Posted by Adam Quinan on May 24, 2002 at 19:57:47 from 192.75.48.3 user Adam.
In Reply to: Re: Promotion and Demotion of Cmdr Walker. posted by Robert Dilley on May 24, 2002 at 17:25:27:
My personal opinion is that the use of Captain was an oversight in the proofreading as it only occurs in two places at the end of Chapter 2 and the question of Commander Walker's naval activities is not really touched upon in the passages in question. Even if Ransome had been making a comment about him being Captain of the Goblin, he reverts to Commander at the start of Chapter 3 when he actually takes her out.
Also I don't recall him being appointed to "command" HMS Ganges. He might have had a Captain over him.
As suggested earlier, Commanders are known as captain by courtesy when they are actually in command of a ship.
This is different from acting or brevet (latter did not include the pay) ranks which were common in wartime when you might have a substantive rank of lieutenant but be an acting captain or whatever due to the exigencies of the service. At the end of the exigency, you reverted to your substantive rank.