Hi Aura,

This brings up an interesting question. As a practical matter I believe that the IWO (First Watch Officer) would take over the duties of the Commander if the Commander was unable to perform them, however, the LI (Chief Engineer) might well outrank him. I am not certain what authority if any to operate the boat his higher rank would give him though.

The German naval officer corps was broken into branches. Among others there was a Seeoffiziere’s branch and an Ingenieuroffiziere’s branch. Officers applied for a specific branch when they joined the navy and were trained accordingly. Those in the Seeoffiziere’s branch were trained in seamanship including all of the skills necessary to command a vessel. Those in the Ingenieuroffiziere’s branch were trained as engineers. Both were of course trained to command men.

The IWO would have been from the Seeoffiziere’s branch and would have the skills to command LI would have been from the Ingenieuroffiziere’s branch and wouldn’t have been trained to do so. Still he could have even outranked the original Commander and I THINK technically been second in command. One LI has told me that he was second in command.

Basically I think both men would stick to their own area of expertise but technically the LI, if he outranked the Commander could override at least some of his decisions if he chose to but I am not sure which decisions and it may well be that the Commander couldn't be overriden without first being relieved of his command.

Are you sufficiently confused yet? I know I am.

It would be great if a former German naval officer could elaborate on this.

This isn’t exactly a “what if” question as I am certain there was at least one case where an LI outranked the boat’s Commander and probably more than one case where an LI outranked an IWO who took over for a Commander unable to perform his duties.

Regards,

Ken Dunn