The subject of the Navy employing “sailing masters”, with professional mariner qualifications, came up in both this thread and the Fitzgerald thread. On that subject, I thought this article from the USNI News today was of interest. It discusses the completion of the recent refit of the USS Frank Cable (AS-40) and it’s return to its homeport at Guam. The article mentions that the ship has BOTH a “C.O.” and a “Master”. The Master is a CIVilan MARiner Captain. The article is at this link:
Further explanation of the MSC’s participation in “hybrid” crews on 4 ships is mentioned here:
http://www.msc.navy.mil/people/
Some of you readers have mentioned that you are aware of this practice. Just FYI for those who aren’t. Clearly it shows a “proof of concept” if the Navy wants to consider this solution. It would be interesting to read more about how it’s working on those 4 vessels, but I haven’t found much about that yet.