Job Divisions aboard WWI warships?

I've done some reading on the dreadnought and pre-dread eras, but I know next to nothing about life aboard warships. What were the job divisions aboard ships (medical, communications, engineering, etc.)? How was command usually structured aboard individial ships in this period? Was it known for officers and crew to take their mess together?
 
Last edited:
On that last point, no. Enlisted men had their own messes, officers ate in the wardroom. The captain (or admiral, if one was aboard) might have their own dining facilities, but would usually eat with his officers.
 
On that last point, no. Enlisted men had their own messes, officers ate in the wardroom. The captain (or admiral, if one was aboard) might have their own dining facilities, but would usually eat with his officers.

So almost just age of sail conditions, then?
 

SsgtC

Banned
So almost just age of sail conditions, then?
Officers still don't eat with Enlisted. In any service. Officers have their own dining area, either a Wardroom or Officer's Mess while enlisted have either an Enlisted Mess or Chow Hall.
 
Officers still don't eat with Enlisted. In any service. Officers have their own dining area, either a Wardroom or Officer's Mess while enlisted have either an Enlisted Mess or Chow Hall.

That way they can get drunk and make arseholes of themselves without the men seeing it and undermining their authority.
 
USN ships are dry!
oh-the-horror.jpg
 
Also in the USN you really have three dining areas; the galley (which is the Seaman and Petty Officer mess), the Chief's mess (aka the Goat Locker, for the Chief Petty Officer grades separate from everyone else), and the Officer's Mess/Wardroom. We have a tradition of senior NCOs meriting their own mess since they occupy a unique position as the link between officers and the junior enlisted.
 
Also in the USN you really have three dining areas; the galley (which is the Seaman and Petty Officer mess), the Chief's mess (aka the Goat Locker, for the Chief Petty Officer grades separate from everyone else), and the Officer's Mess/Wardroom. We have a tradition of senior NCOs meriting their own mess since they occupy a unique position as the link between officers and the junior enlisted.
There is, however, a world outside the USA. It seems to be a big surprise to Americans, but not everyone uses their system, or slavishly follows their ways...

Incidentally, from my time in the RN, the captain very rarely ate with the officers in the Wardroom. He normally took his meals alone in his cabin, only being invited in to join th eWardroom on special occasions.
 
There is, however, a world outside the USA. It seems to be a big surprise to Americans, but not everyone uses their system, or slavishly follows their ways...

Incidentally, from my time in the RN, the captain very rarely ate with the officers in the Wardroom. He normally took his meals alone in his cabin, only being invited in to join th eWardroom on special occasions.

Wasn't trying to do anything other then point out that the US ships do not allow alcohol on board. Don't read anything more into it then that...
 
In the US Navy jobs are broken down into Ratings. Each rating has a specific job to perform. Boiler Tech, Corpsman, Yeoman, Barber. I suggest looking at something like this;

https://www.history.navy.mil/resear...c/enlisted-ratings-in-u-s-navy-1775-1969.html

To see what ratings were in effect during the time period you want.

Enlisted ranks are E1-E9. E1-E5 or E6 are workers. An E5/6 could be in charge of a group or work center. Supervisors are Chief Petty Officer E7-E9. The Chief for that rating will be in charge of the entire group. Senior and Master Chiefs are typically in charge of a group of Chiefs. In the modern USN they deal with admin mostly.

Officers are O1-O6. O7 and up are Admirals.

O1 Ensign. New. Usually given Division Officer over an easy division/rating.

O2 Ltjg. Given a little more responsibility. Close?? (Not sure about dreadnaught time frame) to being Officer of the Deck qualified.

O3 Lt. Senior Junior Officer. Has large division. Qualified OOD. Stands OOD watch.

O4 LCDR. Starting Division heads. Engineering or Weapons or Navigator.

O5 CDR. XO or very senior dept head. These guys are COs on nuke subs.

O6 Full Bird Captain. Equivalent to Colonel. CO of large ships.
 
There is, however, a world outside the USA. It seems to be a big surprise to Americans, but not everyone uses their system, or slavishly follows their ways...

