Ships' Companies
The Captains had a typical crew of either 156 (Evarts) or 186 (Buckley) officers and ratings. The bulk of the ratings enlisted after the outbreak of World War II, thus having little military or seafaring experience, and had to be trained in whichever branch of the Navy they chose to serve; after about six weeks drilling, marching and generally getting physically fit they went into specific job training. Many of the senior non-commissioned officers were pre-war Royal Navy ratings who had been promoted.
Engineering personnel were faced with the added complication of power plants not normally found in the Royal Navy. Initially, they were trained alongside US Navy personnel at purpose-built facilities in the General Electric Company factories at Cleveland and Syracuse, and were awarded certificates at the end of their training; later, training was provided in the United Kingdom.
Ship's companies were shipped over to the USA by them taking passage from the Clyde or Liverpool to New York on liners such as the Queen Mary. On arriving in New York, the crews were initially assigned to HMS Saker until they were reassigned to a Captain-class frigate. Later, some of the Captains were ferried across the Atlantic by crews of the Royal Canadian Navy coming to the United Kingdom to collect River-class frigates ordered by the Canadians.
Read more about this topic: Captain Class Frigate
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