Admiral of the navy is a senior-most rank of a naval service.
Some navies use the term admiral of the navy as a title bestowed upon a fleet admiral or other senior naval official. During the Second World War, the German Kriegsmarine referred to the senior most grand admiral as an admiral of the navy, known in German as Oberbefehlshaber der Kriegsmarine.
George Dewey is the only American ever promoted to the U.S. rank of admiral of the navy. He was promoted on March 24, 1903, retroactive to March 2, 1899. In 1944 the U.S. Navy Department declared the newly created five-star rank of fleet admiral to be junior to George Dewey's rank.
Famous quotes containing the words admiral and/or navy:
“Never forget that you are Germans. Never forget that you are Nazis!”
—Edmund H. North, British screenwriter, and Lewis Gilbert. Admiral Lutjens (Karel Stepanek)
“The Navy is the asylum for the perverse, the home of the unfortunate. Here the sons of adversity meet the children of calamity, and here the children of calamity meet the offspring of sin.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)