Master at Arms versus Master of Arms
The Discovery channel has a new show starting in December called Master of Arms. I was going to do a post to poke a little fun at the Discovery channel; as far as I knew there ain?t no such animal as ?Master of Arms?. Then I found out how woefully ignorant I am caused by simply living too damn long.
My Navy has always had Masters at Arms. Until recently it was a tour of duty outside the sailor?s rating, or a rotating duty assigned with a duty section. It worked pretty well for a couple hundred years, and then some genius discovered we had been doing it wrong for a couple hundred years, and created the Master-at-Arms (MA) rating.
Anyhow, I was looking on the internet trying to see if maybe there really was such a thing as ?Master of Arms?. There not only really is a Master of Arms; Master at Arms still exists too. Both exist in COMPUTER GAMES. You have to be a knight before you can advance to Master-at-arms. I have outlived my memory. I guess it could be worse.
My Navy has always had Masters at Arms. Until recently it was a tour of duty outside the sailor?s rating, or a rotating duty assigned with a duty section. It worked pretty well for a couple hundred years, and then some genius discovered we had been doing it wrong for a couple hundred years, and created the Master-at-Arms (MA) rating.
Anyhow, I was looking on the internet trying to see if maybe there really was such a thing as ?Master of Arms?. There not only really is a Master of Arms; Master at Arms still exists too. Both exist in COMPUTER GAMES. You have to be a knight before you can advance to Master-at-arms. I have outlived my memory. I guess it could be worse.
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When I was touring the USS Alabama, I stumbled onto this somewhat obscure office: 
In the days of sail, wasn't the Master At Arms a warrant officer?
The Navy rank structure is somewhat hard for civilians to figure out, but as I understand it, Master At Arms is a rating (a job) while Master Chief Petty officer is a rate. Is this correct?0 -
Mark, as much as I dislike the phrase ?I don?t know?, the truth is I don?t know, but if you?re interested in my speculation I?m pretty good at that.
I don?t think they were warrant officers because the warrant officer grade wasn?t adopted in the USN until the early twentieth century, like 19ought something. I?m pretty sure the Brits and Canadians had them long before that. I don?t think they would have been Chief Petty Officers either for pretty much the same reason. I?m thinking the Chief Petty officer rate came about in the 1920s.
I think they were probably just addressed as ?Master-at-Arms?.
The navy?s grade structure can be confusing even to old salts and not many others are interested. I think the most confusing of the bunch is the ship?s Boatswain. A ship?s Boatswain ain?t necessarily a warrant officer boatswain and a warrant officer boatswain ain?t necessarily the ship?s Boatswain. Boatswain is usually confused with Boatswain?s mate which is an enlisted rating. The ship?s Boatswain, depending on the size and mission of the ship, is a line officer between lieutenant (junior grade O2) and Commander (O5).
I just took a look at this post and confused the hell out of myself. I hope you can make some sense out of it.
It looks like I did some unnecessary thinking answering something you didn?t ask. To answer your question, yes you are correct about rating and rate. [:D]0
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