The German term Bootsmann translates to Boatswain, i.e. the senior crewman of the deck department.

In a military context, Bootsmann (Btsm or B) is the lowest Portepeeunteroffizier (NCO with portepeé) rank in the German Navy.

It belongs to the particular rank group Senior NCOs with port épée.

The sequence of ranks (top-down approach) in that particular group is as follows: Unteroffiziere mit Portepee These names were adopted for the Russian Navy as botsman (боцман) botsmanmat (боцманмат) by Peter the Great, among many other Prussian and Holland military ranks; they were initially treated as positions rather than ranks.

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