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Suggest a Feature →Boatswain's Mate
Performs seamanship duties, deck operations, and small boat operations aboard Navy vessels. Supervises and performs maintenance of deck equipment, line handling, anchoring, and cargo operations.
“The oldest rate in the United States Navy. Boatswain's Mates are the deck professionals of the fleet — seamanship, ship handling, and leadership traditions going back 250 years. If you want to be a true sailor, this is the path.”
You are the oldest rate in the Navy and you will feel every year of it. BM is the rate where the Navy puts people who need to be doing physical work at all times, which means painting, line-handling, anchor operations, small boat operations, and a special category of working party that exists only to move heavy things from one part of the ship to another for reasons nobody can adequately explain. The rope — sorry, the line — knowledge is real and old and the knots matter when you're handling a ship's mooring lines with a 60,000-ton destroyer trying to dock in a crosswind. You will chip paint, prime paint, and apply paint to surfaces that will need paint again within six months because the ocean is perpetually winning. Brow watch. Quarterdeck watch. Small boat coxswain. Lookout duty. You will own the weather decks in a way that engineering rates never will, which means you know every sunrise and every storm. The civilian maritime industry — tugboats, maritime pilots, merchant marine — is a real post-Navy life. It requires patience to navigate the licensing pathway, but the foundation you built on steel decks is legitimate.
MOS Intel
- 1Get your coxswain qualification early. Running small boats is the most operationally rewarding part of the rate and sets you apart for special assignments.
- 2BM is one of the few rates where you can make Chief based on seamanship and leadership alone — but you need to document everything for your eval.
- 3Volunteer for VBSS, harbor security, or ceremonial guard duty. These billets give you skills and visibility that translate to port operations and maritime security careers.
Boatswain's Mate is the oldest rating in the Navy, and it shows — for better and worse. The recruiter will tell you about leading sailors and running deck operations, and that's real. What they won't tell you: BM is manual labor with a rank structure. You will paint, chip, paint again, handle lines in freezing rain, and do the dirty work nobody else wants to do. Promotion is decent because the rate is always in demand, but the physical toll is serious. The civilian translation is narrow unless you specifically target maritime industry, port operations, or offshore work. That said, BMs who make Chief often become the most respected leaders on any ship — the rate builds genuine, hard-earned authority. If you love the ocean and don't mind working with your hands, it's an honest living.
What this actually is in the real world
Your skills translate. Here's what civilian employers call this job.
Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels
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