KNick wrote:munroburton wrote:That's what I thought too - as of SoF's end, Commander Kaplan, Lt. Commander Tallman, Lieutenants Fonzarelli and O'Reilly are senior to Abigail. She is the fifth ranking officer and depending whether the XO has a backup bridge to be manning, third or fourth on the Bridge during GQ.
Which brings up the question of restricted and unrestricted line officers. In some navies an engineering officer such as Fonzarelli would not be eligible to take command of the ship until he was the last officer left. (This is the restricted line version.) In others, he would assume command as soon as he was the senior officer (unrestricted line version). I do not recall ever seeing a discussion of which version applies to the RMN. Does anyone else?
No the question of the difference of a restricted and unrestricted is what type of officer.
A restricted officer is an officer who is serving in non-combat arm like a JAG officer or a supply officer they absolutely can not take command because they have little if any training in things like ship handling and navigation.
A unrestricted officer will move between various fields to keep current until the officer reaches command level so that the officer has a general knowledge of all ships major systems. As a junior officer an officer may move from navigation to engineering to tactical to communications back to tactical until the officer in question shows aptitude in a particular area and be locked into that field. A good example would be Ginger Lewis, she will never command a warship, but if she does get command it will be a an auxiliary like a repair ship or depot ship.