Incidentally, from my time in the RN, the captain very rarely ate with the officers in the Wardroom. He normally took his meals alone in his cabin, only being invited in to join th eWardroom on special occasions.

You mean like how the RN actually requires servicemen by law to participate in three separate messes too? Yeah, such slavish adherence to such odd rules :idontcare: Knock off the condescension, my aside was an expansion of a previous relevant post.

To address the OP, operations and conditions afloat would've resembled those of WWII and beyond in many ways, although there were still quite a few coal-powered ships running around which mandates a lot of coal shoveling manpower. Wireless communications weren't super developed beyond Morse code.

Hierarchy on a ship had the Captain in charge and tasked with what the ship does in accomplishing a mission, with the second in command ensuring ship and crew readiness.

Below that you have different departments that each handle an aspect of ship operations (e.g. Engineering handles propulsion and power generation, Gunnery is self-explanatory, Deck handles exterior space maintenance and general ship handling for things like docking or cast-offs, etc.).

Below that you have divisions (which can be confused with multi-ship Operational Divisions that group like warships together), each of which handles a specific task in their field (e.g. a Division in Gunnery handles ammo magazine operations for the big guns, another ensures proper turret operation and maintenance, another runs and fires the guns in combat, etc.).
 
Last edited:
I would suggest tracking down a Bluejackets manual (for US Navy) for the period, I have a 1943 printing, it gives a lot of information that the basic Seamen need and an overview of the Navy. It discusses things like the Watches, shipboard routine, tasks, the day in port or at sea, drills, etc. Next there are some great videos on Youtube, I follow David Bober for the Royal Navy, many show specific shipboard operations, general life and how things work, ships at sea, mostly 1960s British Pathe films, promos and such but a few Admiralty gems too dating into the war era. There is a good RN video on manning the helm, an older ating teaches the new guy, simply hilarious in a very British sort of way. And I found several for the USN that cover such mundane things as hygiene, crew compartments, how the boiler works, etc. Simply search Google, I found a retired USN Captain who made a chart of Divisions on ship, there is a great website discussing a Destroyer crew too, so keep digging.

Basically a ship is divided into Watches, both actual times of day that guys are on duty working, and dividing the ship for the crew. By job the crew is divided into Departments and these are further broken out into Divisions, sub-dividing the Watches and organizing the crew by specialty. At minimum you have Gunnery (all weaponry including aircraft), Engineering (the biggest division and everything that needs repaired or tinkered with), Damage Control (the First Lieutenant who overseas the hull, mostly merged with Engineering now), Navigation (often the XO is the Navigator and often also controls Signals and that included the flags, lights and radios), and Supply (the most senior non-restricted officer and often a catchall). Bigger ships get a Medical Department, the Ships Doctor heads it, on something like a Destroyer he may serve on the Flagship and a Medical Rating serve the crew of each other ship. Bigger ships get not just bigger crews but more specialized Departments, more Divisions and each head is higher ranked. Something like a Mine Sweeper with just four officers forces each one to oversea more than one area. Again the Bluejackets manual will give you an insight into how each man spends his day, normally it is one-third of your time at work, one-third awake and doing chores or eating and one-third sleeping. Each man has a Battle Station hat e mans and tasks for him to do, an unrated man might wipe brass fixtures and wash a deck, a rated man might tend a boiler, the Petty Officers are in charge of the men, the Chiefs in charge of the Division or Department under the responsible officer. Thus a warship has far more men than a merchant ship, every little ship function has a person to tend it, often more than one so it is manned 24-hours and can stay manned if men are wounded or killed in battle. All those extra guys usually provide muscle to move supplies when replenishing, man damage control parties or operate the light AA guns, and in port do maintenance. The modern navy is more technical and has trimmed manpower but back in the day the routine was drill, eat, chores, drill, do some job, clean or fix, eat, chores, sleep, etc., mix up the times done, repeat, with things boiled down to rather simple tasks. Every navy seems to follow the basic structure, after all most copied the Royal Navy traditions, but the differences seem less important than the similarities.
 
Top