- Schout-bij-nacht
Schout-bij-nacht is a Dutch Naval rank, equivalent to
Rear Admiral in theUS Navy andRoyal Navy . It is the second most juniorAdmiral position of the Dutch Navy, ranking above "Commandeur" (Commodore) and below aVice Admiral ("Vice-admiraal").The rank of Schout-bij-nacht originated between the 15th and 16th century. Translated as "Watch-at-night", the Schout-bij-Nacht was the officer who supervised the ship when the
Captain was asleep.In later times the Schout-bij-nacht was also the officer who supervised an entire Navy squadron, in the absence of a senior
Admiral , and by the 17th century Schout-bij-nacht was the common rank held by the naval commander of a battle fleet's rear squadron.In the 17th century the navies of
Sweden andDenmark-Norway adopted the rank as "schoutbynacht" and the earlyImperial Russian Navy as "shautbenakht" (шаутбенахт). In 1724 the Russians, followed in 1771 by both theSwedish navy and the Dano-Norwegian navy changed the name of the rank toCounter Admiral ("kontr-admiral" in Russian, "konteramiral" in Swedish, "kontreadmiral" in Danish and Norwegian).References
* [http://g3.spraakdata.gu.se/saob/show.phtml?filenr=1/233/59410.html "Schoutbynacht"] in "
Svenska Akademiens Ordbok ", col. S1417 (1965). (Historical usage in Swedish)
* [http://runeberg.org/nfcd/0612.html "Schoutbynacht"] , in "Nordisk familjebok ", vol. 24 (1916) (Swedish navy)
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