Elevated to critical fire weather conditions remain for portions of the Southern Plains and Central/Southern Rockies. Pacific energy continues to bring mountain snow and rain to the Pacific Northwest and Northern Rockies.
A skipper is a person who has command of a boat or sea craft or tug, more or less equivalent to captain in charge aboard ship. At sea, or upon lakes and rivers, the skipper as shipmaster or captain has command over the whole crew.
On most ships, the First Mate is the officer who ranks just below the Captain of the ship and takes over in the event that the Captain can no longer perform his duties. Unfortunately this is not the case on a pirate ship. The first mate on a pirate ship is the man the pirate picks as his second in command. In the even the pirate is killed the job falls to the quartermaster. Ships also had second, third, even forth mates creating a chain of command.