Boatswain's Mate (US Navy)

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The rating badge for Boatswain's Mate, two crossed anchors.
The rating badge for Boatswain's Mate, two crossed anchors.

The United States Navy occupational rating of Boatswain's Mate (abbreviated as BM) is a designation given by the Bureau of Naval Personnel (BUPERS) to enlisted members who are rated or "striking" for the rating as a deck seaman.Not surprisingly, the colloquial form of address for a boatswain's mate is 'Boats'.

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[edit] Job description

Boatswain's mates train, direct, and supervise personnel in ship's maintenance duties in all activities relating to marlinspike, deck, boat seamanship, painting, upkeep of ship's external structure, rigging, deck equipment, and boats.[1] Boatswain's Mates take charge of working parties; perform seamanship tasks; act as petty officer-in-charge of picketboats, self-propelled barges, tugs, and other yard and district craft.[1] They maintain discipline as master-at-arms and police petty officers.[1] They serve in, or take charge of, gun crews or damage control parties.[1] BM's also operate and maintain equipment used in loading and unloading cargo, ammunition, fuel, and general stores.[1]

Boatswain's mates enjoy a normal path of advancement to Chief Warrant Officer and Limited Duty Officer.[1] Candidates must have normal color perception, and no speech impediment.[1] Candidates need not meet any special citizenship or security requirements.[1]

Boatswain's mates also summon the crew to work by a whistle known as a boatswain's call or boatswain's pipe.[2] On the ancient row-galleys, the boatswain used his pipe to "call the stroke."[3] Later because its shrill tune could be heard above most of the activity on board, it was used to signal various happenings such as knock-off and the boarding of officials.[3] So essential was this signaling device to the well-being of the ship, that it became a badge of office and honor in the British and American Navies.[3]

[edit] Ship's Boatswain

In the U.S. Navy the Ship's Boatswain is an officer who assists the First Lieutenant by supervising the deck force in the execution of major seamanship functions and the maintenance of topside gear.[4] The Ship's Boatswain supervises cargo handling [4] and inspects and maintains rigging and deck gear.[4] His duties also include supervising anchoring, mooring, fueling, towing, transferring of personnel and cargo, and the operation and maintenance of ship's boats.[4] The Ship's Boatswain is in charge of what the Navy deems "unusual" seamanship operations such as retrieving target drones,[4] and also schedules training for deck division personnel.[4] Another key duty of the Ships' Boatswain is supervision of the maintenance of abandon-ship equipment and instruction in abandon-ship techniques.[4]

[edit] Background

The word boatswain has been in the English language since approximately 1450.[5] It is derived from late Old English batswegen, from bat ("boat") + Old Norse sveinn ("swain"), meaning a young man, a follower, retainer or servant.[5] The phonetic spelling bosun has been observed since 1868.[5] Interestingly, this spelling was was used in Shakespeare's "The Tempest" written in 1611, and as "Bos'n" in later editions.

Originally, on board sailing ships the boatswain was in charge of a ship's anchors, cordage, colors, deck crew and the ship's boats.[6] The boatswain would also be in charge of the rigging while the ship was in dock.[6] The boatswain's technical tasks have been modernized with the advent of steam engines and subsequent mechanisation.[6]

[edit] Origins in the Royal Navy

The rank of Boatswain was until recently the oldest rank in Great Britain's Royal Navy,[7] and its origins can be traced back to the year 1040.[7] The Royal Navy's last official Boatswain, Commander E W Andrew OBE, retired in 1990.[7]

In 1040 when five English ports began furnishing warships to King Edward the Confessor in exchange for certain privileges, they also furnished crews whose officers were the Master, Boatswain, Carpenter and Cook.[8] Later these officers were "warranted" by the British Admiralty.[8] They maintained and sailed the ships and were the standing officers of the navy.[8] Soldiers commanded by Captains would be on board the ships to do the fighting but they had nothing to do with running the ships.[8] The word "soldiering" came about as a seaman's term of contempt for the soldiers and anyone else who avoided shipboard duties.[8]

The warranted officers were often the permanent members of the ships' companies.[8] They stayed with the ships in port between voyages as caretakers supervising repairs and refitting.[8] Other crewmen and soldiers might change with each voyage.[8] Early in the Fourteenth Century the Purser joined the warrant officers.[8] He was originally "the clerk of burser."[8] During the following centuries the Gunner, Surgeon, Chaplain, Master-at-arms, Schoolmaster and others signed on.[8]

