You've probably got access to these through Navy sources, but I thought I'd go ahead and post these before they get dumped off my machine at home. As you transition to a new style uniform, and I understand you'll wear collar devices vs "crows", it will be rarer to identify someones rating, by whats on the sleeve.

The first style rating badge similar to the one today showed up in the 1886 uniform regulations. It was worn on either the right or left arm, depending on which watch you were assigned to. The Master at Arms was the senior petty officer rating and wore a crow similar to the Chief Boatswains Mate, but a star was thew specialty mark. When the grade of Chief Petty Officer was established in 1893 all CPOs wore that style crow.


The specialty marks for the ratings are readily identifiable today.

1898 saw a change in the design of the rating badge. Starting to look like the one you wear today. BUT, there are differences,you gotta look.

Those rating badges were worn on either the right arm or left arm, just depended on whether you were in the starboard or port watch.

The chevrons were sewn on rather than embroidered in.

The piping around the cuff was a way to determine non petty officers.

1 cuff stripe was apprentice seaman
2 cuff stripes was seaman second class
3 cuff stripes was seaman first class & petty officer.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Mastersmate,

For the 1898 Rating badge up above, for starters, take a good look at the details, anything different ???

How about which way the eagle is facing ??
Recall the color of the chevrons on whites ??

But there's more.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Mastersmate,

With the 1898 badge,

The eagle is facing to the right, its left, just the opposite of today.

The eagle is facing straight at its shoulder.

The wing spread design/shape is different from today.

The eagle is leaning to its right and the tail feathers are in an arc.

There are scarlet chevrons on the white rating badge, not blue as today.

So much for that subject.

1905 has the next change in the design of the rating badge. This one stuck around until 1941.

Dig out the magnifying glass, only a couple subtle differences on this one.

I was an Aviation Machinist mate aka AD

AD rating badge

This is GREAT, keep posting, I'm learning... LOL

Through the magnifying glass.

The tail feathers are now separate and straight up and down rather than curved in an arc. The eagle is looking up at the shoulder of the wing. Still facing to its left, so that would have the eagle looking aft on the left arm ratings and looking forward on the right arm ratings.

For an obscure useless bit of trivia, next time you watch "The Sand Pebbles" in the opening scenes, check out Jake Holmans crow. For a movie set in the 1920s, the eagle for a Machinists Mate would have faced the other direction. For nit picking, theres trying to pick the fly shitz out of the pepper. On the plus side, they got the right arm ratings correct, the officers cap device, and the pea coats with the horizontal pocket flaps.

Getting a little closer to today.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Mastersmate,

For the WW2 to 1948 rating badges above. In the spring of 1940 the eagle design on the badge was changed. The eagle was now standing straight up and facing forward on both the right arm and left arm ratings. One reason I read was that it represented meeting an enemy face on, and with war starting in Europe that makes sense. Also in this time, the eagle on the officers cap device was changed so that the eagle was facing to the wearers right, the sword arm. referred to as facing "dexter". It was also authorized to be stamped or made out of metal instead of embroidered bullion.

One last bit to follow in a few more days.

Well to wrap this up. In 1948, the right arm ( Seamans Branch) ratings were shifted to the left arm, from then on, rating badges were worn on the left arm. In the early to mid 1950's the chevrons were embroidered on rather than individual pieces sewn on. Read a bit that in 1947-48 when the rating specialties were being revised, that the specialty mark had to be easily embroidered, visually represent the raing trade, and be of a design that would stand the test of time, be recognized way down the line.

Can't find for sure, but about 1990 or so the eagle changed in design again.
I'd guess in keeping with the times, he started wearing a "mullet" flat headed and looking straight, a bit of a "gut" or is that supposed to be a "manly" he-man WWF chest anf finally the wings have taken a different shape, perhaps " airing out razor burn" who knows.
Any way, a rundown on the US Navy Rating Badge, from what I've been able to dig out.

