I am pleased that the National Maritime Museum published a reprint of the 1909 original and especially so as both my former branches in the Senior Service are covered in three sketches - here as Admiral's Secretary, Paymaster and Writer. "Who would be a Paymaster? Surely he earns the pay he gives himself!!!" write the anonymous authors - I think most "Pussers" (Supply Officers in my time, now Logistics Officers) would relate to that! Disappointing that, in the Introduction, a ship is referred to as It rather than She - Maritime Britain should do better than this. It's a pity that the book's binding is such that, on pages 6 and 7 of the reproduction of the first edition, one whole row of the illustrations of "Distinctive Ranks of Officers in the Royal Navy" is pretty much lost - I am curious about the sleeve lace for the Staff Paymaster but it's lost in the binding!

A search in my copy of The Navy List April 1912 would, I hoped, reveal the identity of the authors, who use only their initials. F W R M is Naval Chaplain (and Naval Instructor) Francis W R Metcalf MA RN - he had joined the RN in 1900 and was serving in the battleship HMS Colossus from 1911. There are listed three officers with the initials J S H but all are rather junior and I'd have thought it unlikely that they were co-authors; of course, J S H could have left the Service between 1909 and 1912. I wish the National Maritime Museum had done this detective work and revealed for us the names of the two authors! ( )