Standardized ships helped the Navy absorb millions of people

A sailor transferring between Fletchers could already know the passageways, ladders, gun positions, and routes between essential compartments. Repeated layouts reduced the amount of relearning required on a new ship. That mattered during an expansion described as roughly 161,000 naval personnel in 1940 to roughly 3.4 million in 1945. Ships requiring individually learned handling would make growth on that scale much harder. German high-pressure boilers provide the comparison: technically impressive machinery that could require different care even among ships of the same class. Standardization made a large fleet easier to crew as well as easier to build.