Hello evryone,

First of all: Permission to come aboard? I am an avid student of naval history and came across this board by accident, and found this topic which I find very interesting and I also happen to know a little about.

If I could add a little to what Master's Mate posted about the "first generation" badges... The rate of chief petty officer was authorized by Navy General Order 409 of 25 February 1893. The new rate insignia was introduced by Navy Regulation Circular No. 1 of 13 March 1893, effective 1 April 1893. The three chevrons/three arcs insignia, previously limited to the Master at Arms, was used with the appropriate specialty mark by CPOs until new rating badges, essentially the same design as used today, were authorized by General Order 431, 24 Sept 1894, and subsequently illustrated in the 1897 Uniform Regulations.

Ship's Cook was a 2nd Class PO, but their rating badge with the circle specialty mark was eliminated in 1893, and they were not authorized a rating badge until 1908, when the crescent mark was introduced.

Here is a page on the original crow-and-chevrons badges of 1886:
http://www.naval-reference.net/uniforms/misc/usn_ratings_1886.html

Spanish-American War period:
http://www.naval-reference.net/uniforms/spanish-america...anks_enlisted_1.html

World War I period:
http://www.naval-reference.net/uniforms/ww1/ww1_ranks_enlisted_1.html

World War II period:
http://www.naval-reference.net/uniforms/ww2/ww2_rates_enlisted_1.html

best regards,
Justin

Justin,

Where the heck were you about a year and a half ago. What a FANTASTIC wealth of information you have accumulated. I got started in this trek on a whim, trying to find the lineage of the ratings in the Revenue Cutter Service and early Coast Guard. As both sea going services are commected in quite a few ways, a lot of paths led over to Navy rating badges AND officer insignia. As usual the Revenue Cutter Service and Coast Guard used many of the same insignia at various times. The deck rating petty officers from the 1908 US Revenue Cutter Service, the fore runner of the Coast Guard.


But I ramble on, an excellent site and if you don't mind it now goes onto the favorite places button.

If you wonder WHAT the specialty mark for Sailmakers mate is supposed to be, it is called a closed clew iron, a fitting sewn into the lower corners of a square sail. The bolt ropes would be spliced into the smaller eyes, and the clew line shackled to the larger eye. I got the info from a Bosun on one of the sail training tall ships.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Mastersmate,

quote:

Originally posted by MastersMate:
Justin,

Where the heck were you about a year and a half ago. What a FANTASTIC wealth of information you have accumulated.

Hi MM,

I have been looking at your USCG posts and it appears that you certainly didn't need any help from me! But thanks for the kind words.

I would love to put up a page on USCG insignia of WW1. From what I can tell, the USCG rate title at that time didn't necessarily tell you what "class" rating badge the PO would wear. If you have that info for the 1917-1918 period, I would really like to put a page together. I have many USCG illustrations done already.

Also, if you know which ratings and WO specialtys the USCG did/didn't use in WW2, I'd like to do pages for that, too.

Anyway, drop me an email!

Thanks,
Justin

There is a wealth of info on this topic. I made 3rd Cls QM in 61 and bought the crows in the Coral Sea's smallstore. One of the crows was a right arm rate and had a red eye. Know why? Just curious.

Chief,
Ya got me on the red eye, may be a specific manufacturer, but for the right arm, I'll go with a generation of tight wad storekeepers. From what I found, they were supposed to all be changed by 1949, but in 1970 !! I ended up picking up a QM1 crow from one of the tailor shops in City Square, outside the Boston Navy Yard, had it sewn on and wouldn't you know, a right arm rating badge. Coasties aren't the brightest bulbs at times, BUT no-one really noticed for almost 2 years. Finally got nabbed by the old man at a PI.

From the Sept 11, 2006 Issue of Navy Times:

Damn the Torpedoes!
Ratings have evolved over two centuries

By Fred L. Borch and Robert F. Dorr
Special to the Times


As every sailor knows, the Navy classifies its enlisted personnel by job specialty, or rating. What many do not know is that this occupational system has a 200-year history, with ratings constantly changing along with the Navy.

