Officers in Royal Navy

[ekaton]

I am working on a story set during the Seven Years' War and in chapter 2 after the mutiny that took place wheen he was absent, captain has to get three new officers for his frigate. I have a question - who chose the officers for the ship at that time - captain or his superiors? Had he any impact on their choosing?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

From what I understand, a captain can give officers a "field commission" and promote them, for example, to "Acting Lieutenant".
But to become a real official Lieutenant, you need to pass an exam. And for any promotion above that, it must come from the Admiralty.
Apparently resigning Admirals get some rights to promote officers as well.

The above is all based on my understanding from the Hornblower series. Hopefully someone can give you some more historically based information.

 

[ekaton]

From what I understand, a captain can give officers a "field commission" and promote them, for example, to "Acting Lieutenant".
But to become a real official Lieutenant, you need to pass an exam. And for any promotion above that, it must come from the Admiralty.
Apparently resigning Admirals get some rights to promote officers as well.

The above is all based on my understanding from the Hornblower series. Hopefully someone can give you some more historically based information.

Thanks, mate!

Yes, I know how the promotion and exam system worked but with a new ship, someone has to choose officers from those who already passed their exams and the question is - could captain do it or did Admiralty do it for him? I can't remember this problem in the Hornblower series

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Me neither. But I got the impression that most promotions had to be run by the Admiralty. Though influential captains could, of course, influence the proceedings.
Though the influential Admirals ashore could just as well promote their favourites instead. I think.

 

[ekaton]

Me neither. But I got the impression that most promotions had to be run by the Admiralty. Though influential captains could, of course, influence the proceedings.
Though the influential Admirals ashore could just as well promote their favourites instead. I think.

Yes, the plot is that ambitious officer is favorized by the Admiral who gets him to the post of the first lieutenant on the ship (he had the same post before but on a smaller one). The question was: could the captain choose the second and the third but I guess that the command would have to do that.

 

[Captain Armstrong]

It depends on if the ship is already in commission or not. If she is, tehn the officers already with the ship will stay in place, if it is a new ship, there will likely be some who are assigned by the admiralty, and some that the captain can choose for himself. this would also be the case if the ship was being recomisssioned or for some reason was missing officers when the new captain took command. A Captain could usually request certain officers be assigned to the ship, but whether he was successful enough depended on his influence, his relationship (good or bad) with his superior officers and teh admiralty, and the current posts of the officers he requested. Taking on midshipmen could be done regardless of these factors, but for lieutenants it was a bit more complex.

 

[ekaton]

Thanks ;-)