However, there is only 1 (double occupancy) stateroom and a cramped

barracks for "6 Marines/Crew". So I'm not sure where all the marines
are going... there's no room for more than 2! Possibly just the 1.

Anyone else actually looked at this, got any thoughts?

Well, the Marines could double as gunners.

Yep. Adopted as per other email suggestion. Great minds think alike!

Then, back to my original question, what rank would the Captain be? 7
crew under him? (I'm going to go with him rather than him/her given
it's the Sword Worlds). I'd have said 'Lieutenant' thinking of real
world ranks for a smallish ship/crew like that but the language
equivalent 'Leutnant' is Rank 4 which seems a bit high. If I was to go
with, say, Rank 2 it just doesn't feel like 'Seniorsergent' is quite
right. Although that's the rank at which you get Pilot 1 which would
kind of support the typical Pilot-plays-captain routine.

I'd still go with a (Navy) Lieutenant-equivalent rank if the ship has any independent patrolling in its duties, as I don't recall that the Swordies gave NCOs extraordinary authority compared to everyone else.

Great to hear that my gut feeling wasn't so far off the mark so I'll go back to the poor chap and demote him somewhat back to an old style Kapitensleutnant. Perhaps the reason he's been 'banished' to keep an eye on Dawnworld (which must be pretty dead as postings go for the most part given it's a POP=0 world) is because he's getting on a bit and not passed the promotion boards. Perhaps he'll be really curmudgeonly with the PCs for just that reason... :-)

I wonder why the MgT1 Sword Worlds book seems to change it so much? (Though I may have answered that question by looking at the author who I believe I'm right in recalling has been complained about in these here parts for other things...) I had thought it was Hans R-M's work, but it's not.

cheers