Fleet captain

Fleet Captain is a Starfleet title, not rank, given to a senior captain with a different set of responsibilities than a starship captain. This could be thought of as a higher rank than captain or even commodore, although it does not possess a permanent position in the rank hierarchy (a captain could also be directly promoted to commodore, the next highest rank, without spending time at a fleet captain posting). A Fleet Captain may designate a senior commanding officer who is in charge of multiple starships, or a single officer, such as a commodore, who is charge of all commanding ship's officers, rank of commodore and lower.

In 2264, Fleet Captain Christopher Pike passed command of the starship Enterprise on to Captain James Tiberius Kirk. Pike regretted losing command of a ship when he accepted the new title. (TOS: "The Menagerie, Part I", "The Menagerie, Part II")

In the 2260s, Fleet Captain Garth was one of Starfleet's most decorated captains, the hero of the Battle of Axanar. Garth was injured and recovered among the natives of Antos IV, where he learned of the Antosians' bizarre metamorphic biochemistry control. The strain on Garth's system was too much, he was driven insane by learning their abilities. His life was saved, but maddened, he ordered a starship to fire on the planet, the crew mutinied and Fleet Captain Garth was sentenced to treatment at Elba II. (TOS: "Whom Gods Destroy")

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deputy director

Background

The Star Trek Encyclopedia featured a Star Trek Movies-era fleet captain pin, however, there was no onscreen appearance of the film, and the insignia was not even part of uniform designer Robert Fletcher's detailed rank notes. Besides the Encyclopedia, there is no insignia for this rank in any other Starfleet uniform code devised, and no similar rank exists in the navies Starfleet was dramatically based on. This makes it appear this is simply a title accorded a senior captain. However, many fans speculate that Luther Sloan's deputy director rank would be equivalent to fleet captain, its insignia was four pips above a horizontal bar (indicating a grade higher than captain, but below the rectangle-enclosed pips of an admiral), but there is no canonical justification for associating the two rank/titles, simply a relation between the insignia.

This chart shows only general equivalencies based on the ranks used by many governments on Earth, as well as the rest of the galaxy.