flag captain
- noun
- Specialized
:
capitán de insignia
- The flag captain coordinated the fleet's maneuvers during the naval exercise.
And here's the reaction of his flag captain, Alfred Chatfield.
- And here's the reaction of his flag captain, Alfred Chatfield.
Examples
-
And here's the reaction of his flag captain, Alfred Chatfield.
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As the flag captain of the USS Enterprise, he was responsible for relaying orders from the admiral.
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During the ceremony, the flag captain saluted the admiral from the deck of the flagship.
Synonyms
611
1.1
The person in charge of a ship or aircraft and its crew
122
4.1
A person in charge of a ship or boat
80
4.1
An officer in charge of a group of soldiers
6
3.2
A licensed officer who commands a merchant ship at sea
Person who is in charge of a ship, like a captain
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is partially compositional: 'flag' + 'captain' suggests a captain associated with a flag or flagship, so there is a recognisable link to leadership on a particular ship. However, the specific technical sense (captain of the flagship serving as an admiral's command ship) depends on naval jargon and the attributive use of 'flag' (as in 'flagship' or 'flag officer'), which a B1 learner who only knows 'flag' as a piece of cloth may not predict without exposure.
Etymology
Flag captain comes from the old navy image of a ship flying an admiral's flag, where the ship's own captain ran the vessel while taking orders from the admiral. That's why a flag captain means 'the captain in command of a flagship' today.