Wartime expansion favored smaller escorts

The wartime navy passed through roughly 1,150 ships and vessels while expanding from about 1,820 personnel to 96,000. The 1945 comparison counts vessels commissioned at any point during the year, so its totals are not a fleet snapshot for one date. Some destroyers had already decommissioned before others entered service. The figures include 24 destroyers, 68 frigates, 112 corvettes, 67 minesweepers, 75 motor launches, and 30 motor torpedo boats. Escorts and coastal craft supplied most of this expansion. Their task was to turn Allied sea control into the safe use of maritime routes.