Navy Deck Ape Boatswain's Mate Hat Patch

Boatswain's Mate has been a Navy rating since 1775, and on any ship afloat the sailor running the deck answers to one word: Boats. The deck department has another name for its own, and it is stitched across the bottom of this patch. Deck apes are the sailors who work topside with mooring lines, anchors, chain and paint. They chip it, prime it, paint it and chip it again. The name is part ribbing and part respect, and every deck seaman wears it sooner or later.

The work has not changed much in its essentials. Boatswain's Mates handle deck seamanship, rigging and marlinspike work, and they supervise anchoring and mooring, fueling and towing. They run underway replenishment stations when a supply ship comes alongside, and they drive and maintain the ship's boats, RHIBs included, as coxswains. They stand bridge watches and pass the word on the boatswain's call, the same pipe once used to call rowing strokes and "pipe down." In 2016, when the Navy moved to do away with rating titles, sailors and veterans pushed back and the ratings were restored that December.

This patch is the classic 4.5 by 3.25 inch rating shape with a navy blue merrowed border. A gold arc across the top reads "UNITED STATES NAVY" in blue block letters, and a gold arc at the bottom reads "DECK APE." In the navy blue center a snarling gray ape grips a gray anchor with both fists, teeth bared. White anchor chain loops around the whole scene, hand over hand like a cable run out on deck. Anchor and chain are the deck force's tools, and the ape is the deck force.

Every ship depends on her deck force in ways the rest of the crew can forget until sea and anchor detail is set. It is the deck apes on the fo'c'sle when the anchor goes down and the line handlers who bring her alongside the pier. It is the rig team on an UNREP station with a fuel probe swinging across open water. Many a chief and many an officer started out chipping paint with them. Boats knows all of it, and so does anyone who ever stood beside him.

It belongs on a ball cap, a sea bag or the sleeve of a jacket worn to a ship's reunion. It also makes a good gift for a shipmate who spent his enlistment topside. It has an iron-on backing and can also be sewn on.