Commissioned officers must provide themselves with full dress, ball dress, frock coat dress, blue mess dress, white mess dress, blue undress and white undress. The full dress is very nearly the same in style and design to the special full dress of the United States naval officer, the ball dress is practically the same as the evening dress of the United States naval officer and the frock coat dress and blue and white mess dress the same as the corresponding United States naval uniforms. The blue undress uniform of the British naval officer differs from the service dress of the United States naval officer in that the coat worn with it is a square cut, double-breasted sack coat with turn-down collar and rolling lapels with two rows of four buttons each down the front. The white undress of the British officer is the same as the white service dress of the American officer. The rank of British naval officers is shown by insignia of rank on the tops of the epaulets with uniforms with which epaulets are worn, but with all of the blue uniforms the rank is also indicated by stripes of gold lace braid around the sleeves of the coat above the cuff. The number and arrangements of these rank stripes are shown in the accompanying illustration. [Illustration: British Navy. Officers’ sleeve decorations indicating rank 1. Admiral of the Fleet 2. Admiral 3. Vice Admiral 4. Rear Admiral 5. Commodore 6. Captain 7. Commander 8. Lieutenant Commander 9. Lieutenant 10. Sub Lieutenant 11. Chief Gunner and Chief Boatswain 12. Midshipman] [Illustration: British Navy. Officers’ shoulder straps 1. Admiral of the Fleet 2. Admiral 3. Vice Admiral 4. Rear Admiral 5. Commodore, 1st Class 6. Commodore, 2nd Class] With the white mess dress and the white undress the rank is indicated by the stripes of gold braid or by other insignia of rank worn upon the shoulder straps. These shoulder straps are also worn with the great coat. There are no sleeve stripes on the white coats or the great coat. The insignia of rank used on the shoulder straps of Flag Officers and the stripes indicating rank used on the shoulder straps of officers below the rank of Flag Officer are shown in the accompanying illustrations. The Corps or Branch of the service to which an officer belongs is shown as follows on the sleeves and shoulder straps:— Officers of the Line By the circle or “curl” on the upper stripe of gold lace braid. Engineer Officers By the circle or “curl” as above with the addition of stripes of purple cloth between the gold stripes. Medical Officers The circle or “curl” is omitted and there are stripes of scarlet cloth between the gold stripes.