In the Royal Navy the task of disciplining the crew fell to the quartermasters and quartermaster's mates.[citation needed] This was done using either a rattan boatswain's cane on the boys or with a rope's end on the adult sailors.[citation needed] Punishment could lawfully be inflicted on an officer's instruction or at his own will, or more formally on deck on captain's or court martial's orders.[citation needed] Birching or use of the cat o' nine tails would have been typical in the latter case.[citation needed] In a large crew he could delegate this to the boatswain's mates, who might alternate after each dozen lashes.[citation needed]

[edit] Notable boatswains

A number of boatswains mates have achieved notability in the military. Reuben James and William Wiley famous for their heroism in the Barbary Wars and namesakes of the ships USS Reuben James (FFG-57) and USS Wiley (DD-597) were U.S. Navy Boatswain's Mates.[9][10] Medal of Honor recipients Francis P. Hammerberg,[11] and George Robert Cholister[12] were U.S. Navy Boatswain's Mates, as was Navy Cross recipient Stephen Bass.[13] USS James E. Williams (DDG 95) is an Arleigh Burke class destroyer, named for BM1 James E. Williams who earned the Medal of Honor while serving in the "brown water navy" in Vietnam. The Boatswain in William Shakespere's The Tempest is a central character is several scenes.

Victoria Cross recipients John Sheppard (VC), John Sullivan (VC), Henry Curtis, and John Harrison (VC 1857) were Royal Navy Boatswain's Mates.

Lord Byron had a Newfoundland dog named Boatswain.[14] Byron wrote the famous poem Epitaph to a Dog and had a monument made for him at Newstead Abbey.[14]

There are also a handful of fictional boatswains and boatswain's mates. The father of main character Zack Mayo in An Officer and A Gentleman was a Boatswain's Mate.[citation needed] Also, the character Bill Bobstay in Gilbert and Sullivan's musical comedy H.M.S. Pinafore is alternatively referred to as a "bos'un"[15] and a "Boatswain's Mate."[16] Another boatswain from literature is Smee from Peter Pan.[17]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Bureau of Naval Personnel. Navy Enlisted Occupational Standards for Boatswains's Mate (BM). United States Navy. Retrieved on 2007-05-24.
  2. ^ USNI, 1992,345-353.
  3. ^ a b c Origin of Navy Terminology. Naval Historical Center. Retrieved on 2007-05-26.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Bureau of Naval Personnel (October 2006). Manual of Navy Officer Manpower and Personnel Classifications, Volume I, Major Code Structures. Department of the Navy, p. 150. 
  5. ^ a b c Boatswain. Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved on 2007-05-25.
  6. ^ a b c Chisholm, 1911:100.
  7. ^ a b c HMS Victory. royalnavy.mod.uk. Retrieved on 2007-05-26.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Naval Historical Center (07-20-2005). Why is the Colonel Called "Kernal"? The Origin of the Ranks and Rank Insignia Now Used by the United States Armed Forces. United States Navy. Retrieved on 2007-05-26.
  9. ^ Ship's Namesake. USS Reuben James Official Website. Retrieved on 2007-05-26.
  10. ^ Naval Historical Center (1981). Wiley. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. United States Navy. Retrieved on 2007-05-26.
  11. ^ Naval Historical Center (1981). Hammerberg. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. United States Navy. Retrieved on 2007-05-26.
  12. ^ Naval Historical Center (1997). Navy Medal of Honor: Interim Period 1920-1940. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. United States Navy. Retrieved on 2007-05-26.
  13. ^ CPO Stephen Bass, U.S.N.. LegionOfValor.com. Retrieved on 2007-05-26.
  14. ^ a b Clinton, George (1828). Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Lord Byron. London: James Robbins and Company, 8. Retrieved on 2007-05-27. 
  15. ^ See quote from "The Complete Annotated Gilbert & Sullivan" at [1].
  16. ^ See quote from S.W. Gilbert in "The story of the H.M.S. Pinafore" at [2].
  17. ^ J M Barrie (December 27, 1904). "Act II: The Never Land", Peter Pan or The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up. Retrieved on 2007-05-27. 

[edit] References

  • United States Naval Institute [1902] (1996). The Bluejackets' Manual, 21st ed., Annapolis, MD: United States Naval Institute. ISBN 1-55750-050-9. 

[edit] See also

[edit] External links