated nearly exactly from the British system.

Ranks and positions

Naval ranks and positions of the 18th- and 19th-century Royal Navy were an intermixed assortment of formal rank titles, positional titles, as well as informal titles used on board ocean going ships. Uniforms played a major role in shipboard hierarchy, since those positions allocated a formal uniform by navy regulations were generally considered of higher standing, even if not by rank.

Shipboard Hierarchy

Royal Navy ships were led by commissioned officers of the wardroom

Wardroom

The wardroom is the mess-cabin of naval commissioned officers above the rank of Midshipman. The term the wardroom is also used to refer to those individuals with the right to occupy that wardroom, meaning "the officers of the wardroom"....

, which consisted of the Captain, his Lieutenants, as well as embarked Royal Marine officers. The higher ranked Warrant Officer

Warrant Officer

A warrant officer is an officer in a military organization who is designated an officer by a warrant, as distinguished from a commissioned officer who is designated an officer by a commission, or from non-commissioned officer who is designated an officer by virtue of seniority.The rank was first...

s on board, meaning those who held a warrant from a Navy board but not an actual commission from the crown

British monarchy

The monarchy of the United Kingdom is the constitutional monarchy of the United Kingdom and its overseas territories. The present monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, has reigned since 6 February 1952. She and her immediate family undertake various official, ceremonial and representational duties...

also had wardroom rights as well as assigned uniforms. Next came the ship's "Standing Officers", that is to say those personnel who were permanently assigned to a vessel for the purposes of maintenance, repair, and upkeep. Standing officers (of which there were three main positions) did not have wardroom rights but wore uniforms and had access rights to the Quarterdeck.

Cockpit

Cockpit (sailing)

In the Royal Navy, the term cockpit originally referred to the area where the coxswain was stationed. This led to the word being used to refer to the area towards the stern of a small decked vessel that houses the rudder controls...

officers, or "Cockpit mates" were personnel who did not hold a royal or warrant commission but where considered of important enough standing inboard to be messed and berthed in their own area of the ship and be allocated a simpler version of a uniform. This included the Midshipman

Midshipman

, who existed in a very grey zone of seniority as officer candidates yet sometimes treat little better than common seaman.

The remainder of the ship's company, who lived and berthed in the common crew quarters, were the Petty Officer

Petty Officer

A petty officer is a non-commissioned officer in many navies and is given the NATO rank denotion OR-6. They are equal in rank to sergeant, British Army and Royal Air Force. A Petty Officer is superior in rank to Leading Rate and subordinate to Chief Petty Officer, in the case of the British Armed...

s and Seaman

Seaman

Seaman is one of the lowest ranks in a Navy. In the Commonwealth it is the lowest rank in the Navy, followed by Able Seaman and Leading Seaman, and followed by the Petty Officer ranks....

. Petty officers were seaman who had been "rated" to fill a particular specialist trade on board ship. This rating set the Petty officers apart from the common seaman by virtue of technical skill and slightly higher education. No special uniform was located for Petty Officers, however, although some Royal Navy ships allowed such persons to don a simple blue frock coat to denote their status.

Seaman were divided into two grades, these being Ordinary Seaman and Able Seaman. Seaman were normally assigned to a watch, which maintained its own hierarchy consisting of a Watch Captain in charge of a particular area of the ship. Grouped amongst the watches were also the Landsmen, considered the absolute lowest rank in the Royal Navy and assigned to personnel, usually from press gangs

Impressment

Impressment, colloquially, "the Press", was the act of taking men into a navy by force and without notice. It was used by the Royal Navy, beginning in 1664 and during the 18th and early 19th centuries, in wartime, as a means of crewing warships, although legal sanction for the practice goes back to...

who held little to no naval experience.

A final position on board ship was that of ship's boy, sometimes referred to as cabin boy

Cabin boy

A Cabin boy or ship's boy is a boy who waits on the officers and passengers of a ship, especially running errands for the captain....

. Normally between the ages of 8 to 12, ship's boys performed a variety of functions such as servants to officers, mess attendants, or as a powder monkey

Powder monkey

Powder monkeys were a part of warships' crews during the Age of Sail that carried bags of gunpowder from the powder magazine in the ship's hold to the gun crews. Powder monkeys were usually boys or young teens selected for the job for their speed and height — they were short and would be...

