Royal Navy personnel geography and Commonwealth crewing

Britain did not suffer one continuous, universal shortage of sailors throughout the war. The more common problem was geographic: personnel existed, though they were often far from the newly available escort or overseas command that needed them. Moving sailors aboard a commissioned ship solved transportation while keeping that ship crewed, so it created no spare pool at the destination. Commonwealth navies offered another way to keep older or transferred ships operating when new Royal Navy construction entered service. Public explanations about another navy manning ships could also serve political needs at home even when the underlying transaction concerned force distribution. The distinction separates total manpower from trained specialties, deployment, and alliance burden sharing.