Wheat Googling #10: How am I going to differentiate ranks in my fictional ship?
Good morning!
I hope you have had a lovely September and are feeling cheerful about autumn. Today, I am thinking about how the navy in my game are going to differentiate ranks.
Honestly, this image is only barely relevant, but I just found the pose so unexpectedly sassy I had to include it.
How was rank differentiated in the real British Navy?
Well, if you were a commissioned officer (that is to say, at least a lieutenant), then from 1812 onwards you would get to wear a shiny epaulette on your right shoulder. Before that, you didn’t get an epaulette until you reached the rank of commander, but since the player character begins my game as a newly fledged lieutenant, I think it’s nice to give them a little talisman to represent their promotion and emphasise the fact that their character is, in a sense, new to this world too. Get to commander and you get to add an epaulette to your left shoulder too. A captain of less than three years’ seniority got a little insignia on his epaulettes, and a captain of more than three years added a little crown too.
But there were also little marks for warrant officers which showed which kind of warrant officer you were. This took the form of the picture on your buttons. Pursers for example wore buttons that had the symbol of the Victualing Board on them
Unfortunately, although there was a period in about 1805 when several different warrants came with different buttons, they were all basically variants on ‘a picture of an anchor’. The surgeon’s was a picture of an anchor with no rope around it, against a sort of sunburst background; the master’s was the standard naval anchor with a rope around it, but with two additional mini anchors on either side. However, they dispensed with this idea fairly quickly and reverted to most people having the same buttons. The only significant change later was that, when the Merchant Navy started using the same buttons, the Royal Navy changed theirs to include a little crown above the anchor.
What I find interesting about all this is that, aside from the big, dramatic indicators of occupation and officer status, actually most of the different ranks within the navy were pretty narrowly differentiated. You wouldn’t be able to tell if you were looking at a newly fledged commander or a captain of four years’ seniority if you didn’t get a fairly good look at his shoulders. For the most part, most people were in a blue frock coat with some relatively minor cosmetic signifiers - buttons, collars etc. I wonder what it tells us about the culture of the navy that you kind of have to be in the know to have more than a general understanding of what rank each person is displaying to the world.
What shall I do?
I really love this, and I am definitely going to expand on it for my game. I like the idea that your shoulders tell the world your commissioned rank, but your buttons tell them your specialty. I think it would be fun to have different buttons for each of the seven key warrants. That way, even if you had reached the rank of admiral, you would still be wearing buttons that told the world you were an alienist, or a carpenter, by trade. This will serve to exacerbate any class prejudice you might experience, of course, but also potentially lead to some automatic solidarity from senior officers who share your vocation. It would also make it obvious at a fairly close glance if a ship’s wardroom were lacking a particular vocation chief. It also means I get to decide on symbols for each of the buttons!
One day, when I am not behind on a deadline, I will make up some symbols and send them to you. In the meantime, why not suggest some?!
Enjoy the rest of your day!
Grace xx
This week’s interesting link
A guide to the buttons of the Royal Navy
Something that never fails to bring me pleasure is the existence of websites like this one.
Right now, the project for which I am doing most of my wheat googling is a choose your own adventure IF game I’ve been commissioned to write for Choice of Games. You can find out all about it, and play the 60K word demo, here.
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