JOHN GRIMES
John Grimes - Appointments and Commands Commodore John Grimes, Rim Runners Incorporated Naval Superintendent, Commodore Rim Runners Naval Reserve, (Captain, Federation Survey Service Reserve, Intelligence Branch) began his career as a newly graduated Ensign from the Federation Survey Service Academy. While at the Federation Survey Service Academy, Grimes made several tours aboard training vessels within the Sol planetary system. On graduation, he was assigned to the F.S.S. Canberra (out of Callisto Base) for a shakedown cruise. Following that cruise, his first assignment was to take passage from Earth aboard the Interstellar Transport Commission's ship Delta Orionis for transport to the F.S.S. Base on Lindisfarne. (Personal matters requiring a leave of absence caused him to miss the regular FSS Heinlein transport run from Earth to Lindisfarne Base.) While aboard Delta Orionis, he accepts a position with as a gunnery officer with the prize crew that boards Epsilon Sextans, a ship that was pirated by the Waldegren Navy. The ship is recovered and outfitted to go pirate hunting. Following the destruction of a Waverly Frigate and arrival at the Waverly military base off the planet Dartura, Epsilon Sextans is met by an F.S.S. fleet and Grimes is transferred to the flagship - F.S.S. Inflexible, on temporary duty until they can return to Lindisfarne base. Grimes is then posted to F.S.S. Aries and makes a survey trip to El Dorado. Grimes is then transferred to F.S.S. Pathfinder, a true survey ship. Following a visit to Delta Sextans IV, and after receiving a poor review from his captain, he is transferred to the Federation Courier Service and given command of Adder, a small, fast courier ship. Following multiple missions, one of which results in his finally receiving his promotion, he is transferred back to Lindisfarne Base. While awaiting a new assignment, he is loaned to the Corps of Sky Marshalls to assist in the recovery of the pirated Delta Geminorum. Upon returning to Lindisfarne base, Grimes receives a promotion and is given command of F.S.S. Seeker. Following his discovery of two lost colonies (New Sparta and Morrowvia) while in command of Seeker, Grimes is promoted and assigned to F.S.S. Discovery. While captain of Discovery, a third lost colony is found – Botany Bay. The crew aboard Discovery mutinies and sets Grimes adrift in a ship’s boat. He is recovered by a merchant vessel and assigned as supernumerary officer to F.S.S. Vega, which is sent to capture the mutineers. Wishing to avoid a Courts Martial, Grimes resigns from the Survey Service and accepts a position as yachtmaster of the Baroness D’Estang’s Far Traveller. While working for the Baroness, three additional lost colonies, in various states of degradation, are discovered. Grimes takes ownership of the Far Traveller’s pinnace following the Far Traveller's destruction, in lieu of backpay and renames it Little Sister. He sets up a private courier service – Far Traveller Couriers. In financial straits, he accepts a position as shipkeeping officer of the Bronson Star. Following some misadventures, he manages to pay off his debts and repossesses Little Sister. He sells Little Sister to a millionaire and purchases Epsilon Corvi, and renames it Sister Sue. Sister Sue travels from Austral to Earth with Survey Service records as part of the cargo. Once on Earth, Grimes is re-united with Commodore, now Rear Admiral, Damien, his former superior when he served in FSS Couriers. Damien is now in charge of the Survey Service liason with merchant shipping. He convinces Grimes to accept a position as Captain in the FSS Reserve and to act as a provacateur for the FSS. He accepts a position with Rim Runners and Sister Sue is renamed Rim Sister, and eventually renamed to Faraway Quest as a survey vessel. He becomes Astronautical Superintendant of Rim Runners and receive the rank of Commodore in the Rim Worlds Naval Reserve.
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| NAVAL
and MERCHANT NAVAL RANKS
On the presumption that Chandler served in both British and Australian/New Zealand naval establishments and naturally borrowed from those sources for his technical terms, as well as clues provided by the texts (the use of the titled rank ‘commodore’ for example an English navy designation, most definitely not a US one), I’ve done a little research and provide the various tables below for those who are interested. Some of this information is useful in determining the time frames for various events in the stories. For example, if we assume that Grimes advanced within the Federation Survey Service at regular promotion intervals (and Chandler has stated that he did, at least in the beginning) we can assume that the times in grade and in service for current day navies are roughly equivalent to the same in the Survey Service. This allows us to assign approximately 4 years to Grimes’ time at the Academy, approximately 18 months to two years as an Ensign upon graduating, and so on. NAVAL RANKS |
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MERCHANT NAVY RANKS
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Of course, in Rim Worlds stories, Able Seaman would become Able Spaceman and in the engineering department there would be a split between Inertial Drive engineers and Manschenn Drive engineers (interplanetary drive versus interstellar drive). A communications section would be added which also would be split between Psionics and Electronics. There would, for larger vessels, also be at least one medical doctor. Clues
in text sources (To Prime the Pump, for example) illustrate that
each ‘branch’ of the FSS is given its own titles and
equivalent ranks. Doctor Passifern is identified as ‘Surgeon
Lt. Commander Passifern’. (In ‘With Good Intentions’,
the scientific party are also identified with rank separate from
that of the line officers, such as Grimes, referred to simply
as Lieutenant Grimes.) This clues us in to the fact that, at least
in the Survey Service, each career path has its own rank and titles
that are equivalent, but some are subordinate to others. |