Thursday 3 October 2019

Captain

The Devil's Game. See here.

Sunderland Haverner addresses one of his own servants as "'Captain...'" although this Captain then responds, "'Yis, sir.'" (INTRODUCTIONS, p. 19)

Haverner explains to his guests:

"'...as for the title, most Islandmen are or have been captains, even if only of a fishing boat.'" (ibid.)

This recalls Ian Fleming yet again. Although James Bond is a Commander, the rank below Captain in the Royal Navy, he is consistently addressed as "'...cap'n...'" by the Jamaican man known as Quarrel. When they meet after a five year gap:

"Bond took the warm dry calloused paw and looked into the dark gray eyes that showed descent from a Cromwellian soldier or a pirate of Morgan's time."
-Ian Fleming, Dr No (London, 1989), IV, p. 30.

Our recent venture into the Caribbean of the seventeenth century in the company of Nicholas Pym, a Roundhead counterpart of Bond or of Dominic Flandry, still seems very close.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

But in both REAL and fictional navies (the RN, the USN, the Imperial Terrestrial Navy, etc.) all commanders of a warship are captains, even if their official rank is merely a Lieutenant Commander or Commander. We see that in THE REBEL WORLDS, where Flandry is called "Captain" when commanding his escort destroyer and simply "Commander" when not.

Ad astra! Sean