He is meaning I think that the XOs assistant is a Senior NCO so he could be any E-7,E-8,or E-9 not the Chief of the Boat they are not one and the same person.
But it is confusing based just on the context of that sentence. I am not sure why it says assistant navigator in reference to a CPO that does not make sense seeing as any navigator would be a commissioned officer not an SNCO or this is a Navy term I don't know.
The CPO he is talking about does not appear to be the COTB though just an SNCO which you are going have more than one of even on a sub one of them being the COTB.You are correct the Chief of the Boat would be going around the boat maintain discipline by being stern or praising depending on what he saw and I dont see why that would be different in the Tangs case.
The Chief of the Boat is one of the all hands he refers to.Though different sub commanders did have different systems for parts of watch I dont think any of them would take the Chief of the Boat away from his primary duty of maintaining discipline of the enlisted men he cant do that standing next to the XO all day.
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