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Captains of Brazilian civilian ships

Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2018 5:30 pm
by Grammont
I'm trying to add the details of the captain of a Brazilian merchant ship but all the ranks available (in Portuguese) appear to be for naval use rather than civilian use. Is there a specific title used in Portuguese for the captain of a civilian ship?

Re: Captains of Brazilian civilian ships

Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2018 6:07 pm
by Navclio
Portuguese has the word capitão, but whether that was used for the manager of the crew of a merchant vessel is something you would have to look up in an English-Portuguese dictionary, preferably a large one that would specify the term used in the merchant marine. The Collins Portuguese Pocket Dictionary also gives capitão for "skipper. McKay's Modern Portuguese-English and English-Portuguese Dictionary (1943) gives both capitão and comandante de navio for "captain," but the second might just be an explanation; I would not want to take that as meaning that the first officers of merchant ships were addressed as "comandante de navio" or "comandante."

You might go to https://forum.wordreference.com/, sign up, and ask about this in the Portuguese forum. They don't have a specific Portuguese-English forum, but there are questions about Portuguese translations of English terms and some bilingual contributors.