Steve Thorpe – Role of the Petty Officer

Simon: What is the role of the Petty Officer onboard?

He’s sort of the lower end of the senior management. So, a Leading Hand, you sort of look after the Junior Rates and you look after a few Able Seamen. The Petty Officers will look after the Junior Rates but also start to liaise with Command a lot more. The next level up is Chief, where you are that sort of Department Co-ordinator that liaises with Command more and that’s how the structure works really for most branches.

Simon: So you know pretty much everyone onboard then?

Yeah.

Simon: But do you anyway or … on the bombers?

You do know everybody onboard, but your area of responsibility is different. So, everybody goes in to Departments. So, I was a Tactical Systems Petty Officer so I would have a Department of maybe 15, whereas a Coxswain, you are the cog onboard that liaises with Command, you run all the Department Co-ordinators, you do all the manpower allocation. There’s lots of things that you do. You do all the discipline, leave, travel, lots and lots of different things. Standards, all that.