The first ratings date to the early 1800s, when America’s infant Navy had boatswain’s mates, quartermasters and gunner’s mates. These rating titles still exist, although changes in technology have meant that the boatswain’s mate of today has a job much different from that of his counterpart of 200 years ago.

Other very early ratings are no longer with us today. For example, the rating “loblolly boy” applied to sailors on the frigate Constitution, beginning in 1798, who served a thick gruel called loblolly to sailors in sick bay. This rating was replaced by the rating of “surgeon’s steward” in 1839 and “apothecary” in 1866. In 1917, as the U.S. entered World War I, this rating became “pharmacist’s mate.” Today, the loblolly boy is the hospital corpsman rating.

Another obsolete rating — once critical to communication — went to sailors who trained homing pigeons. These men — called pigeoneers — were part of the quartermaster rating in the early 20th century and were called “quartermaster (pigeon)” or Q.M.(P). These bird experts kept a flying book on each pigeon and recorded important information, such as the speed (in miles per hour) at which the bird could fly.

In the mid-1920s, the Navy had about 800 birds, all of which were used in the Navy’s aviation branch. Amazingly, the Q.M.(P) rating was still around in early World War II — long after the invention of radio and its implementation in the Navy. In fact, in 1942, the Navy instructed its pigeoneers to obtain more birds for use between Navy airships and their home naval air stations.

During World War I, the Navy had only 13 ratings. Yet when World War II ended some 30 years later, the Navy had over 200 ratings, including aviation bombsight mechanic, bugler and buglermaster.

Perhaps one of the more interesting ratings was that of aviation pilot, which existed from the early 1920s through the late 1940s. While it existed, this aviator was considered the senior rating in the aviation branch.

All ratings are reflected by the badge on a sailor’s left sleeve. Between the eagle and chevrons is an insignia that is supposed to reflect the sailor’s job specialty.

According to the Naval Historical Center Web site, it was not until 1841 that the Navy began using symbols to identify a sailor’s rating. At that time, the secretary of the Navy published regulations stating that boatswain’s mates, gunner’s mates, carpenter’s mates, ship’s stewards and ship’s cooks were to wear an eagle and an anchor on the right sleeve. Quartermasters, quartergunners, captains of forecastle, corporals and captains of the hold were to wear the same device on the left sleeve.

Specialty marks — tools or instruments used by a sailor in performing his duties — were added to the uniform for the first time in 1866. Today, a variety of symbols serve to identify each rating.

Roughly 65 ratings remain in use today. Given its 200-year history, there is little doubt that the Navy’s rating structure will continue to change as new technologies are implemented and the need for new occupational specialties emerges.

Fred L. Borch retired from the Army after 25 years and is now working as the regimental historian for the Army JAG Corps. He is the author of “Kimmel, Short and Pearl Harbor.” His e-mail address is borchfj@aol.com. Robert F. Dorr, an Air Force veteran, lives in Oakton, Va. He is the author of “Chopper,” a history of helicopter pilots. His e-mail address is robert.f.dorr@cox.net.

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With all the talk of the history of the Crow/Eagle - I am surprised to see no mention of the tradition of tacking the Crow on. I enlisted in Aug 1968 and had my 3rd Class Bostwains Crow "tacked on" in Japan Oct 1969. My arm was about double the size and black-and-blue from elbow to shoulder. I was on board the USS Piedmont, AD-17, destroyer tender. We had lots of E-4's, hence the damage to my Crow arm. Was this just a Piedmont thing - or pretty universal throughout the Navy? In case I haven't been clear - every other E-4 punched the newly sewn on Crow - some lightly, some pretty hard, some downright brutal.

Mike "Boats" Grady now Walton)
E-4 Boatswain's Mate 1st Division
Honor Boatswain's Mate