Sorry to say but any engineer was a officer, with a uniform to match. We was not allowed to socialise with the crew as they had to take orders from us. No class distinction involved. I am the son of a coal miner I worked down coal mine's. The difference is I went to night school and serviced my time as a engineer, at 21 years old I joined the merchant navy as a 9th junior engineer. That's a officers rank with responsible position. Why you bring class into this is a mystery. Not looked on this page for over 12 months how it has changed, I joined to try and find old friends and read stories about things that happened at sea.