History of United States Navy ratings

The structure, ranks, and enlisted ratings of the early Continental Navy were direct carryovers from the Royal Navy hierarchy of uniforms, ranks, and insignia. The first American naval ranks consisted of simply captain, lieutenant (navy), and midshipman. Shipboard warrant officer ranks, such as sailing master, boatswain, carpenter, gunner, and purser, were also copied from the British system.

The earliest form of U.S. Navy enlisted ratings may be traced to the petty officers assigned as assistants to the shipboard warrant officers. The oldest such ratings, still in use today, are boatswain's mate, quartermaster, and gunner's mate. The rating of armourer was also in use as an assistant to the gunner, as was the rating of carpenter's mate for members of the ship's carpenter's crew. Informally, the shipboard title of yeoman was also frequently used, even though this would not be an official rating of the United States Navy until 1835.[2]

The remainder of a Continental Navy ship's crew were simply referred to as "seamen", who were "signed on" to the ship for the duration of a campaign and "paid off" once the ship had returned to port.[N 1]

On September 29, 2016, the United States Navy announced a plan to discontinue the enlisted ratings system. Enlisted sailors were to be referred to solely by their rank (e.g. Petty Officer) and would have held a “Navy Operations Specialty (NOS)“ instead of a rating.[3][4][5][6][7][8] However, in December of that year, the Navy halted the creation of the proposed NOS, and reinstated the ratings system with immediate effect.[9]