A hundred ships still need crews

What would happen if Britain suddenly had as many county-named warships as there are counties?

The world would notice a much larger Royal Navy, but Britain would face an immediate crewing crisis and would need to reform recruitment as well as build hulls.

A sudden fleet approaching a hundred ships would leave the Royal Navy short of crews. The discussion questions whether the main recruitment problem is too few applicants or too many applicants failing to complete the process. Childhood medical records and standardized exclusions are offered as examples of rules that can deserve closer examination. Another participant cautions that severe skin problems can impede work in cold, wet, or stressful conditions. The proposed distinction is between conditions that prevent a particular job and exclusions applied uniformly across services with different working environments. Poorly specified outsourced recruitment contracts are also criticized as a barrier between willing applicants and trained personnel.