- description
- # Petty Officers
## Overview
This section, titled "Petty Officers," is part of Chapter VI of a larger work. It details the social standing and dining arrangements of various non-commissioned officers aboard a man-of-war, contrasting practices in the American, English, and French navies. The text focuses on how rank is indicated through dining customs and specific insignia.
## Context
This section is contained within [Chapter VI of "The White Jacket"](arke:01KG8AJPBQJ0Q2SB2WPXFS2KHD), which discusses the officers, warrant officers, and crew of a man-of-war, their living conditions, and social hierarchy. The chapter itself is part of the [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection, extracted from the file `white_jacket.txt`. This section follows "The Ship's Yeoman" and precedes other sections within the same chapter.
## Contents
The text explains that most "petty officers"—including the Boatswain's, Gunner's, Carpenter's, and Sail-maker's mates, Captains of the Tops, Forecastle, After-Guard, and Fore and Main holds, as well as the Quarter-Masters—dine with the common crew. In the American navy, these roles are distinguished primarily by slightly higher pay. The English navy uses embroidered crowns and anchors on sleeves as badges, while the French navy employs worsted strips similar to army rank insignia. The section concludes by emphasizing that dining arrangements serve as a clear indicator of rank on a warship, with officers of similar rank dining together, and lower-ranking personnel dining with their peers.
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- Petty Officers
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- text
- Except the officers above enumerated, there are none who mess apart
from the seamen. The “_petty officers_,” so called; that is, the
Boatswain’s, Gunner’s, Carpenter’s, and Sail-maker’s mates, the
Captains of the Tops, of the Forecastle, and of the After-Guard, and of
the Fore and Main holds, and the Quarter-Masters, all mess in common
with the crew, and in the American navy are only distinguished from the
common seamen by their slightly additional pay. But in the English navy
they wear crowns and anchors worked on the sleeves of their jackets, by
way of badges of office. In the French navy they are known by strips of
worsted worn in the same place, like those designating the Sergeants
and Corporals in the army.
Thus it will be seen, that the dinner-table is the criterion of rank in
our man-of-war world. The Commodore dines alone, because he is the only
man of his rank in the ship. So too with the Captain; and the Ward-room
officers, warrant officers, midshipmen, the master-at-arms’ mess, and
the common seamen;—all of them, respectively, dine together, because
they are, respectively, on a footing of equality.
- title
- Petty Officers