A Quartermaster is one of the oldest ratings in the United States Navy. At its most basic definition, naval quartermasters are responsible for the navigation of the ship under the direction of the navigator on a watch-to-watch basis. Among the many duties of a quartermaster are the preparation, corrections to, and maintenance of nautical charts as well as navigation publications. A quartermaster is also responsible for training ship’s lookouts and helmsman as well as the care and maintenance of navigational instruments and clocks.

In the modern Navy, a quartermaster is a petty officer, which is a noncommissioned officer. Petty officers within the United States Navy are designated as first, second, or third class Petty officers. A first class Petty Officer is equal to the rank of a staff sergeant in the Army. While a quartermaster in 1776 earned a whopping nine dollars a month, quartermasters today are guaranteed a bit more than that.

Duties of a quartermaster also involve personnel supervision, use of navigational instruments such as a sextant, parallel rulers, dividers, and operational techniques of various electronic navigational aids. Quartermasters are assigned to carriers, cruisers, and other surface vessels as well as submarines. Depending on the size of ship to which a quartermaster is assigned, there are multiple quartermasters and different rankings such as first-class, chief, or senior quartermaster assigned to various tasks and duties.

Quartermasters have existed in naval fleets for hundreds of years, and their domain was typically the quarterdeck, where the ships wheel was located, which is how they got their name.