The USS Southerly was a general‑purpose 2,100‑ton destroyer of the Fletcher class. She was originally equipped to provide anti‑aircraft, surface, and shore‑bombardment fire; deliver torpedo attacks; and furnish anti‑submarine protection. Later converted into a prototype anti‑submarine warfare (ASW) vessel, she underwent extensive changes in equipment. Improved and enlarged ASW facilities were installed, with a marked reduction in anti‑aircraft and torpedo armament. Her wartime complement of 309 crew members was reduced to 264, with a corresponding reduction in living accommodations—but operating experience soon showed the need for more personnel, without any additional living space being available, a common occurrence on modern warships.

The Southerly’s engineering plant, controlled from a central throttle board, requires about one‑third of the ship’s total crew just to operate the machinery. That machinery provides the power to carry the ship’s offensive weapons to the scene of action and to operate them while there. Propulsion spaces—such as the fire room—are especially costly in terms of space and weight in combatant ships. This is the price of speed.

Communications with other units are coordinated by Radio Central. Here, manual and teletype messages are transmitted and received, and voice and visual traffic are processed and filed. For a destroyer, this is considered a relatively commodious space.

The Combat Information Center (CIC) receives and displays all types of information necessary to support command decisions. This compartment illustrates the increasing cost of this function in space, men, and equipment. The 5‑inch plotting room—shown here in operation—is typical of the complex gunnery installations that make heavy demands on manpower and space within the hull.

An elaborate underwater‑battery plotting room exemplifies the Southerly’s primary mission of anti‑submarine warfare. The installation of this complex ASW system greatly improves the ship’s ability to deliver killing attacks against submarines. However, the space required has been taken at the expense of crew living quarters. Moreover, the number of personnel required to operate and maintain this equipment has increased markedly over earlier gear. Additional space and weight are also consumed by the air‑conditioning installation needed to keep personnel operating this equipment at peak efficiency.

To handle the ever‑increasing paperwork and records, the ship’s office provides file storage and working space for four yeomen. However, space limitations here and in other offices mean a great deal of the ship’s paperwork must be prepared and stored in officers’ rooms. The ship’s laundry contains a washer‑extractor, dryer, and presser, all of which must operate 24 hours a day to provide weekly laundry service for the crew.

The ship’s sick bay provides facilities for routine medical treatment. Adjacent to it, the engineering log room serves as office space for the largest department aboard. This, then, is how the crew works. Now, let us look at how they live.

Before refurbishment, the E Division berthing space housed 70 men—with all their personal effects plus miscellaneous ship’s equipment—in an 800‑square‑foot compartment. This yields about 11.5 square feet per man. Increases in personnel have since forced the use of shops and passageways for additional deck space, and seabags have had to substitute for lockers—with predictably poor results for sanitation and morale.

Traffic problems in this compartment are severe, approaching a maximum at sea in rough weather. Even the boatswain’s mate can occasionally become trapped in the narrow passageways. As noted, this compartment provides only 11.5 square feet per man—2 square feet below the Bureau of Ships’ prescribed standard of 13.5. The result is virtually no privacy and minimal convenience for dressing. To this must be added the confusion caused by ship’s motion, the extra foul‑weather gear brought out in bad conditions, the constant high‑level noise from machinery and blowers, and the odors from such densely packed living.

Each transom locker accommodates one man and provides only six cubic feet of storage space for all his personal gear. Every bunk and locker in this space is occupied, despite the fact that 10 percent or more of the crew is almost always away at school or on leave. Restricted passageways and steep ladders further increase the difficulty of reaching washrooms and topside areas, especially in rough seas.

In one view of the compartment, a large locker filled with electronic spare parts can be seen in the background. This locker occupies space that might otherwise be available for personnel lockers or pea‑coat lockers. At the top of the main ladder is a narrow passageway through which traffic from all aft living spaces must funnel. From here, men must proceed forward to the heads and washrooms or out onto the main deck through the door in the background.

The after crew’s head has one urinal for every 41 men and one toilet seat for every 21 men when all equipment is serviceable. The after crew washroom has one washbasin per 16 men and one shower per 49 men. These ratios are close to Bureau standards, and the spaces are considered better than average for destroyers. Even when occupied, this after head is considered large for a destroyer and is far superior to the forward crew’s head.

Normally, the after crew washroom can accommodate the number of personnel assigned during routine use. However, during peak periods, excessive water vapor indicates the need for improved exhaust ventilation. This space serves about two‑thirds of the crew and is still considerably better than the forward crew washroom, which is too small even to photograph easily. Note that there are no provisions for hanging clothing or drying towels.

