Speed argues that retaining a trained sailor matters more head for head than recruiting a replacement because retention preserves experience, saves training costs, and relieves the training system. Recruiting had improved and premature departures were falling, but an eighteen-month notice lag meant the trained strength was still declining. The fleet remained short of junior seaman and engineer officers and nearly one thousand artificers, about twelve percent of the requirement for that group. A coming demographic trough among 16-to-19-year-olds threatened the Navy's main recruiting pool. Good annual intake figures could not immediately produce a fully manned and technically competent fleet.
Chapter · 2:24:28-2:26:20
Retention and the Royal Navy's specialist shortages
Improving recruiting figures could not quickly erase shortages of junior officers and artificers because training and notice periods made naval manpower slow to change.