Category - Master and Captain ( Nautical )

Article adopted from http://en.wikipedia.org

Captain is the traditional customary title given to the person in charge of a ship at sea.

On most legal documents in the merchant shipping industry, the captain is more formally referred to as the ship's Master. A nautical captain may be a civilian with a master's license or a naval commissioned officer of any rank. In most modern navies, the rank of captain is equivalent to the army rank of colonel, and is thus three ranks higher than army captain.

On shore, a Harbourmaster, as the equivalent chief of a port, is sometimes titled captain if he had merchant marine or naval rank and professional service in command at sea. Many shipping companies also hire experienced captains to run their operations department.

Master

A person holding an unrestricted master's license as well as a chief engineer license is called a Master Mariner, and may use the postnomial MM. The term unrestricted indicates that there is no restriction of size, power or geographic locale on the license. It is the highest level of professional qualification amongst mariners.

Among professional mariners, the title Captain is generally reserved for someone who has served in command of a merchant vessel, and not for someone who may hold a command license but has never been appointed to a command position. Captains retain the title while working in a maritime related field ashore.

The term Master Mariner was in use in England from at least the 13th century—reflecting the fact that in guild terms, such a person was a master craftsman in this specific profession—and was introduced in America in the mid-19th century.

An unrestricted master's license is colloquially called a Master's Ticket, Master's Unlimited or just a Master's. In the UK the official name of a Master Mariner’s qualification has varied over the years. The conventions or acts governing the license have evolved alongside the shipping industry. The master's license is sometimes still referred to as a Class 1 or Master Foreign-Going certificate as it was named during the latter part of the 20th century. The UK Maritime & Coastguard Agency, inline with the amended STCW convention, currently title the license as Master Unlimited. [...]