Crew Morale = Crew Performance

Donkey-Shot11 · 11-18-09, 09:54 AM

I used to be a fisherman. I sailed on a sterntrawler, a big factory ship with a crew of 40+. Morale could get pretty damm low. We could be out at sea for as little as 19 days to as much as two months.

What happens is: people get annoyed with eachother. Big time! Especially on the ship I sailed on. Basically, I sailed with 40 guys who all hated the other 39 guys. Fight were commen, hell, we even had one guy who wanted to cave one of the mates head in with a fire axe. It took four of us the hold him back.

And the longer we were out at sea, the higher tensions grew. But! In all this, it never had an effect on the quality of our work. Why? A sense of selve preservation. If you screw up, you could get hurt, badly. You could even get killed. Luckily, we never had a fatality in the time I was there. But it happend often enough on other trawlers.

But long story short, in my personal experience: morale didnt effect our work (self preservation remember?). But it could seriously disrupt (already bad) relations between crew members.

It would be interesting to see, how this would play out in a U-boat sim. Seeing the crew get into highly tensed arguments and fights, usualy about trivial things.

My question to people on this forum is: are there any other (ex) sailors, fishermen or navy men around here? Have you had simular expercience as far as morale is concerned? And for any (ex) military guys out there, how would a drop of morale effect the performance of your unit/vessel?

11-18-09, 09:54 AM	#1
Donkey-Shot11 Watch Join Date: Nov 2009 Posts: 26 Downloads: 39 Uploads: 0	Crew Morale = Crew Performance I used to be a fisherman. I sailed on a sterntrawler, a big factory ship with a crew of 40+. Morale could get pretty damm low. We could be out at sea for as little as 19 days to as much as two months. What happens is: people get annoyed with eachother. Big time! Especially on the ship I sailed on. Basically, I sailed with 40 guys who all hated the other 39 guys. Fight were commen, hell, we even had one guy who wanted to cave one of the mates head in with a fire axe. It took four of us the hold him back. And the longer we were out at sea, the higher tensions grew. But! In all this, it never had an effect on the quality of our work. Why? A sense of selve preservation. If you screw up, you could get hurt, badly. You could even get killed. Luckily, we never had a fatality in the time I was there. But it happend often enough on other trawlers. But long story short, in my personal experience: morale didnt effect our work (self preservation remember?). But it could seriously disrupt (already bad) relations between crew members. It would be interesting to see, how this would play out in a U-boat sim. Seeing the crew get into highly tensed arguments and fights, usualy about trivial things. My question to people on this forum is: are there any other (ex) sailors, fishermen or navy men around here? Have you had simular expercience as far as morale is concerned? And for any (ex) military guys out there, how would a drop of morale effect the performance of your unit/vessel?