Number Of Crewmembers

[Lanzfeld]

When you start out in the office your boat comes with a stock number of crewmembers. I always add more until the boat is full myself...

Does anyone ever leave with less then a full boat and why?:hmm:

[AVGWarhawk]

I load up the boat. Might as well start the experience level right away.

[DanBiddle]

Yep, I load up my boat right away as well. Can't see any reason why you wouldn't load up the maximum number of crewmen really.

Cheers,

[Melonfish]

even if i get about 10 sitting in the bow quarters almost the whole trip they're worth it just incase i need damage controll and i'm all out trying to re-load, fire my deck gun, shoot down planes and bleed the last remnands from the engines.
pete

Originally Posted by DanBiddle

Yep, I load up my boat right away as well. Can't see any reason why you wouldn't load up the maximum number of crewmen really.

The reason is that it is NOT realistic. In the early years (39 - 41) Type IIs carried a crew of 25 and Type VIIs carried a crew of 44 (4 officers, 10 petty officers and 30 ratings). As the anit-aircraft guns increased, so did the crew members to handle them.

If you use SH3 Commander, click on the realistic crew option when you start a career. This will give you a pretty good example of the realistic crew in numbers, ranks and specialties.

[IceGrog]

i load it up all the way, the cheap ones too

[GreyBeard]

From TGW's readme:

Known Issues

There is a well-known undocumented feature of Silent Hunter III that may result in no credit being
recorded for sunken ships. To avoid this Silent Hunter III behaviour:
1) Do not upgrade or change anything on your U-Boat on your first patrol of a new career before
leaving port.
2) On your following patrols do not upgrade your sub at the end of the patrol... wait until you are
about to leave for the next one. Remember:
In base at end of patrol=no upgrading;
In base just prior to patrol start=ok go ahead and upgrade it!

I may have misunderstood this, but that sounds to me like nothing should be upgraded on the very first patrol and I read that to mean crewman too. Am I right or not?

[Sailor Steve]

I've always loaded out my crew before my first patrol of a career, with no problem. I think it only applies to actual physical 'upgrades', i.e. equipment.

[TarJak]

I always leve it as it comes. I use the SH3 Commander realistic crew option. Don;t see the point of overcrowding the boat and having a bunch of spare bodies that have nowhere to sleep.

[Tachyon]

Originally Posted by GreyBeard

From TGW's readme:

Known Issues

There is a well-known undocumented feature of Silent Hunter III that may result in no credit being
recorded for sunken ships. To avoid this Silent Hunter III behaviour:
1) Do not upgrade or change anything on your U-Boat on your first patrol of a new career before
leaving port.
2) On your following patrols do not upgrade your sub at the end of the patrol... wait until you are
about to leave for the next one. Remember:
In base at end of patrol=no upgrading;
In base just prior to patrol start=ok go ahead and upgrade it!

I may have misunderstood this, but that sounds to me like nothing should be upgraded on the very first patrol and I read that to mean crewman too. Am I right or not?

I think it's ok if you go ahead with crew members.

[AVGWarhawk]

I have no issues if I load up crew on first mission. It is equipment upgrades as Sailor Steve stated that creates an issue.

Like I stated, I get as many as I can. If we run out of food we can always offer one crew member up as a meal!!!! Hummmmmmmm, steak and potatoes tonight....anyone seen Friederick?

[Subwolf]

What do you think is the minimum number of crew in a VII? With 52 men there is a lot of work putting them to sleep all the time, I wish they could do this without my help :rotfl:

Well of course I can just install the no fatigue mod

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by Subwolf

What do you think is the minimum number of crew in a VII? With 52 men there is a lot of work putting them to sleep all the time, I wish they could do this without my help :rotfl:

Well of course I can just install the no fatigue mod

I usually go with about 46

[Subwolf]

Yes, I'll dismiss some of the sailors when I return to base, don't need them all.

Originally Posted by Subwolf

What do you think is the minimum number of crew in a VII? With 52 men there is a lot of work putting them to sleep all the time, I wish they could do this without my help

In the early war years the typical Type VII carried a crew of 44. Four officers (captain, first watch officer, second watch officer & Engineer), ten NCOs (of which one was the navigator and one was the third watch officer) and thirty seamen (ratings or Lords as they were called). Some times a boat carried a Captain in Training to observe and at other times war correspondents were on board to photograph and to write propaganda stories for the home front.

As armament increased in the later years, crew were added to man the extra AA guns; also needed for replacement of those wounded or killed by aircraft while manning the AA flak guns.