Army Transport Service (ATS) troopships held crews of considerable size, any large ship with more than a dozen folks was bound to have its share of interpersonal dynamics that might eventually come to blows. And for that, the ATS had a Master-at-arms and an assistant Master-at-arms stationed mostly aboard their troop and hospital ships. The responsibility of these individuals involved ship’s security and crew policing duties; and, unlike members of a Shore Patrol, their positions were permanent.
The position is one of the oldest within the ATS, with its distinctive insignia of a five-pointed star appearing in ATS uniform regulations in 1899. The insignia for the Master-at-arms and the assistant Master-at-arms during this period comprised of an embroidered cap badge in gold bullion – it was a wreath with a center device of a star. ATS Masters-at-arms (MAA) had Chief Petty Officer (CPO) rank, with their uniform mirroring that of their U.S. Navy counterparts: double-breasted coat with a roll collar and blue or white trousers. Unlike their counterparts, however, ATS CPOs wore double rows of five and not four buttons, and wore no rank insignia on their sleeves. In 1930, the insignia on the cap changed to that of crossed batons.
What may be construed as a departure from nautical uniforming during the period – the wear of trade specialty on a cap badge – reflects more of the military nature of the ATS. The ATS was run by the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps and fell along the lines of a logistic enterprise. The U.S. Army, beginning with uniform regulations in 1877, stipulated that a soldier’s corps – which might be considered a trade – be worn on their caps; and these devices were surrounded by a wreath of gold bullion laurel leaves. Given that the civilian seaman had specific trades onboard, it followed they too would wear insignia representing their specialty on their caps. The U.S. Army, unlike the U.S. Navy, did not wear trade badges on their sleeves, thus this is why they are absent from the uniforms of their contract seamen. However ATS insignia, especially that of their MAAs was initially influenced that the insignia of the U.S. Navy MAAs.
1866, U.S. Navy Master-at-arms 
1886, U.S. Navy Master-at-arms First Class
The ATS Master-at-arms insignia of a star came directly from the enlisted rating badge of the same position in the U.S. Navy. The first U.S. Navy Master-at-arms rating badge appeared in 1866 and comprised of a star surmounting an anchor; this badge was worn on the forearm; the second rating badge was from 1885 and was reserved for petty officers and this took the form of three arcs over three chevrons with a star inside the arc and an eagle perched on the arc – do note: in 1893, this badge was re-used for chief petty officers, and the rating badge for first, second, third petty officers comprised of three, two, and one chevron with a star and eagle above, respecticely. Interestingly, there was a rate called ship’s corporal and it had the two chevrons of a petty officer, second class with the star; this position was in existence between 1885 and 1893 – in 1893 the position was abolished and absorbed into Master-at-arms rate. The original MAA rating badge (on left, above) had a star with one ray pointing up; with the redesign of insignia in the late 1800s (on right, above), followed the new style where all U.S. Navy star devices had a single ray pointing downward.
The star on the MAA rating badge is one of the more abstract trade symbols to decode – whereas other trade badges may have a symbol for a tool; e.g. carpenter’s square for carpenters, or gun turret for gunners – since Masters-at-arms wore no police badge (which some old salts attest the star must represent). The U.S. Navy, being a wholly Federal body used U.S. national symbols as part of its identity; in 1862, commissioned officers began wearing what came to be known as the “executive star” on their cuffs. The star, in this context, was a symbol of authority passed to them from the President of the United States. In this light, the star as a specialty mark for Masters-at-arms indicated that these petty officers were charged with keeping order onboard through the authority of the captain. In the ATS case, the star was adopted without this heavily laden symbology and was handed to ATS MAAs as a recognized trade symbol. Nevertheless, by 1930, the ATS Master-at-arms star became replaced by a shoreside symbol of authority – crossed batons for no apparent reason. Although the MAA insignia is that of a traditional baton, they allude strongly to the clubs used by shoreside police; similar to those they carried while on duty.
ATS MAA 1899-1930 
ATS MAA 1946
The ATS of the 1940s was relatively unregulated in terms of what ship’s officers and crew wore for their uniforms insignia. The U.S. Army did publish uniform manuals, but these were taken more as a suggestion since a seaman’s job was to work and not stand for daily inspection. Wardroom officers took a more serious view toward their uniforms and insignia, but mainly when they were shoreside. Despite crossed batons being the official insignia for ATS MAAs, the star device re-appeared during the Second World War in two formats: bullion embroidered cap badges, and an ersatz metal star combined with a U.S. Maritime Service officer’s cap badge wreath. The former was worn through 1943, and the latter mid-war until the end up until the formation of the Military Sea Transportation Service (USMS). Crossed batons remained the official insignia and became enforced with the publication of USMS uniform regulations in 1952.
ATS MAA 1942 
ATS MAA 1942 
Ersatz ATS MAA 1943 
Ersatz ATS MAA 1943
For seamen aboard ATS ships, due to star on the ATS Master-at-arms cap badge, MAAs were called “ship’s sheriffs.” As for the ubiquitous presence of the star device, it may be due to supply and demand issues: suppliers may have continued producing the old design or quartermasters did not issue the cap badges with the crossed batons until the old stock wore or ran out. There are two curious examples of the cap badge: above, the “ATS MAA 1946” cap badge – it was stamped brass and only seen after the war; and a bit more curious is the example in the photograph below – there are well-documented examples of ATS seamen wearing USMS cap badges with the eagle removed to denote a deck petty officer, but the metal star shows a bit of ingenuity. The stars for the former were originally manufactured for U.S. Navy commissioned officer shoulder boards to take the place of the embroidered stars – it was far more expedient to use a stamped-metal star than a woven one; however, these shoulder boards were not worn for long as they were unpopular in the officer community. Seeing the re-use for the ship’s sheriff is quite interesting. All N.S. Meyer hallmarked examples of the latter were produced for the collecting community after line drawings by Herbert Booker in Rudy Basurto Insignia of America’s Little Known Seafarers.
