What social class was a Ship's Captain?

[SiegeofBaltic]

Help me settle a debate. What social class would a career as a ship's captain be considered in the 18th and 19th centuries?

Recently I read that ship captains were educated enough to understand literature write etc and mathematical understandings and also often has money to invest in the ship/the owning company of the ship

So I am saying upper class educated and monied but this is mostly based on Kate Mosse books!!

Is this in the navy or not?

Depends on what kind of ship.

the navy was a meritocracy

Surely it depends on the type of ship?

Also they had their own quarters on the ship so sets them apart from the crew and a good captain was very important to the ships owning company- if they were drunks or laxidazical that risked the cargo and costs money to the company so would say they had a higher social status...

Couldn't you buy a commission?

Oo, I it'll depend on the type of ship. I've got quite a few ancestors on one side who were ship's captains but on merchant ships. They were definitely not upper class. Barely middle class even judging by where they lived.

Depends if it was the Navy or not

In the navy the captain could be from a rich family but it was also possible (but more difficult) to enter the ship as a common seaman and end up a captain

Based solely on reading Persuasion (Austen) it would appear that a captain would be considered suitable to marry a gentleman's daughter, which would suggest lower end of upper class

I know you could in the Army, assume same for Navy as the "senior service". It meant that the officer class was full of the cadet branches of upper class/aristocratic families and nouveau riche who want to hobnob with them

Captain in the Navy is the equivalent of a full Colonel in the Army, and yes you'd expect them to be reasonably educated and very likely competent.

But not all ships belong to the Royal Navy, and I've no idea how people ended up as Captain in the Merchant Navy, or on commercial ships. And I suspect there's quite a difference between larger and smaller ships

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Pellew,_1st_Viscount_Exmouth Have a look at Edward Pellew (any Hornblower fans will remember him)- ended up very grand but started solidly middle class.

You need to read the Aubreyade

Or the tales of Para Handy

Para Handy: The Complete Collected Stories

Merchant Seaman or RN? My ggf was a Master Mariner and was certainly important in his hometown in late 19th century.

I think so, but you could also earn it

It probably depends who his father was.

If it was in the Royal Navy, he would have been middle or upper class. Most Captains in the Royal Navy started as a midshipmen, trainee officers, then worked their way up through the various levels via examinations and experience, to Master and Commander and beyond.
Some entered the RN from Naval school. Very few ordinary seamen made the leap to Officer class in the RN, as there was no real route for them to do so.
Influence, such as family or political connections, was a major factor in how rapidly one's naval career progressed, so of course that favoured the upper classes.

Many Merchant Navy Captains were ex Royal Navy, for instance with the East India Company, though it was easier to work up through the ranks from ordinary seaman to Officer rank in the Merchant Service.

At local family history group we wete told of local work house lad who was apprenticed at 14, by 21 he was a ships captain.

Lurking

Rich. My Dad wanted to be a ship's captain so he could buy one of the posh hours where they lived. (Dad nearly 80 now)

Do you mean what background did they have, or what social class were they considered once they became a captain?

I agree with AdaColeman. Brian Lavery has an excellent book, Nelson's Navy. To quote him regarding the Georgian Royal Navy, midshipmen came from a wide social background, and included the future King William IV. The largest group were sons of the landed gentry. Far less common were men from commercial or working class backgrounds, making up only 10% of officers. If you had a well connected relative, you would rise quickly, which made it harder for lower classes to rise up the ranks.

But captains covered a wide range of levels as well, particularly in the merchant fleet. There's a big difference between being captain of a small unknown provincial ship, and a massive ship taking passengers across the Atlantic, say. Captains on commercial passenger ships would have a captain's table, where they mixed with the first class passengers.

I’ve been watching The Terror (again) and the more famous Royal Navy captains were Lords . Probably like an OBE today for their exploits. In fact “Sealord” was a thing.

Unlike the Army where a commission could be purchased, there was no system for buying a commission in the Royal Navy, due to the complexities of the technical knowledge required by a Captain.
Promotion depended on knowledge, experience, influence and a large dose of luck! The fact that Officers had to provide their own expensive uniforms and some equipment, limited access to those with some financial means, almost exclusively the middle and upper classes.

Yes, the sea captains in my family were captaining ships working on the Irish Sea. Delivering goods between UK and Ireland before Irish independence. Essentially, lorry drivers of their day.