Some of us spent as often deploying to ships and naval bases (in my case I am pleased to say 'for no more than a fortnight at a time*') as we did to RAF bases in support of maritime ops.
Spent a week on HMS Malborough circa 1994 - awful experience. Because the T23 started life as little more than a tug with towed array, it had zero space for people. Then some Admiral said "good lord a warship with no weapons - sticks some guns and wizz bangy things on it". Of course weapons need weapons operators, cue even less space. The PWO told me it had the fuel to sail halfway round the globe, but only enough food space for a couple of weeks. I spent my seven days on an airbed sharing the Harpoon Power Room (cupboard more like) with a submariner. Never again.
PS no apologies for the thread drift....all these Nimrod threads need to slowly drift away.............