Cramped machinery increases maintenance manpower

Small destroyers packed engines, weapons, and supporting systems into spaces that were difficult to reach. Sailors often had to remove intervening components, repair the target equipment, and rebuild everything around it while the rest of the ship continued operating. Larger hulls could provide direct access, shortening the same maintenance task and reducing the number of people needed to complete it efficiently. Crew size therefore reflected access and upkeep demands as well as the number of weapons or engines aboard, especially during fleet deployments. Other navies' destroyers could be equally demanding of manpower, sometimes for different reasons.