Robert Falcon Scott Markham's first choice as leader but, having decided on him, the older man's support remained constant. There were committee battles over the scope of Scott's responsibilities, with the Royal Society pressing to put a scientist in charge of the expedition's programme while Scott merely commanded the ship. Eventually, however, Markham's view prevailed; Scott was given overall command, and was promoted to the rank of commander before "Discovery" sailed for the Antarctic on 6 August 1901. King Edward VII, who showed a keen interest in the expedition, visited the Discovery the day before the ship left British shores in August 1901,
Ship-of-the-line captain in the United States Navy, and to the rank of captain at sea used in Germany and the Netherlands. Captain is rank OF-5 in the NATO rank codes, and equates to the land-forces rank of full colonel. "Linienschiffskapitän" was an officer rank in the Austro-Hungarian Navy, equivalent to "oberst" in the land forces or "kapitän zur see" in the "Kaiserliche Marine". It is still partly used by the navies of the Empire's successor states, such as Yugoslavia and Croatia. In order, the other officer ranks below ship-of-the-line captain were In the Belgian Navy the rank of "capitaine de vaisseau" or