Black Templar Captains: A theory.

[Iron Lord]

On 12/13/2018 at 3:37 AM, Canadian_F_H said:

there are other possible routes.  if he is captain of an astartes vessel, he is a captain in addition to whatever other role and title he holds.  it would similarly explain why we see so few captains since they are generally busy captaining a vessel to show up in battle which would end up in the fluff.

Space marines generally don't captain ships - they leave this to their best Chapter Serfs - instead leading boarding actions, or commanding the fleet as a whole. In order to avoid confusion, the captain of a ship may be called something different, like shipmaster (Ciaphas Cain - The Emperor's Finest).

 

[Brother Tyler]

Faultless Cube has described the real answer. However, I wouldn't use the terms "mistake" or "cover up." Instead, the Black Templars were retconned early in 3rd edition and the explanation given for Navarre and Alhaus being described as Captains prior to that retcon is simply Games Workshop's way of making it logically consistent with the newer lore.