In spite of the commander's hard work, he has little to grumble at, nor, I believe, does he ever do so, except in the ordinary conversational way we all do at times, when we "let off steam". For he knows that, unless he is very unfortunate in his "skipper", he has his promotion in his own hands. He is showing what he is made of, and once he succeeds in negotiating the big jump to captain's rank he is assured of going right on to admiral, even if he is not fortunate enough to "hoist his flag" in command of a squadron or fleet. He has the relative rank of a lieutenant-colonel in the army, and is almost invariably a much younger man, probably from thirty to thirty-five years of age, and can take and bear the strain of his position.

After the commander the lieutenants. Of these in a battleship three or four are lieutenant-commanders, and five or six lieutenants. The senior of these is known as the first lieutenant, or, less officially, as "No. 1". In smaller ships they are, of course, fewer. One of these will be the gunnery lieutenant, another navigating lieutenant, and a third torpedo lieutenant. The remainder are classed as watch-keepers, in which duty they are now assisted when in harbour by the officers of marines belonging to the ship. As everyone knows, the day and night on board ship are divided into periods of four hours, known as "watches", except for the "dog watches" of two hours apiece. They run as follows:—

Name. Time. Bells.
Middle watch... Midnight to 4 a.m.... 8 to 8
Morning watch... 4 a.m. to 8 a.m.... 8 to 8
Forenoon watch... 8 a.m. to noon... 8 to 8
Afternoon watch ... noon to 4 p.m.... 8 to 8
1st Dog watch... 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.... 8 to 4
2nd Dog watch... 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.... 4 to 8
First watch... 8 p.m. to midnight ... 8 to 8

The bell is struck, generally by the marine sentry posted nearest to it, or the corporal of the gangway, every half-hour, after reporting the time to the officer of the watch, and being instructed to "make it so". Thus at 8.30 in the morning he strikes it once, at 9 twice—two strokes quickly following each other; at 9.30 three times—two quick strokes, an interval, and a single stroke—and so on up to eight bells struck in a succession of double strokes. There is also "little one bell", a gentle stroke five minutes after midnight for the watch to "fall in". The dog watches have stood from time immemorial, in order to change the men of the night watches every twenty-four hours. Otherwise the same men would always be keeping the same watches. Some men would always be on at night and others in the daytime. By dividing the 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. watches into two halves—the "first" and "second" dog watches—the rotation is changed, so that men come on watch at fresh periods. There is said to be a tradition that the origin of the word "dog" is "dodge", and that they were originally known as "dodge watches", the reason being obvious. But I should be sorry to vouch for the accuracy of this statement.

The officer of the watch is practically in command of the ship for the time being. He has to deal with any sudden emergency himself; there may very probably be no time to refer to the captain, even if it is advisable to do so. He keeps his watch on the fore-bridge, and sees that the quartermaster at the wheel keeps the ship upon her proper course. He takes observations from time to time, and is entirely responsible—under the captain—for the safety of the ship and all on board. All sorts of reports have to be made to him from time to time, and he makes or sends any necessary reports to the captain.

The lieutenants have charge of their "divisions", which may be said to correspond to the companies of a regiment; have to inspect them at morning and evening parades, known respectively as "divisions" and "evening quarters", and are responsible for their men's clothing being uniform and kept up to the regulation quantities. They have many other incidental duties, such as boarding ships coming into harbour as "officer of the guard", going ashore in charge of men for drill, musketry, and other miscellaneous work of which space precludes the merest mention.

The gunnery lieutenant is, of course, responsible for the guns and gunnery of the ship, which includes the musketry and infantry drill of the seamen and stokers. The torpedo lieutenant, as his name implies, has charge of the torpedoes and their tubes and the mining gear, and it is his business to see that they are all kept in proper working order and in instant readiness for action. In addition, he has entire charge of the electric lighting and wireless telegraphy.

The navigating lieutenant has taken the place of the old "master", but is not, as he was, outside the executive line. His duty is to lay off the course for the ship, take her position at various times during the day by "shooting the sun" with his sextant, keep the chronometers wound up, and take general charge of the navigation of the ship. Following the order taken in the Navy List of the officers of a ship, we come to that very important personage the engineer commander. In some sort he occupies a similar position to the old sailing-masters in the days when ships were commanded by soldiers. The ship couldn't get along without the special engineering knowledge of this officer and his understudies any more than William the Conqueror could have got across Channel without Stephen FitzErard, his sailing-master.

We may note, in passing, that to this day the executive ranks of the navy always call themselves the "military branch". They are, of course, the "militant" branch, though in one sense no one on board a ship in action can help being a militant too.

The engineering branch, at any rate, stands as good a chance of casualties as even the executive or marine portions of the ship's complement, and it is perhaps partly for this reason that its officers have recently been allowed to wear the much-prized executive "curl" of gold lace on their sleeves. The engineer commander has charge of all the engines on board, the number of which runs to several dozen, for besides the big main engines for propelling the ship there are smaller engines for almost every conceivable purpose. There are engines to work the steering-gear, the winches and hoists, the dynamos to produce electric light, for the magazine refrigerating machinery, and many others, to say nothing of those in the steamboats belonging to the ship. He and the carpenter are also responsible for the hull of the ship, the expenditure and replenishment of coal and oil, and goodness knows how many other things! To assist him in all this mass of work and responsibility he has two or three engineer lieutenants and a number of artificer engineers, engine-room artificers, mechanicians, chief stokers, and, in a big ship, hundreds of stokers.