Not a whole lot of sailors in the mercenary business, you know? I mean, most sailors know enough technical skills to get by in civilian life.
"But then the navy downsized. What's a Bosun's Mate to do? For sixteen years, all I did was sail things, from lifeboats to Destroyers.
"But I found there's a market for people like me out there. Think about it - you got a Patrol Boat that you need to take a bunch of groundpounders up a river somewhere. Who's gonna sail it? Some Green Beret? Only if your boat's got wheels, buddy.
"That's where a real sailorman comes in."
Most nations with coastlines will have some sort of navy, ranging from a few converted commercial pleasure craft to huge forces with aircraft carriers, submarines, and large fleets of surface combat and support ships. These are the characters that serve in these navies.
Naval Information
See Haze Gray and Underway for excellent and up-to-date information on all the world’s navies, including the ships currently in service in practically every navy in the world.
AMERICAN AND COMMONWEALTH NAVIES
Entry: No prerequisites
Basic Training: The character receives the following skills as part of naval basic training:
Autogun: 0
Small Arms: 1
Seamanship: 1 (See special rules)
Swimming: 1
Unarmed Martial Arts: 1
Firefighting: 1
SOVIET AND THIRD WORLD NAVIES
Entry: No prerequisites
Basic Training: The character receives the following skills as part of naval basic training:
Seamanship: 1
Swimming: 1
Unarmed Martial Arts: 1
Firefighting: 1
Character Note
Most of the world's navies use a different rank structure than ground forces (although there are exceptions). See "Naval Ranks", below.
Marines range from small groups of shipboard and base guards, to large branches of service with their own air arms and large ground combat units.
Note: "Basic Training" is provided in the "Marines" section of the rules - ignore the Naval basic training above except as noted.
From small maritime police forces and border guards, to forces with independent air assets and open-ocean capability, the Coast Guard focuses on maritime safety and law-enforcement in peacetime, and escort and patrol in wartime.
Navy Ranks are a little different than Army or Air Force ranks, especially in Western Countries. Here's how to make your naval characters' ranks more realistic.