BM Boatswain's Mate US Navy Rating Patch

The two small flags under the anchors are Bravo and Mike, so this patch spells BM twice, once in letters and once in signal flags. Bravo is the red swallowtail and Mike is the blue flag with the white diagonal cross, so a signalman reading the bottom of the patch gets the rating before he reads the words. The boatswain's mate rating dates from 1775 and the Revolutionary War, and it has existed without a break ever since. That puts it among the oldest ratings in the Navy. Hulls, guns and engineering plants have all changed many times over, and every ship still needs sailors who can handle ground tackle, rig a tow and put a boat in the water. That work belongs to the crossed anchors.

A BM's job runs the length of the weather decks. Boatswain's mates train and lead the deck force in marlinspike seamanship, rigging, painting and deck equipment, run the cargo and stores handling gear, and supervise underway replenishment alongside. They stand the helm and lee helm, serve as lookouts, landing signalmen and search and rescue crew, and take RHIBs out as coxswains. On the bridge, the Boatswain's Mate of the Watch passes the word on the boatswain's call, the pipe that once called the stroke on rowing galleys. BM1 James E. Williams, commanding PBR 105 with River Section 531 on the Mekong River on October 31, 1966, earned the Medal of Honor and became the most decorated enlisted sailor in Navy history, and the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS James E. Williams DDG-95 carries his name.

The patch is the classic rating layout, 4.5 inches wide by 3.25 inches tall with a navy blue merrowed edge. Large white B and M letters flank white crossed anchors on a navy blue field, with the Bravo and Mike flags tucked just under the anchor crowns. UNITED STATES NAVY arcs across the gold top band and BOATSWAIN'S MATE runs along the gold bottom band, both stitched in navy blue. The backing is iron-on, and the merrowed border takes a needle and thread just as well for a permanent hold. It reads cleanly from across a room, which is exactly what a rating patch is for.

Boats are the keepers of seamanship aboard ship. The deck division is where line, steel and weather still decide the work, and a good BM can read a mooring line under strain before it parts. Reuben James and William Wiley, boatswain's mates in the Barbary Wars, both had Navy ships named for them. Navy diver Carl Brashear retired as a master chief boatswain's mate. Sailors from other ratings tend to tell you their ship first, and a BM tells you his rating.

Iron it onto a jacket, vest or sea bag, or sew it down where the weather will test the stitching. It sits well in a shadow box with chevrons and cruise patches, and it makes a fitting gift for a shipmate who spent his career on the deck plates or a young sailor reporting to a first ship. The crossed anchors have earned their spot on the wall.