Commander Lee Crane never got promoted
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
jeffyoung1 — 12 years ago(August 02, 2013 10:04 PM)
Okay, for those with no knowledge of military ranks, "captain" Lee Crane of the super nuclear submarine, Seaview, had an actual military rank of, O-5, which in the U.S. Navy is, commander. Now, whenever a navy commissioned officer commands any vessel, on the ocean or below it, his "title" is, "captain", as in, captain of the ship. His actual military rank could be as low as, O-3 which is, 'lieutenant' in the navy.
The good captain Crane remained in the commissioned officer rank of, O-5, that is, Commander, for the entire series. He never got promoted to O-6, which is officially titled, Captain. There was an episode in which captain Crane meets up with another advanced U.S. submarine, captained by an O-6, which you could tell by the eagle insignia on the man's collar. Captain Crane wore silver oak leaves on his collar lapel. Both men in the episode got into an argument but the O-6 never tried to pull rank on Crane, and Crane was never intimidated by the man's higher rank. This was because both men were addressing each other as fellow sub captains, which made them equal, in Navy culture. Now had both men been assigned to land duties in some office, then the O-6 could have pulled rank on Crane and forced him to back down.
I would have liked to have seen Crane promoted even to one-star admiral. It's not beyond belief that he could have captained such a huge and highly advanced submarine as a one-star admiral, whereas all ships and subs are captained by men in the ranks of O-5 and O-6 for the major vessels, smaller ones being captained by O-4 and even O-3. But then again, you couldn't have two admirals on the same vessel. Crane would be without his four-star admiral mentor. -
spotter-2 — 12 years ago(September 15, 2013 12:54 AM)
Technically, the crew of the Seaview were not in the active duty Navy. SSRN Seaview was in officially a research sub that can be called upon to active duty when needed. Note the officers wearing non-USN uniforms. However, it did carry a compliment of nuclear missiles.
In the first episode, Lee, upon being told he was the permanent new Captain of the Seaview responded, " I'm out of the Navy."
I think that Allen left details out and modified as he went along. -
magolding — 12 years ago(March 06, 2014 09:52 PM)
"But then again, you couldn't have two admirals on the same vessel. Crane would be without his four-star admiral mentor."
I don't see why a four star admiral and a one star admiral could not be on the same ship together.
That would be no more illogical than having a captain and a commander on the same ship, or a commander and a lieutenant commander on the same ship. Though it would be more rare because of the higher and thus rarer ranks involved.
I was reading about the Battle of Leyete Gulf recently and the commander of the operation, Admiral Kurita,was aboard the battleship Yamato with his staff and I think that at least one of the senior staff members was another admiral.
When the Hindenburg crashed and burned there were five Zeppelin Company airship captains aboard her.