Position	Status	Appointing Agency	Messing & Berthing	Uniform	Notes

Commodore Commodore (Royal Navy) Commodore is a rank of the Royal Navy above Captain and below Rear Admiral. It has a NATO ranking code of OF-6. The rank is equivalent to Brigadier in the British Army and Royal Marines and to Air Commodore in the Royal Air Force.-Insignia:...	Commissioned officer	Admiralty	Great Cabin	Blue frock coat with gold laced buttons.After 1795, blue coat with epaulets	Special grade for Captains in charge of multiple vesselsCommodores Second Class commanded their own vessels while Commodores First Class were appointed a Captain to command their flagship

Captain Captain (Royal Navy) Captain is a senior officer rank of the Royal Navy. It ranks above Commander and below Commodore and has a NATO ranking code of OF-5. The rank is equivalent to a Colonel in the British Army or Royal Marines and to a Group Captain in the Royal Air Force. The rank of Group Captain is based on the...				Vessel Commanding Officer

Commander Commander (Royal Navy) Commander is a senior officer rank of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom. It is immediately junior to captain and immediately senior to the rank of lieutenant commander...	Blue frock coat white waist coat.After 1795 (Commander) and 1812 (Lieutenant), blue coat with epaulets	Non-rated Ship Captain. Full title "Master and Commander"

Lieutenant	Wardroom	Division Officer/Watch Officer

Acting Lieutenant Sub-Lieutenant Sub-lieutenant is a military rank. It is normally a junior officer rank.In many navies, a sub-lieutenant is a naval commissioned or subordinate officer, ranking below a lieutenant. In the Royal Navy the rank of sub-lieutenant is equivalent to the rank of lieutenant in the British Army and of...		Warrant officer	Ship's Captain	No established uniform - recipients would wear the uniform of the last grade held	Later known as Sub-Lieutenant Sub-Lieutenant Sub-lieutenant is a military rank. It is normally a junior officer rank.In many navies, a sub-lieutenant is a naval commissioned or subordinate officer, ranking below a lieutenant. In the Royal Navy the rank of sub-lieutenant is equivalent to the rank of lieutenant in the British Army and of... Acting Lieutenants were normally senior Midshipman who were granted wardroom status due to their tenure and experience, although the designation was also extended on occasion to Masters and Master's Mates. One historical case of a Master's Mate appointed as an Acting Lieutenant was that of Fletcher Christian Fletcher Christian Fletcher Christian was a master's mate on board the Bounty during William Bligh's fateful voyage to Tahiti for breadfruit plants... , appointed by William Bligh William Bligh Vice Admiral William Bligh FRS RN was an officer of the British Royal Navy and a colonial administrator. A notorious mutiny occurred during his command of HMAV Bounty in 1789; Bligh and his loyal men made a remarkable voyage to Timor, after being set adrift in the Bounty's launch by the mutineers... much to the derision of John Fryer, Master of the HMAV Bounty HMS Bounty HMS Bounty , famous as the scene of the Mutiny on the Bounty on 28 April 1789, was originally a three-masted cargo ship, the Bethia, purchased by the British Admiralty, then modified and commissioned as His Majesty's Armed Vessel the... .

Master Master mariner A Master Mariner or MM is the professional qualification required for someone to serve as the person in charge or person in command of a commercial vessel. In England, the term Master Mariner has been in use at least since the 13th century, reflecting the fact that in guild or livery company terms,...			Navy Board	Blue frock coat with gold Navy buttons	Highest ranked Warrant officer on board

Purser Purser The purser joined the warrant officer ranks of the Royal Navy in the early fourteenth century and existed as a Naval rank until 1852. The development of the warrant officer system began in 1040 when five English ports began furnishing warships to King Edward the Confessor in exchange for certain...	Victualling Board		Ship's Accountant, responsible for supplies

