] and WRT the Navy, I beleive that it was considered rather infra dig to be too smart about mathematics and the like - Captain Bligh was a navigator and was considered rahter lower class than the other officers because his skills were in hte more mundane and practical

Um, if it is true that Bligh was looked down on as lower class, it is even more true that one could not be an officer in the Navy without also being a navigator. It's the sort of mundane, practical skill ones needs to keep one's ship from smacking a rock somewhere--and I assure you that any navy captain was overwhelmingly concerned not to smack a rock with his expensive Admiralty toy (-:

"Infra dig"?

YHOS,
Snarkhunter