Rank & role
Undersecretary
A Geneva civil appointment, not a naval one. It carries emergency authority over a vessel in some circumstances — which is how a diplomat who had never run a ship came to be running one.
Table
Rank & role
Ladder
Civil — a civil appointment
Canon status
Confirmed
About the rank & role
Two ladders run in parallel and are frequently confused: a NAVIGATION ladder, which is a licensed technical qualification, and a COMMAND ladder, which is an institutional appointment. A ship can carry a highly-rated navigator who commands nothing, and the rank of Captain did not exist at all until it was created mid-voyage in 2192.