Surgeon Surgeon In medicine, a surgeon is a specialist in surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such as the removal of diseased tissue or to repair a tear or breakage...	Sick and Hurt Board	Ship's Medical Officer
Chaplain Chaplain Traditionally, a chaplain is a minister in a specialized setting such as a priest, pastor, rabbi, or imam or lay representative of a religion attached to a secular institution such as a hospital, prison, military unit, police department, university, or private chapel...	Church of England Church of England The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...	Only present on larger vessels
Midshipman Midshipman A midshipman is an officer cadet, or a commissioned officer of the lowest rank, in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Kenya...	Cockpit officer	Various methods for appointment	Cockpit	Blue frock coat, white button collar patch	Officer Candidate position

Midshipman's Mate	Cockpit mate			Blue frock coat with white trim	Special grade reserved for Master's mates who had passed the examination for Lieutenant

Master's mate Master's mate Master's mate is an obsolete rating which was used by the Royal Navy, United States Navy and merchant services in both countries for a senior petty officer who assisted the master...		Could also be rated as "Second Master"

Surgeon's mate	Sick and Hurt BoardIn some cases, Surgeon's mates were appointed aboard by the Commanding officer, usually in remote or distant settings where a formal appointment was not possible	Ship's medic on smaller vessels
Clerk Clerk Clerk, the vocational title, commonly refers to a white-collar worker who conducts general office or, in some instances, sales tasks. It is also occasionally used to refer to third-year medical students completing a medical clerkship. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include record...	Civilian	Typically hired by Captain	Civilian clothing	Clerical duties on board ship

School Teacher				Only present on larger ships. Primary duty to instruct Midshipman in academic matters
Cook Chief Cook A chief cook is a senior unlicensed crewmember working in the steward's department of a merchant ship.The chief cook directs and participates in the preparation and serving of meals; determines timing and sequence of operations required to meet serving times; inspects galley and equipment for...	Crew's Messing and Berthing	Normally an older retired or injured seaman

Gunner		Standing officer	Shipboard appointment by Captain	Blue frock coat with Navy buttons	In charge of all ship's armaments
				Blue frock coat with Navy buttons
Boatswain Boatswain A boatswain , bo's'n, bos'n, or bosun is an unlicensed member of the deck department of a merchant ship. The boatswain supervises the other unlicensed members of the ship's deck department, and typically is not a watchstander, except on vessels with small crews...				Most experienced deck seaman aboard

Carpenter Carpenter A carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....		Shipboard issued crew clothing		Head of the Carpenter's Team

Armourer				Petty officer	Senior Petty officers

Ropemaker

Caulker Caulking Caulking is one of several different processes to seal joints or seams in various structures and certain types of piping. The oldest form of caulking is used to make the seams in wooden boats or ships watertight, by driving fibrous materials into the wedge-shaped seams between planks...

Master-at-arms Master-at-arms A master-at-arms may be a naval rating responsible for discipline and law enforcement, an army officer responsible for physical training, or a member of the crew of a merchant ship responsible for security and law enforcement.-Royal Navy:The master-at-arms is a ship's senior rating, comparable in...

Sailmaker					Mid-grade Petty officer

Yeoman					Two on board: Yeoman of the Sheets & Yeoman of the Powder Room

Coxswain Coxswain The coxswain is the person in charge of a boat, particularly its navigation and steering. The etymology of the word gives us a literal meaning of "boat servant" since it comes from cox, a coxboat or other small vessel kept aboard a ship, and swain, which can be rendered as boy, in authority. ...					Deck hand specialist Petty officer

Quartermaster Quartermaster Quartermaster refers to two different military occupations depending on if the assigned unit is land based or naval.In land armies, especially US units, it is a term referring to either an individual soldier or a unit who specializes in distributing supplies and provisions to troops. The senior...					Helmsman on board the ship serving watch at the ship's wheel

Cooper Cooper (profession) Traditionally, a cooper is someone who makes wooden staved vessels of a conical form, of greater length than breadth, bound together with hoops and possessing flat ends or heads...					Worked directly for the Ship's Purser

