Keeping water outside the ship is a familiar damage-control instinct, while a listing carrier can require rapid counterflooding. Carrier stability therefore demands responses that can conflict with habits learned in other warships. The proposed explanation links the loss of carrier damage-control officers aboard Courageous and Glorious with a reduced pool available for ships such as Illustrious and Ark Royal. Experienced officers transferred from other warships received instruction ashore before their carrier appointments. The objection to calling them incompetent is that their earlier service had reinforced precisely the instinct they now needed to overcome. Making a different response dependable under pressure requires substantial retraining.
Notable Point · 1:25:40-1:27:37
Carrier damage control and the need to retrain instinct
Carrier stability illustrates why specialist retraining can be necessary even for experienced damage-control officers.