Captain of the fleet

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In the Royal Navy a Captain of the fleet could be appointed to assist an admiral when the admiral had ten or more ships to command.

The admiral's commands would be issued through him, and the responses from the fleet would be passed back to him. If his permanent rank was below that of an admiral then he ranked just below the most junior rear-admiral and was entitled to the pay and allowance of a rear-admiral whilst he held the post.

This role was analogous to that of a commander on a large warship, through whom orders from the captain are relayed to the crew and responses received.

This is in contrast to a Flag captain who was the captain of the admiral's flagship, and was generally a fairly junior post-captain, as he had the Admiral to keep an eye on him. Both flag captain and captain of the fleet were posts rather than ranks.