Ship's Corporal				Assistant to the Master-at-Arms

Watch Captains				Experienced Seaman in charge of a watch team

Armourer's Mate	Junior Petty officer

Gunner's Mate

Boatswain's Mate

Caulker's Mate
Carpenter's Mate
Sailmaker's Mate
Quartermaster's Mate
Gunsmith	Seaman	Seaman specialists

Quarter Gunner

Carpenter's Crew

Able seaman Able seaman An able seaman is an unlicensed member of the deck department of a merchant ship. An AB may work as a watchstander, a day worker, or a combination of these roles.-Watchstander:...	Seaman with more than three years experience
Ordinary seaman	Seaman with at least one year experience
Landsman Landman (rank) Landman was a military rank given to naval recruits.-United Kingdom:In the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom in the middle of the 18th century , the term Landman referred to a seaman with less than a year's experience at sea...	Seaman with less than one year experience
Boy	Servant	Lowest possible position on board, normally held by boys 12 years or younger.

Promotion and Advancement

Promotion and advancement within the 18th and 19th century Royal navy varied depending on the status of the sailor in question. At the lower levels, most inexperienced sailors began in the rank of Landsman - those joining ships at a very young age were typically entered in the Navy as Cabin Boys or Officer Servants.

After a year at sea, Landsmen were normally advanced to Ordinary seaman. Three more years, with appropriate ability displayed, would see a sailor advanced to Able Seaman. For the "common seaman", this level is normally where the career path ended and many sailors spent their entire Royal navy careers as Able Seaman on various vessels.

Advancement into the Petty officer positions required some level of technical skill. Petty officer appointments were typically made by a Ship's Captain - sailors could also be "rated on the books" as a Petty officer when a ship was in-port searching for a crewUnlike modern day navies, the Royal Navy of the 18th and 19th century did not maintain a standing enlisted force. Sailors were signed onto ships in port in order to fill manning requirements. Honesty was implied, as a sailor falsely claiming experience in order to rate a billet on board ship would be quickly discovered once at sea.

Senior Petty officers could also be rated as a Standing Officer, of which only three such positions normally existed (Boatswain, Carpenter, and Gunner). Standing officers remained with a vessel during lay-up and maintenance, and also were known to be highly valued due to their skill and experience.

Warrant officers were given their positions by various certification boards and had nearly the same rights and respect as commissioned officers, including access to the quarterdeck and wardroom. Advancement into the commissioned officer grades required a Royal appointment, following a certification by the Lieutenant's examination board. Board eligibility was most often achieved by serving as a Midshipman, although the career path of a Master or Master's mate also permitted this opportunity.

Once commissioned, Lieutenants would be rated on board based on seniority, such as "1st Lieutenant", "2nd Lieutenant", "3rd Lieutenant", etc. with the 1st Lieutenant filling the modern day role of Executive Officer and second-in-command. Lieutenants, like ordinary sailors, were required to be signed on to various vessels due to manpower needs. If a Lieutenant could not find a billet, the officer was said to be on "half pay" until a sea billet could be obtained.

The title of Commander was a temporary position for Lieutenants placed in charge of smaller vessels. Successful Commanders (who were known by courtesy on board their own ship's as "Captain") could aspire for promotion to Captain which was known as "making post". Such Post Captains were then assigned to rated vessels in the rating system of the Royal Navy

Rating system of the Royal Navy

The rating system of the Royal Navy and its predecessors was used by the British Royal Navy between the beginning of the 17th century and the middle of the 19th century to categorise sailing warships, initially classing them according to their assigned complement of men, and later according to the...

. Once a Captain, advancement to Admiral was strictly determined by seniority - if a Captain served long enough for more senior officers to retire, resign, or die, he would eventually become an Admiral. One distinguishing element amongst Captain was, however, determined by the rating of the vessel they commanded. A 6th rate Captain, for instance, was generally junior to a Captain of a 1st rate (although Captains of 1st rate commands were generally overshadowed by the presence of flag officers). The 3rd rate command, known generally as the "74 gun vessels", were usually where the bulk of senior Captain billets lay with the most successful and experienced Captains at the helm.

