Ordinary Seaman    

Ordinary Seaman
CF tunic braid shown
Seniority
Above:	Able Seaman

In the Royal Navy in the middle of the 18th century, the term Ordinary Seaman was used to refer to a seaman with between one and two years' experience at sea, who showed enough seamanship to be so rated by their captain. A seaman with less than a year's experience was referred to as a Landman, and one with more than two years' experience was referred to as an Able Seaman.

Later, the term was formalized as a rating for the lowest normal grade of seaman. They are not trained in any special task. They are required to work at physically hard tasks of great variety. One needs an Ordinary Seaman Certificate to obtain work. One can become an Able Seaman as a promotion from this position.

The term Ordinary Seaman is currently used in the Canadian Forces (who inherited the military ranking structure from the previous generation of Royal Navy, Army, and Air Force ranks.) It denotes an enlistee who is currently in training as a Non-Commission Member (NCM) of the Forces. In French, the term of Ordinary Seaman is Matelot de troisième classe.

This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original article was at Ordinary Seaman. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. Information concerning use of copyright protected material can be found at the CWwiki Copyright Policy Page.