Post-captain
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- For the Patrick O'Brian novel, see Post Captain (novel).
The term served to distinguish those who were captains by rank from
- officers in command of a naval vessel, who were (and still are) addressed as captain regardless of rank;
- commanders, who received the title of captain as a courtesy, whether they currently had a command or not (e.g. the fictional Captain Jack Aubrey in Master and Commander); this custom is now defunct.
An officer "took post" or was "made post" when he was first commissioned to command a rated vessel — that is, a ship too important to be commanded by a mere commander. Unrated vessels could also in some cases be commanded by post-captains.
A junior post-captain would usually command a frigate or a comparable ship, while a senior post-captain would command a ship of the line.
After 1795, when they were first introduced on Royal Navy uniforms, the number and position of epaulettes 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 one on each shoulder. (National Maritime Museum Uniform Collection, see below.) 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.
Note that the term was descriptive only: no-one was ever titled e.g. "Post-Captain John Smith".
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