The sailing master was a warrant officer who was an expert at navigation and ship handling, sometimes they had to do the heavy lifting due to connected or incompetent captains and sometimes they and the captain shared the job.
The sailing master was a holdover from Tudor times, when much of the “Royal Navy” were just merchant ships converted for battle, bought/chartered by the Crown just for the duration. The master of the merchant ship got a “warrant” from the King to serve him during the war.
The Captain was an aristocrat trusted by the King, whose only purpose was to fight the King’s enemies. He didn’t need any knowledge of seamanship. The sailing master–the master of the ship before the Crown took it over–did all that. The master commanded the ship’s crew and gave all the helm/ sail commands. The captain just said, “Go there, so I can kick that guy’s ass”, and the sailing master gave the multitude of orders to make that happen.
Marines were soldiers put aboard to back-up the captain’s authority. They were there as much to prevent mutiny from master and sailors as they were to fight the enemy.
After a couple of centuries went by the Crown would have its own standing navy, but the same split of duties prevailed: captains fought, masters sailed.
When steam came in the sailing master become redundant.
Chief mate , me, late 80’s Northern North sea . Charismatic captain on a boat I had recently joined.
Now most captains generally wait until weather conditions were favourable before putting the mate on the sticks.
Oh no not this one,
Force 8 alongside a semi sub snatch lifting.
" Can you drive a boat then? "
“Yeah”
" Drive this one then"
So I sweated blood for 20 minutes or so trying to keep the blooming thing alongside, actually we were not snatch lifting we had hoses attached as well.
" OK you have made your point, now piss off and get some rest"
Best lesson I ever had.
Never repeated it when I was captain mind😮
Captain James Cook sailed as mate in the merchant navy in the Baltic trade before joining the navy as an AB. He was made up to Master’s Mate then to sailing Master on passing the Trinity House examination. He passed the examination for lieutenant and was then commissioned. Midshipmen often served as master’s mate as well to hone their seamanship and navigation skills. There was some advantage in ones station in life. The rich could afford to send their children to cramming schools to help them pass the midshipmen’s exam.
There were 3 levels of Lieutenant now recognised as ensign, sub lieutenant and lieutenant. Previously acting sub lieutenant was a rank now known as an ensign.
As posted previously the sailing master was a warrant officer as was the gunner, surgeon, paymaster, sailmaker and shipwright. They shared the gun room along with the midshipmen, lucky them. I’m sure they would have preferred the modern day Goat Locker.
Good post. In a way the sailing master survived in the age of steam with the commissioned boatswain in the Royal Navy. I only knew of one, very early in my career and they were only found on capital ships.
I did say earlier on that Rig Boat captains being risk adverse was a bad thing.
That was just an old guys bravado. Sorry 
Thinking about risk is a very good trait in the offshore industry which was a bit like the wild west at times in my time 80’s
It got a lot better and less people got hurt during their decade that I spent in that particular patch , the north sea.
Moving on I became a pilot at a major UK port and.the same bravado followed there . Yeah I can do that.
Before I left I saw a new generation come through who needed all the I s dotted and all the t s crossed.
They were no less talented than my generation and sometimes even more so.
So who was the idiot?
The guy with minimal training who gave it a go.
Or the guy that had all his ducks in a line before taking on the largest ships in the world.
Looking back I think I would rather have lined up my ducks 
A Royal Naval destroyer had been in shipyard and was leaving the jetty for sea trials. Back then the wheelhouse was below the bridge and the type of telegraph required a 360 degree rotation to advance the order to be transmitted. There were only stop, slow ahead, half ahead and full ahead with the corresponding divisions astern. At half ahead the ER obeyed the revolution indicator, the same astern.
The port engine was at half ahead and the starboard engine half astern when the order was given slow astern. The young sailor on the telegraph wound it the wrong way and a cotter pin fell out jamming it.
Full ahead or full astern means all you have got, danger to human life and damage to machinery accepted. The bridge were trying to communicate with the ER over the sound powered telephone over the rising noise from machinery and command seeing a collision with a stone breakwater aft announced " close all red and blue openings, stand by for collision aft." Unbeknown to the command both the boiler room and the ER heard this clearly through the newly fitted speakers and as the inquiry said redoubled their effort to achieve full power astern on the starboard engine.
Collision was the word used as Jolly Jack is generally unaware of the distinction.
India did, maybe still do, run osv’s with a driver to get over the problem that masters from college cant drive.
You can read about them in action
Mumbai High
Are the “sticks” the same as the “helm”? Yeah, I’m that old. 
The lack of ability of some ship masters to drive their ships has always been of concern to me. I don’t know why. It’s year since I was out there. But I have written about it. Those with an interest might like to look here…https://www.shipsandoil.co.uk/ship-handling
The throttles and thruster levers. Rudders, if equipped, aren’t used much in close quarters.
What I thought, what used to be the “helm”.
First I heard the term “on the sticks” was many years ago in the Gulf of Mexico. Many of the boat drivers called throttles sticks maybe because the first boat they drove was a stick steer outboard?. Many of the early guys were functionally illiterate but they sure could maneuver a supply boat up to a rig so you could Tarzan yourself onto it. Driving boats and managing a ship are different worlds.
Break them sticks! 
I have seen tugs with a joystick to control the rudder instead of a wheel, maybe the term came from that?
No its because the sticks are 99% of the control and the helm/wheel is 1%
When you have 2 engines
Now you can see why Unlimited masters cant drive a boat as they had a helm and one stick, that they never touched.
Cant sail so no idea about wind and waves.
Wasn’t it “Lee helm” for the throttles?
Yes to that too, we had one guy who would hit 5 things going in or out of his slip, so to preserve what was left of his paint job I hopped on one day and told him rudders centered and then DO NOT TOUCH THE WHEEL until you are clear of the marina.
His boat handling improved markedly after that !
I dont blame them as handling is just not part of their career.
Dp vessels have caused this issue to be very visible.
So who should have the hands on?
That has been my observation as a non boat driver. Compared to ships the twin engine boats are more maneuverable as they are smaller and the people handling them have unique skills.But comparing an OSV to a ship is like comparing a grape to a watermelon. It’s a different world. One can be competent in one one world but completely incompetent in another. The ship captains are people with varied knowledge about oceans, weather, ports and they are managers for a floating corporation. They are supposed to have ship handling skills and the majority do but if a captain of a ship has to take over the maneuvering of that ship he has done a poor job of selecting or training the crew.