Jollyrogers
57 posts, incept 2012-07-30
2020-03-28 16:51:01
@Idiom - not sure if I am a believer in the fecal path or not, but other than average age of the crew, Navy ships are probably riskier than cruise ships (cruise ship staff excepted).
Enlisted Sailors sleep in very large berthing areas with dozens of sailors sharing showers, toilets, sinks, and urinals. Even junior officers tend to live in staterooms of 6 or more with a shared sink in the room, but have to go down a passageway to get to showers. Only very senior officers - squadron COs and ship department heads - at least O5s, and senior get their own rooms. To be completely honest, some of the folks may go a couple of days between showers, let alone washing their hands. Sometimes there just isn't time to do so before eating because of the pace of operations.
The toilets and urinals are salt water and the toilets do not have lids, just seats, so any flush is going to push some atomized feces into the air. Showers may be stalls or open bay. Haven't spent the night on a carrier in a long time, but it's 5000 people in a very small space.