themeletor: close-up of a cupcake in the grass against a blue sky (Default)
i'm cooking the veggies and valuing myself! ([personal profile] themeletor) wrote2005-06-21 01:14 pm
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Hullo, time for the Most Retarded Question Ever...

Major brainfart over here, liek whoah. So, humor me if you please, and...

can a lieutenant have seniority aboard a ship yet still be younger than his junior officer(s)? not saying he's at the top of the ladder, just... a few rungs up. and fragmentationally (oh that is SO a word; shut up) younger than ... the rungs beneath him.

Ee?
melusina: (Default)

[personal profile] melusina 2005-06-21 11:21 am (UTC)(link)
The way I understand it, a midshipman is an officer who hasn't passed the lieutenant's exam. So if someone was very clever and able, he might pass it and become a lieutenant before other midshipman who were older, but having more difficulties with the exam. . .

[identity profile] duckgirlie.livejournal.com 2005-06-21 11:44 am (UTC)(link)
Yes. Some midshipmen never pass the lieutenant's exam.

[identity profile] daughtermestizo.livejournal.com 2005-06-21 12:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Well it seems you have your answers, but just for a third opinion, yeah, it's possible. If you're good, you're good.

Or at least that's what I've learned from reading Hornblower and such. They're supposed to be historically accurate!

[identity profile] captain-molly.livejournal.com 2005-06-21 01:45 pm (UTC)(link)
I'd go with a yes on that one.

[identity profile] ima-pseudonym.livejournal.com 2005-06-21 03:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Horatio Hornblower did. *amused shrug*

[identity profile] gryphons-lair.livejournal.com 2005-06-21 04:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, yeah. The key is the date you became a lieutenant (or a captain), not how old you were. The British Navy was all about seniority. If you had more years than all the other lieuts, you were First, automatically.

So a 25 year old who'd passed his exams at 18 (the youngest most of them could manage it, since you needed to have been at sea 6 years before you could even try) could have seniority over a 30 year old didn't pass his until he was 24.

[identity profile] gryphons-lair.livejournal.com 2005-06-21 04:16 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, BTW, your copy of "Jack Absolute" arrived in the mail today. You'll have to come over and pick it up one of these days.

[identity profile] pinkparisian.livejournal.com 2005-06-22 08:03 am (UTC)(link)
*appoints herself admiral Kumquat?*