Chain of Command

In order of Command:

Captain - The supreme authority aboard a ship, the Captain is subservient only to the wishes of the ship's owner. It should be noted that most Pirate Captains have stolen their ships from the original owners, and thus own their vessels. It should also be noted that the Captain rarely takes an active role in the day to day running of a ship, reserving only the most important decisions for himself, and leaving the rest to the care of his officers.

First Officer - Also known as First Mate and Second in Command. The man seen on a daily basis as "The One in charge" On larger ships, the crew may never even see the Captain, but they will see his First Officer every morning, noon, and night. The First Officer tends to occupy the most visible role of leadership aboard large Vessels. Obviously on smaller ships, the Captain fills most of these duties, and the First Officer is releagted to the role of 'Captain's Assistant.'

Second Officer - Member of the Command responsible for enforcing dicipline and exacting punishment. Either hated, feared, respected, or some measure of all three by the crew. Most often it is the Second Officer who deals most closely with the crew, thus the 2nd Officer is sometimes looked down on by his fellow officers. Whether the ship is small or large, the Second officer is the man who fills the diciplinary role.

Navigator - The only man onboard a ship who is required to be educated, the Navigator studies the dizzying myriad of charts, maps, and grids in order to find the best way to get where the Captain wishes to go. Calculating winds, tides, and times, the word of the Navigator is rarely understood entirely, but is always followed.

Ship's Doctor - The Crewman who sees to it that sick crewman are returned to active duty as quickly as possible...often by ensuring that their stay in the infirmary is as uncomfortable as can be imagined. Though not complete sadists, Ship Surgeons were most often genuine Doctors who were much better paid than their land-based contemporaries, especially when a Doctor's patron was a wealthy Pirate. Also of note is the largely mistaken belief that Ship Doctors were able to declare Officer's 'unfit for duty.' Such authority did not exist as a rule until the 18th century, and even then only among ships of the British Royal Navy.

Beyond this, all listed stations have no specific place in the command structure of a vessel. If all the above Officers are killed, then Command falls to whoever takes it.

On Aether, each ship may have a different way of running things, with different members in command covering a multitude of duties that may normally be the province of a different position. This ranking is based upon historical traditions in ranking and is to be used as a guideline only.

Special thanks to Marco for allowing me to transplant this information from his web page to the Buccaneer pages