Quote:
Originally Posted by eskimo49
At one time I believe that female surgeons had the title 'Mister'.
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There are many intricacies of addressing bound up in custom, tradition, and indeed lore. It varies from Navy to Navy, ship to ship and time to time.
Few outside the Navy realize that the last place an ordinary man can become a real king is at sea as the Captain of a Ship. So what the "old man," the Skipper, the Master, the Captain wants is the law. He or she doesn't even have to have the rank of Captain to be "the Captain." "They" merely have to be in charge of the vessel while underway at sea.
A ship at sea can be considered a last bastion of total autocracy where the Captain is King.
Sure they can be challenged but even if the person challenging wins out at a higher level, their reputation and thereby their career usually suffers unless there is some kind of blatant glaring wrong. The point being that the Captain is going to set the tone for everything though most times they do a good job.
I read a lot of seafaring books, old and new, quite naturally, and it is sometimes hard to keep up with the intricacies of addressing especially over time.
I read a cheap paper book recently that I got at a dollar store though it cost about $1.25 and for a while I didn't understand that the "First Officer" on board the super duper dangerous Asian submarine was a computer, because of the way the addressing was phrased.