Help on sealed orders...

The only reason that I can think of for sealed orders is secrecy. If the captain and crew do not know why they are to proceed to Lat 13 N, Long. 117 W (to rendesvous with Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise, NCC 1701-D) then they can't inadvertently tell anyone before they sail.

R/
Duncan

The orders can be for whatever purpose you need for the story.

Any orders that require security clearance come sealed. What you're talking about could be just about anything.

Elenitsa said:

I know that captains received from Admirals sealed orders, to be opened at sea at a certain latitude...

What would the orders say? I would like to know several possibilities... and yes, I tried to google it but I think knowing what exactly to ask from google would have helped me more .

Any military history fans?

Click to expand...

Most orders aren't 'sealed' orders. Everyone may know where you are going and why, before you leave port.
It's only if you don't want word to spread that you wait until you're at sea before opening the special orders, because then communication can be controlled.

This article has an example:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_of_Guam

Mac

The real trick is determing what you need the story to do. It is true that the crew would need to know before they reached the intended place what they were there to do, in case there were preparations that needed to be made.

"Says here we're to take the female guest on board and deliver her to Guam."

"It would have been nice to know that a couple of days ago, captain, so I could have had the steward set up a segregated cabin for her."

Most of the time, sealed orders were opened once the ship was underway. The only time I could see sealed orders being kept closed beyond that is for things like contingencies or release of special weapons, then they would be more instructions or special authorizations.