I've been watching Star Trek: Enterprise lately, and I noticed "Aye, Captain" and "Aye, Cap" are used quite often. It's quite a safe bet that Enterprise (and thus the future Federation) is drawing its military structure from US Navy, ok, but... "Aye Cap"?
Is this something that has been included in the show to give it a little more colour, or did they pick it from real US Navy speech? Do US Navy personnel really talk like a bunch of pirates? Arrrr?
As a US Marine Corps veteran and avid Trekkie I can confirm that the term “Aye Captain” is from British nautical etiquette and used in the US Coast Guard, the US Marine Corps and US Navy. The rank structure is borrowed heavily from all US and British Naval terms. https://www.quora.com/How-did-the-phrase-aye-aye-captain-originate
Aye, aye literally means yes, yes. It came from the British Royal navy hundreds of years ago.
This phrase is used constantly in the U.S. Marines, and the usual form is “Aye, aye, Sir!”. I uttered it myself many thousands of times as an enlisted marine.
Note that if you said, “Aye, aye, Captain!” to an officer of any other rank (in any service branch), you would immediately be in trouble and under suspicion as a possible impostor. This is because the entire rank structure is taught in recruit training. The real U.S. military is quite unlike Star Trek.
It’s used as an acknowledgement of a direct order by a superior, especially to any officer.
The repeating is done because aboard ship (especially in combat) there may be a lot of background noise or confusion involved. It repeats so the person issuing the order knows that the person being ordered to do something is sure of their responsibility.
Yes, yes would be much harder to hear, and using a conventional phrase like aye, aye avoids that as well as the possibility of a wink or nod of the head, so others nearby know that an order was given and acknowledged, and avoids less respectful acknowledgements like yeah, or okay. It helps to maintain esprit de corps.
