Historically who gets the credit? -The Boat or the Captain and Crew

[Crosseye76]

Originally Posted by sqk7744

Good point. So besides a celebration when an unpopular captain left, did the XO, COB, and section heads, Engineering, etc stay on?

Sometimes. As was pointed out earlier, some of the crew went to different boats or duty, and new men came in. The same went for officers.

Take for example, the Wahoo, under Mush Morton. His superb wardroom of George Grider, Roger Paine and Dick O'Kane went on to other boats, and also to commands of their own. They were not aboard Wahoo on her final patrol. And, of course, Mush himself took command of Wahoo from Pinky Kennedy.

Another example, after the Puffer had survived a savage depth charge attack, the crews morale was badly shaken so they decided to scatter them to other boats. The Exec stayed but the skipper was moved up to staff. Gordon Selby took command, and focused on training as he stated he had at least a 50% turnover in officers and crew.

So, turnover was fairly constant for officers and some senior enlisted men, less so for junior sailors until they had a few patrols, gained in rank and experience, and went to schools for technical training or to other boats in more senior roles. Sometimes a shore billet was used as a "reward" for a valuable CPO or other senior enlisted man who had made a few too many patrols and were starting to show the strain.

If you have not read it yet, I recommend Clay Blairs "Silent Victory". Probably about the best single-volume book on the U.S subs in the Pacific. The discussion of the "Skipper Problem" is very interesting and feeds into your query very neatly.



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