tim's experiment

Donald Trump’s opinions are rarely worth taking seriously. The man is ignorant, stupid and dishonest. So it was disconcerting to find something falling from his lips which I sort of agreed with.

When asked to comment on the length of time the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln had been at sea – at that time 250 days – Mr Trump said “not long enough.” Like so many of Mr Trump’s offerings this was a crass and tactless way of putting it. But the man has a point.

No doubt continuous cruising is a hardship but sailors have always had to endure this. Indeed in the days of sail voyages were often measured in years rather than months or days.

Drake’s famous voyage round the world took three years; Magellan’s pioneering circumnavigation would also have taken him three years but he died on the way. All Captain Cook’s exploratory voyages in the Pacific took three years each. The Bounty took a year to sail from England to Tahiti before the crew famously mutinied rather than do the return journey.

Dana’s “Two Years Before the Mast” (now perhaps an obscure book but still worth reading) were occupied by just two voyages: New England to California and California to New England. There was no Panama Canal at the time. This may also explain the length of Darwin’s voyage in the Beagle, which took five years.

Well that was then and now is now. The appearance of steam ships effectively stopped really long cruises because of the need to refuel. Thus the Russian Baltic fleet took seven months to get to its thrashing at the Battle of Tsushima, but this included stops for coal.

During the first world war the need for fuel curtailed long voyages, with the exception of some German surface raiders which survived by taking coal and supplies from the ships they captured. The outstanding success was the Wolf, which managed a cruise of 15 months before successfully returning to Germany.

In World War 2 also the outstanding feats of endurance came from German auxiliary cruisers (merchant ships converted for surface raiding), who could resupply from their captives. The Pinguin managed 390 days, and the Atlantis actually clocked 602 days, with one brief landing at the Kerguelen Islands, which were uninhabited at the time and so offered no R and R possibilities.

This was a stressful existence because raiders were eagerly hunted by the Royal Navy. Both ships were eventually sunk by British heavy cruisers.

The voyage of the Atlantis is exceptionally well-documented because both the Captain and First Officer survived the war and penned accounts of their exploits. As the Captain had preempted the German market the First Officer wrote his in English. The need to combat stress and homesickness in the crew was met by having a sort of on-board holiday place in which contingents could enjoy leisure and recreation. Only a call to action stations would disturb them.

I have not been able to find anything on US Navy exploits in the Pacific, where there was a lot of resupplying at sea, but some more recent incidents are recalled by old salts here.

The harsh fact is, I fear, that navies generally do not operate those nice “X number of trips and go home” arrangements common in air forces. Once war breaks out crews generally stick with their ships, and some get luckier than others.

In times of peace the leadership will try very hard to keep crews entertained, occupied and regularly rested and recuperated. Once war breaks out priorities shift.

It will be objected, of course, that what happens in wartime should not happen in peacetime but if you are vigorously bombing another country then this is not peacetime. US governments are reluctant to admit they are at war because that requires the approval of Congress.

I do not wish to seem unsympathetic. No doubt eight months continuous on an aircraft carrier is hard work. Those enduring it may care to compare their situation with that of cruise ship crews, who routinely have contracts up to ten months long with no days off.

Comments here from distressed passenger who asked some questions the cruise lines would rather not have asked.

If that does not cheer you up then we must alas resort to an old saying popular in moments of distress in the Royal Navy: if you can’t take a joke you shouldn’t have joined.