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Admiral

Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers.

History

The word Admiral stems from the Arabic term Amir-al-bahr (commander of the sea). Crusaders learned the term during their encounters with the Arabs, perhaps as early as the 11th century. The Sicilians and later Genoese took the first two parts of the term and used them as one word, amiral, from their Catalan opponents. The French and Spanish gave their sea commanders similar titles. As the word was used by people speaking Latin or Latin-based languages it gained the "d" and endured a series of different endings and spellings leading to the English spelling "admyrall" in the 14th century and to "admiral" by the 16th century.

The word Admiral has today come to be almost exclusively associated with the highest naval rank in most of the world's navies, equivalent to the Army rank of (Full) General.

The rank of Admiral has also been subdivided into various grades, several of which are historically extinct while others are used by most present day navies. The generic terms for these naval equivalents of army generals is Flag Officer. Some navies have also used army-type titles for them, such as the Cromwellian General at sea. The Israeli Defence Forces do not have separate naval ranks, and the Hebrew rank Aluf denotes both a General and an Admiral.

Admiral ranks by seniority

The following are the various grades of Admiral, listed by seniority.
Admiral of the Navy (1)
Admiral of the Fleet | Fleet Admiral | Grand Admiral
General Admiral
Admiral
Vice Admiral | Lieutenant Admiral (2)
Rear Admiral | Counter Admiral
Flotilla Admiral

  1. Admiral of the Navy was only ever held by one U.S. officer, George Dewey. In 1945, the U.S. Navy considered creating the equivalent rank of Flag Admiral, but nothing came of the proposal.
  2. Lieutenant Admiral is considered equal to Vice Admiral in most navies. The Dutch are an exception, where a Luitenant Admiraal is equivalent to an Admiral.

Some navies have a junior rank of Flotilla Admiral, corresponding to Commodore in other navies. The U.S. Navy briefly flirted with the rank of Commodore Admiral (about 11 months), before splitting Rear Admiral into Rear Admiral, Upper Half and Rear Admiral, Lower Half. The Royal Navy has the position (not rank) of Port Admiral; historically, this was often a senior captain rather than an admiral proper.

Admiral ranks by country

Real life admirals

In fiction

In science fiction, additional ranks such as Sector Admiral, High Admiral, and Branch Admiral are sometimes mentioned. None of these fictional ranks have ever been used, however, in a real navy. The rank of Fleet Admiral is also common in science fiction.

Fictional characters

see also Admiral (Star Trek) and .

Non-military uses

  • Admiral was a private brand label for Montgomery Ward. Montgomery Ward also licensed this brand to Maytag.
  • "The Admiral" is the nickname of David Robinson, who held off entering the NBA to complete his duty to the Navy.
  • There is a Red Admiral butterfly.

See also

This article is from Wikipedia and is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.