Gunner as Officer of the Watch on a Destroyer

[rolt968]

Flipping through my copy of Endless Story (Taffrail) I came across a reference to Mr X, Gunner as the officer of the watch on a destroyer. I assume that Mr x was a warrant officer or commissioned warrant officer.

 

I was a little surprised. Would he have an additional qualification to allow him to be officer of the watch?

 

RM

Edited 26 May , 2019 by rolt968

[Ron Clifton]

I think that gunnery officers belonged to the "seaman branch", and were therefore qualified for watchkeeping duties, but I'm not a naval expert so I could be wrong.

 

Ron

[horatio2]

Gunners were in the Military Branch and ranked 9th in order of command of a ship. They required a watch-keeping certificate to keep a watch at sea, as did all other  Military Branch officers. All other officers (except CO and XO) were subordinate to the OOW irrespective of their rank.

[rolt968]

2 minutes ago, horatio2 said:

Gunners were in the Military Branch and ranked 9th in order of command of a ship. They required a watch-keeping certificate to keep a watch at sea, as did all other  Military Branch officers. All other officers (except CO and XO) were subordinate to the OOW irrespective of their rank.

Thank you.

 

Would they have been expected to qualify for a watch-keeping certificate at the same time as they achieved warrant rank?

RM

[horatio2]

No. A watch-keeping certificate can only be earned at sea.

[rolt968]

33 minutes ago, horatio2 said:

No. A watch-keeping certificate can only be earned at sea.

Thanks, Horatio, That clarifies it.