Watch Organization

Royal navy vessels operated on a number of parallel hierarchies in addition to formal ranks and positions, paramount of which was the vessel's watch organization. Watches were stood 24 hours a day and divided into "watch sections" each of which was led by an "Officer of the Watch", typically a Lieutenant, Midshipman, or Master's Mate (the Captain and Master did not stand watch but were on call 24 hours a day)

The heart of the watch were the watch teams, each led by a Petty Officer known as a Captain (separate entirely from the vessel's commanding officer). There were six watch teams on most Royal Navy vessels, divided into three "deck" teams and three "aloft" teams. The aloft teams were manned by sailors known as "topmen" and were considered the most experienced men aboard. In all, the six watch teams were as follows:

Aloft: Fore topman, Main topmen, Mizzen topmen

Deck: Forecastle men, Waisters, Aftergaurd

The navigation and steering of the vessel from the quarterdeck was handled by a special watch team of Quartermaster

Quartermaster

Quartermaster refers to two different military occupations depending on if the assigned unit is land based or naval.In land armies, especially US units, it is a term referring to either an individual soldier or a unit who specializes in distributing supplies and provisions to troops. The senior...

s. Furthermore, the ship's Boatswain

Boatswain

A boatswain , bo's'n, bos'n, or bosun is an unlicensed member of the deck department of a merchant ship. The boatswain supervises the other unlicensed members of the ship's deck department, and typically is not a watchstander, except on vessels with small crews...

and his mates were interspersed amongst the various watch teams to ensure good order and discipline. The remainder of the ships' company, who did not stand a regular watch, included the ship's carpenter's crew and the gunnery teams (in charge of the maintenance of the ship's guns). Any other person on board who did not stand watch was collective referred to as an "Idler" but was still subject to muster when the "All hands on Deck" was called by the Boatswain.

Quarters and Stations

In addition to the standard watch organization of a Royal Navy vessel, additional organizational hierarchies included the division

Division (military)

A division is a large military unit or formation usually consisting of between 10,000 and 20,000 soldiers. In most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades, and in turn several divisions typically make up a corps...

, headed by a Lieutenant or Midshipman, mainly for the purposes of muster

Muster (military)

The term muster designates the process or event for the of accounting for members in a military unit. Within the United States Army Reserve, it is an annual event used for screening purposes.-Historical:...

ing as well as messing and berthing; divisions were typically present only on the larger rated vessels.

The term "Action Stations

Action Stations

Action Stations is the general signal to the personnel of a warship that combat with a hostile attacker is imminent or deemed probable...

" was a battle condition in which a Royal Navy vessel manned all of its guns with gun crews, stood up damage control and emergency medical teams, and called the ship's senior officers to the Quarterdeck in order to direct the ship in battle. A sailors Action Station was independent of their Watch Station or Division, although in many cases groups of sailors manning the same Action Station were assigned from the same Division or Watch Section.

A unique readiness condition of some Royal Navy vessels was known as "In Ordinary

Reserve fleet

A reserve fleet is a collection of naval vessels of all types that are fully equipped for service but are not currently needed, and thus partially or fully decommissioned. A reserve fleet is informally said to be "in mothballs" or "mothballed"; an equivalent expression in unofficial modern U.S....

". Such vessels were usually permanently moored with masts and sails removed, and manned only by a skeleton crew

Skeleton crew

A skeleton crew is the minimum number of personnel needed to operate and maintain an item at its most simple operating requirements, such as a ship or business, during an emergency and, at the same time, to keep vital functions operating.- Uses :...

. In Ordinary Vessels did not maintain full watch sections and were normally maintained as receiving ships, shore barges, or prison ship

Prison ship

A prison ship, historically sometimes called a prison hulk, is a vessel used as a prison, often to hold convicts awaiting transportation to penal colonies. This practice was popular with the British government in the 18th and 19th centuries....

Chronology of uniforms

1748 - 1767

The first uniforms of the Royal Navy were issued to commissioned officers only and consisted of a blue uniform coat, normally worn with breaches and white stockings. In the early days of such uniforms, some officers also wore wigs, but this practice appears to quickly disappeared due to the impracticality of wearing wigs at sea. By the 1750s, the important warrant rank of Master had been issued a standard uniform as had the rank of Midshipman. The higher ranked Petty officers, such as the Boatswain

Boatswain

and Gunner

Gunner (rank)

Gunner is a rank equivalent to Private in the British Army Royal Artillery and the artillery corps of other Commonwealth armies. The next highest rank is usually Lance-Bombardier, although in the Royal Canadian Artillery it is Bombardier....

had been allocated blue uniforms as well.