To increase the number of available bunks, the mess hall also serves as berthing for 31 men. Folded mess tables and benches can be seen in the foreground; storing clothing and shoes on these surfaces is common. Access to the lower bunks is difficult. This passageway is one of the only two routes from all forward berthing spaces to the forward crew head, located a deck above and forward.

The dual use of this space prevents late sleeping for mid‑watch standers, since all bunks must be secured for meals. Access to lockers is also impossible during meal times. In addition to the lockers that are blocked by bunks or traffic, some are unusable because of steam fittings installed inside them.

The ship has a total of 264 lockers for the crew, most being the standard transom type. Personnel beyond this number must use seabags or share lockers, as 19 men are currently doing. Vegetable preparation should occur in a small room just behind one designated door; however, warm weather often entices mess cooks to work outside.

The galley is typical for destroyers and is adequate for food preparation. Its topside location improves ventilation, but it forces the crew to carry food 63 feet forward along the weather deck and then down two decks. Under normal conditions, the mess line forms topside; in bad weather, it forms inside, causing serious congestion in passageways and on ladders. Men spend an average of 20 minutes waiting in line and 15 minutes actually eating.

After descending the ladders, the men enter a cafeteria‑style serving line. A typical meal aboard consists of a meat dish, two vegetables, soup, dessert, and coffee or a cold drink. Equipment limitations prevent offering optional menu items. Quantity control is needed for meat and dessert. Food quality is reported as excellent, and the quantity is ample.

As noted, the route from galley to serving line is long and exposed, causing problems during rough weather. Food covers protect against contamination, but undesirable cooling and occasional spilling occur on the two ladders leading into the mess hall. When food containers are emptied, mess line service stops until they are refilled.

However, the more frequent and serious source of delay is the shortage of seating in the mess hall. Complete messing of the crew—including early meals for watch standers and duty personnel—requires about 1 hour and 45 minutes per meal. The mess hall has only 50 seats, accommodating just 19 percent of the crew at one time—well below the Bureau’s maximum standard of 33 percent.

To speed the process, individual assistance is often needed to scrape and stack trays so that mess gear can be washed and reused quickly. The mess hall provides about 12 square feet per man—above the Bureau’s standard of 9 square feet. However, bunks and other miscellaneous ship’s gear make much of that space unusable. Constant noise from the scullery and blowers, along with frequent high temperatures, makes eating conditions far from ideal.

The scullery operates during meals so that mess gear can be reused, saving storage space. This means that later diners may receive plates and cups that are very hot and still damp—acceptable for hot dishes but hardly suitable for ice cream or salad.

The chief petty officers’ mess room is considered superior for a destroyer. A major defect, however, is that clothing must be stored there due to lack of space elsewhere. The scarcity of wardrobe space is clear in the starboard chief petty officers’ bunk room, where every available corner is pressed into use.

The wardroom seats about 63 percent of the ship’s officers, and all officers can be fed within an hour under normal conditions. Since it is the only common space available to officers outside their cabins, the wardroom must also serve many other purposes: messing, recreation, official entertaining, emergency surgery, movie showings, and courts‑martial, among others.

Daily officer instruction—such as tactical training—and frequent conferences use the wardroom continuously. The mess table must also be used whenever large blueprints or other bulky materials are handled. One officer’s bunk room provides space for four officers, all their possessions, and a significant number of ship’s records. Since many officers have no dedicated offices, much of the ship’s paperwork is drafted and stored here.

Four such bunk rooms, one double stateroom, and two single staterooms provide accommodations for a total of 20 officers. During off‑duty periods, the ship’s combined library and athletic gear locker offers reading material and sports equipment, paid for in part by profits from the ship’s store.

The mess hall is the only interior space set aside for enlisted recreation, and it is available only after the evening meal. At sea, when watch standers are sleeping in the bunks located directly above tables, the tables cannot be used. For most sailors, locker tops and bunks are the only places available for reading and letter writing.

Whenever weather conditions prevent showing movies topside, the mess hall is used instead. About one‑third of the crew can be squeezed in, using benches and deck space as seating. The nightly movie has become an integral part of shipboard routine.

At sea, naval personnel are generally either on watch, at work, or in their bunks. There is nowhere else to go and little else to do. Present installations on our ships need all the men assigned: watches must be stood, battle stations manned, equipment operated and maintained under all operating conditions and against all possible enemy actions.

Yet serious questions remain. Can we keep putting more complex equipment aboard, equipment that requires additional operating and maintenance personnel, at the further expense of living spaces that are already marginal? Have we already overcrowded our ships beyond the limits of efficient operation?