Royal Naval Engine Room Artificer (ERA) bullion blazer badge.

Large well made gold bullion and coloured thread blazer badge.

The Royal Naval Engine Room Artificer (ERA)
The Engine Room Artificer (ERA) role was formally established in the Royal Navy on 28 March 1868 through an Order in Council, authorising the employment of skilled mechanics in ship engine rooms to replace junior engineer officers. Hence the date 1868 on the badge.
ERAs were initially recruited from industry as experienced tradesmen such as engine-fitters, boilermakers, smiths, or coppersmiths, aged 21 to 35, who demonstrated practical knowledge of marine engines through examinations.
The artificer combined high-level hands-on engineering skill with supervisory and diagnostic responsibilities, often acting as the technical authority for a ship’s equipment. They were very much the elite technical rating of the RN.
ERAs were the highest paid ratings in the Royal Navy – significantly above ordinary seamen and petty officers – reflecting how valued and specialised they were.
By the 1950s, ERAs were apprentice-trained as boilermakers, coppersmiths, fitters and turners, and the remaining trades expanded by cross-training to undertake most of the Royal Navy’s operational maintenance and the running of all mechanical equipment including steam, diesel and gas turbine main machinery. In the 1960s, nuclear power operation was added to the resume of a considerable number of ERAs.
The trade evolved over time, with the introduction of the Electrical Artificer in 1901 and other specialisms, right through to the last class of Artificers to pass out from HMS Sultan in 2010.
“Tubal Cain” – the motto
This is the really fascinating part of the badge. Tubal-Cain is described in the Book of Genesis as “an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron,” highlighting his expertise in metallurgy. In other words, he is the biblical patriarch of all metalworkers and craftsmen – the perfect patron figure for the ERAs to claim.