It has been our habit to abbreviate the title “Captain” to “Capt” when appending it to the names of ship masters mentioned in our blog posts. Well, we’ve decided to spell out the word starting with our previous post (“Good ole Far East maritime training“), which has been copy edited to reflect the change. The title “Captain” is supposed to be hard-earned. It implies both experience and leadership and thus carries a great deal of honour. So why shorten it by three letters?
Surprisingly, some Filipino masters don’t get the significance of the title. These fellows will promptly switch to using “Commodore” or “Admiral” the moment they’re given the honorary rank as members of the coastguard auxiliary. We can understand that some folks need to show off but why devalue the highest title in the merchant marine profession by shedding it off like an old skin?
The point should not matter to paper captains – those who have a master’s license but have little or no experience in commanding a vessel. ~Barista Uno
