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Post-captain orpost captain is an obsolete alternative form of the rank ofcaptain in theRoyal Navy. The term "post-captain" was descriptive only; it was never used as a title in the form "Post-Captain John Smith".
The term served to distinguish those who were captains by rank from:
In the Royal Navy of the 18th and 19th centuries, an officer might be promoted from commander to captain, but not have a command. Until the officer obtained a command, he was "on the beach" and onhalf-pay. An officer "took post" or was "made post" when he was first commissioned to command a vessel. Usually this was arated vessel – that is, a ship too important to be commanded by a, lower-ranked, commander – but was occasionally an unrated one. Once a captain was given a command, his name was "posted" inThe London Gazette.[1] Being "made post" is portrayed as the most crucial event in an officer's career in both Forester'sHoratio Hornblower series and O'Brian'sAubrey-Maturin series. Once an officer was promoted to post-captain, further promotion was strictly by seniority; if he could avoid death or disgrace, he could eventually become anadmiral (even if only ayellow admiral).
A junior post-captain would usually command afrigate or a comparable ship, while more senior post-captains would command larger ships. An exception to this rule was that a very junior post-captain could be posted to command an admiral's flagship, which was almost always a largeship of the line. The admiral would usually do this to keep his most junior captain under close observation and subject to his direct supervision. Captains commanding an admiral's flagship were called "flag captains". One example of this is the appointment ofAlexander Hood to the command ofHMSBarfleur, flagship of his cousin, AdmiralSir Samuel Hood.
Sometimes a high-ranking admiral would have two post-captains on his flagship. The junior would serve as theflag captain, listed in the ship's roll as the "second captain", with responsibility for the day-to-day operation of the vessel. The senior would be thecaptain of the fleet, listed as "first captain", and serving as the admiral's chief-of-staff.
After 1795, when they were first introduced on Royal Navy uniforms, the number and position ofepaulettes distinguished between commanders and post-captains of various seniorities. A commander wore a single epaulette on the left shoulder. A post-captain with less than three years' seniority wore a single epaulette on the right shoulder and a post-captain with three or more years seniority wore an epaulette on each shoulder. In the O'Brian series, Aubrey "wets the swab" – that is, he celebrates his promotion to commander and the acquisition of his "swab" or epaulette with the consumption of copious amounts of alcohol.