Old Ranks in 2300

Several people on the 2300AD mailing list have commented on how since some pre-WW2 ranks are no longer present in the modern British Navy ( of the 1990s), then they would not be used by 2300's British Space Navy.

I would not be surprised to see these missing ranks re-emerge during mankind's expansion into space, along the three Arms, in the 2300 universe.

The missing old ranks were created during the Earth's long history of military sailing craft, when communication was slow ( orders could take months -- sometimes years to arrive).  The extra layers of intermediary command ranks provided the additional structure needed to support the "command and control" network between the sovereign ( or national ruling body) and the individual ship captain.

For instance by the time of the Napoleanic Wars, full captains ( those holding the actual rank of "Post Captain", not the courtesy title/address of "captain" given to whomever commanded a ship, even a lowly lieutenant) were ranked by their commissioning date.  This information was tracked by the Admiralty on "the List"; it had every name and commissioning date.

Once you made Post Captain, as long as you lived and weren't disgraced, you would eventually become an admiral, after all the Post Captains senior to you ( higher on "the List") died.  Seniority of Post Captains was determined by the date of your commissioning ( the date you were promoted to Post Captain).

Needless to say this proved difficult when two small admiral-less squadrons were ordered to rendezvous and then attack an enemy fleet/port.  You could end up with the senior Post Captain of the first squadron ( who was originally entrusted with carrying the orders to merge the squadrons and command the attack) having to instead follow the other squadron's idiotic senior-most Post Captain who was higher on "the List" than him and so naturally seized command of the merged force.

So they invented the post of Commodore.  This allowed them to give a less senior, but tactically wiser, Post Captain temporary command of a squadron of ships, without having to fear a more senior idiotic Post Captain coming along and seizing command.

The temporary rank of Commodore ( given to full Captains) was a very useful rank.  It allowed you to create a senior commander for a temporary group of ships, without having to carry dozens of spare Admirals on the payroll.  You avoided all the hassles of keeping these spare admirals distributed about your overseas ports so they were available if trouble erupted and new ship groupings were needed to be formed.  It also allowed the navy to provide a less expensive commander for smaller military ports/stations ( Admirals have a lot of expensive perks -- starting with their staffs, and the honors they must receive according to naval custom).

Commissioned officers, were officers and gentlemen, ultimately serving in an office ( rank) as a direct result of his/her majesty's approval ( the commission given to them).

Warrant ranks were "warrants" granted by the Admiralty's authority.  These allowed the Navy to test the qualifications and bring into naval service various specialists that sailing ships needed ( navigators, carpenters, doctors, pursers).  Needless to say, one does not bother the sovereign to approve these common "faceless" individuals, hence the Admiralty issued papers warranting them to be fit to hold these specialist posts on a warship.

In 2300, warrants may still exist, especially for specialist jobs.  It would allow the navy to bring in civilians ( especially spacers) with specialized knowledge ( navigation, medical to name two) during peacetime ( and more importantly quickly during wartime) into the fleet.  After all, these duties are essentially the same on a civilian ship or a military one.  They would be senior to enlisted personnel, but junior to commissioned officers.  Actual command ( military leadership and tactics) would still be left to the commissioned military officers.