officer of the watch

American  

noun

Nautical.

1. the officer primarily responsible for the navigation of a ship, in the absence of the captain, during a certain watch.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

officer of the watch

This was "designed to alert others if the officer of the watch doesn't respond to something, such as another vessel approaching", or to a person "falling asleep or becoming incapacitated".

From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2025

The Alert sent a report from Costa Rica that said the episode had happened in the darkness before dawn, when Lieutenant Schwenk had been the officer of the watch.

From New York Times ● May 23, 2011

One afternoon, creeping toward "Gib," my officer of the watch sighted what he thought was a distant aircraft carrier.

From Time Magazine Archive

“Lay him in the guardroom,” the sentry told them, and as they did so, he turned the crank of the telephone bell and reported what was happening to the officer of the watch.

From "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman

About 2 a. m., according to the report of the officer of the watch, the spectacle was still more grand and imposing.

From Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara, Volume I (Commodore B. Von Wullerstorf-Urbair,) Undertaken by Order of the Imperial Government in the Years 1857, 1858, & 1859, Under the Immediate Auspices of His I. and R. Highness the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, Commander-In-Chief of the Austrian Navy. by Karl Ritter von Scherzer