chief mate

As chief mate he had mastered the problems of courses and manoeuvers in the fog along that same route which he must now take.

But before the chief mate was half-way down the ladder on his way the wailing voice of the lookout reported disaster.

At nineteen he was chief mate of a slaver, a legitimate occupation in his day but one that filled him with disgust.

And it was I, the passenger, who sailed her into Kirkcudbright, tho' I had never been more than a chief mate before.

The chief mate took his stand in the glare of a torch-basket, a coil of rope in his hand, and his men grouped about him.