The standard means of determining rank in these early days of Royal Navy uniforms was the arrangement of buttons and well as gold facing on the buttons and cuffbands. As a general rule, the more buttons and gold facing a person wore, the higher was their rank and position.

1767 - 1795

The next major change in Royal Navy uniforms occurred in the 1760s when Naval Lieutenants were designated special uniforms consisting of an open faced blue jacket with white waistcoat

Waistcoat

A waistcoat or vest is a sleeveless upper-body garment worn over a dress shirt and necktie and below a coat as a part of most men's formal wear, and as the third piece of the three-piece male business suit.-Characteristics and use:...

s. Captains wore a similar jacket, yet often closed with gold laced buttons. By the 1770s, most warrant and standing petty officers had been issued some type of uniform as well. Enlisted sailors had no established uniform, but were often issued standardized clothing by the ship on which they served to create a uniform appearance amongst seaman.

1795 - 1856

The most significant uniform regulation of the late 1700s was the creation of Navy officer epaulets. Over the next fifty years, epaulets were the primary means of determining officer rank insignia, while the remainder of the warrant officers and petty officers wore various blue coats with pipping and buttons to determine their various positions.

Sleeve stripes were introduced into the Royal Navy in 1856, thus ending the era of the shoulder epaulets as the primary means of insignia.

Flag officers

Flag rank advancement in the 18th and 19th century Royal Navy was determined entirely by seniority. Initial promotion to flag rank from the rank of Captain occurred when a vacancy appeared on the Admiral's seniority list due to the death or retirement of a flag officer. The Captain in question would then be automatically promoted to Rear Admiral and assigned to the first of three colored squadrons, these being the Blue, White, and Red Squadron.

As further vacancies occurred, the British flag officer would be posted to the same rank in higher squadrons. For instance, a Rear Admiral of the Blue Squadron would be promoted to become Rear Admiral of the White, and then Rear Admiral of the Red Squadron. When reaching the highest position of the rank (Rear Admiral of the Red), the flag officer would next be promoted to the rank of Vice Admiral, and begin again at the lowest colored squadron (Vice Admiral of the Blue). The process would continue again, until the Vice Admiral of the Red was promoted to Admiral of the Blue. The highest possible rank was Admiral of the Red Squadron, which was synonymous with Admiral of the Fleet

Admiral of the Fleet

An admiral of the fleet is a military naval officer of the highest rank. In many nations the rank is reserved for wartime or ceremonial appointments...

(originally this rank wore the same insignia as a regular Admiral, a special insignia was first created in 1843).

Situations did occur where flag officers would "jump" to a higher rank in a different squadron, without serving their time in each rank of each squadron. Such was the case with William Bligh

William Bligh

Vice Admiral William Bligh FRS RN was an officer of the British Royal Navy and a colonial administrator. A notorious mutiny occurred during his command of HMAV Bounty in 1789; Bligh and his loyal men made a remarkable voyage to Timor, after being set adrift in the Bounty's launch by the mutineers...

, who was promoted directly from Rear Admiral to Vice Admiral of the Blue without ever having served as a Rear Admiral of the Red or White Squadron. On the opposite, it was not possible for a higher ranked Admiral in a lower squadron (i.e. Vice Admiral of the Blue) to be demoted to a lower rank yet in a higher rated squadron (i.e. Rear Admiral of the Red).

Some flag officers were not assigned to a squadron, and thus were referred to simply by the generic title "Admiral". Formally known as "Admiral without distinction of a squadron", the common term for such officers was "Yellow Admiral". Still another title was Port Admiral which was the title for the senior Naval officer of a British port.

Sources

Croix, P. d. (2003), Patrick O'Brian's Navy, (London: Salamander Books Ltd).
Miller, D. (2003), The World of Jack Aubrey, (London: Salamander Books, Ltd).

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