This   group   is   critically   important.   Access hatches  must,  of  course,  remain  open  until  the stores  are  struck  below.  A  ship  is  in  danger whenever the ship is unable to seal off all com- partments  within  a  very  few  minutes—impossible to  do  during  a  replenishment.  Prolonging  the striking phase, therefore, exposes the entire ship and  crew  to  danger  for  an  unnecessarily  longtime. This  is  unacceptable  to  any  responsible  command. Personnel  Requirements The  number  of  personnel  required  for  a replenishment   depends   primarily   upon   three variables—the number of stations to be used, the kind and amount of stores to be received, and the equipment  available  that  serves  to  reduce  manual labor. It is probable that the ship has a local instruc- tion  that  lists  the  number  of  personnel  and  the type of equipment required at each station. The instruction  should  be  studied  carefully.  If  it  ap- pears to be inadequate or incorrect, the planning group should not hesitate to recommend changes based on careful analysis of each provision in the instruction. A  replenishment  plan,  published  before  the operation,  should  assign  units  to  stations,  with deck and frame numbers listed where the person- nel are to assemble. PETTY OFFICERS.— Petty  officers  from  the department furnishing personnel for the working party  are  the  backbone  of  any  good  replenish- ment. Orders should be issued through them for their  personnel.  Petty  officers  are  required  at  a ratio of 1 for each 10 persons in the working par- ty.  These  10  persons  should  be  under  the  petty officer’s  control  as  a  team  at  all  times  and  the petty officer should be responsible for seeing that they  remain  on  station  until  dismissed.  Ideally, the petty officer should be personally acquainted with each member so that the petty officer does not  have  to  keep  track  of  one  or  two  strangers in  a  large  group. There is a tendency for departments to furnish the  petty  officers  who  can  best  be  spared  from their primary duties. This usually means that a large majority of them are new third class petty officers. Many of these people are excellent petty officers, but in the group there may be many who lack  supervisory  experience.  The  supply  officer should be tactfully reminded early in the planning stages to bring up the subject with the other heads of  department  and  to  insist  that  only  qualified petty officers be furnished. It is to the advantage of the other departments to expedite the replenish- ment, and the better qualified the personnel they send, the better the chances for an early comple- tion.  Some  ships  specify  in  their  replenishment plan  that  team  petty  officers  be  second  class  petty officers   or   above. WORKING PARTY.— The number of people required is fairly simple to compute. Each station that is to be used should be considered separately, taking  into  account  the  amount  of  stores  to  be handled at the station and the equipment that is to be used there. Heavy and awkward materials that  must  be  handled  at  high  speed  (such  as potatoes)  require  that  people  be  relieved  fre- quently.  Relief  should  also  be  provided  for  any team  or  teams  who  are  to  be  on  station  for  an unusually  long  time.  Tired  personnel  are  apt  to have  accidents  and  materially  slow  the  operation, Relief should be by rotation of units with, in the most cases, the relieved unit standing by to take over at the end of the rest period. Considerable team competition can sometimes be generated that speeds  movement  of  the  material  and  reduces  the effect  of  fatigue. If material is to be removed from receiving sta- tions by towing the loaded cargo nets to the sort- ing stations, one team should be assigned to each receiving  station  to  pick  up  items  that  spill  out of the nets. This occurs frequently enough so that provisions  should  be  made  in  advance  to  take  care of it. These teams may be secured as soon as the last load of material is aboard, or maybe shifted to  another  location  as  a  relief  party.  The  team petty  officer  should  know  in  advance  what  is required. ASSIGNMENT   OF   SUPPLY   PERSON- NEL.— As  stated  before,  a  substantial  number  of the officers and petty officers in the supply depart- ment  must  be  used  during  a  replenishment.  Some supervise, some check and sort the various kinds of  material  received,  and  some  are  available  to accept  accountable  stores. Supervisors.—  In planning the assignments of supervisors   for   the   replenishment,   particular attention should be given to the possibility of caus- ing   confusion   through   oversupervision.   Com- petent officers and petty officers leave their own personal  mark  upon  whatever  they  do.  This  is done quite unconsciously in most cases and con- sists of doing things in their own particular way. Too many strong personalities operating in a given 7-12