MovieChat Forums > Away All Boats (1956) Discussion > No Lt Commanders?

No Lt Commanders?

posted 12 years ago by grantss
3 replies | jump to latest

I found the rank structure of the ship a bit odd. We have the Captain, a Captain, the executive officer, a Commander, and a host of Lieutenants. Nothing strange there. However, there were no Lt Commanders. This doesn't seem conventional.

In case you were thinking, well, there probably were, we just didn't meet the characters, no, there were no Lt Commanders at all. When Commander Quigley is promoted to command his own ship, MacDougall, a Lieutenant, becomes executive officer. If there was a Lt Commander on board, he would have become exec officer.

Like a bird on the wire, like a drunk in a midnight choir, I have tried in my way to be free

[–] LeParas-1 10 years ago

The whole movies rank structure is not correct.
In reality the CO of an APA (Attack Transport) and similar auxilary Ships would have been a Commander and not a Captain.
With the rank of Captain he should have been the CO of a Battleship, Heavy Cruiser, Light Cruiser etc. but not of a Navy Auxilary Ship.

[–] Piafredux 9 years ago

U.S. Navy veteran here, observing that Captains did and do indeed command APA's and many other U.S. Navy auxiliary ships.

The absence of Lieutenant Commanders from an APA is not unusual, as the ship's department and division operations require only the authority and cognizance of junior officers. Bear in mind also that this story takes place in wartime, when the navy was swollen with newly-commissioned officers, the vast proportion of them juniors, far out of proportion to the number of available Lieutenant Commanders. In Away All Boats the consequences of having aboard a preponderance of rookie junior officers are shown quite vividly.

[–] Aloysius_von_der_Trenck 7 years ago

You are quite right. The U.S. Navy needed its lieutenant commanders to command destroyer minesweepers like the USS Caine (Lt. Cmdr. Philip Francis Queeg/Humphey Bogart, Lt.Cmdr. DeVriess/Tom Tully) and other ships of that size and importance.

Also as aides-de-camp (examples: Lt. Cmdr. Charles Edward Madison/James Garner and Lt. Cmdr. Paul 'Bus' Cummings/James Coburn in 'The Americazition of Emily'). Films like 'Tora! Tora! Tora!', 'Midway', 'In Harm's Way' and a few more provide other interesting examples.

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