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Im struggling to find any sources on where and how the imperial navy gets new voidmen. Theres plenty of lore on how IG recruits regiments and its easy to find. Does anyone have any good sources for how the IN recruits?

Kids of the existing crew.

HoundsofDemos wrote:
Kids of the existing crew.

This.

There are entire self-sustaining societies on the ships. Officers would presumably come from the Schola Progenium.

There's a Navy press-gang raid on a dockside bar at the start of 'Priests of Mars'.

I can't remember the book, but there's a naval academy talked about in it. I'll have a nosey through my books tomorrow.

Edit: it could be The Magos

 Grimtuff wrote:

HoundsofDemos wrote:
Kids of the existing crew.

This.

There are entire self-sustaining societies on the ships. Officers would presumably come from the Schola Progenium.

Even by 40k standards that seems ... odd to say the least.

And what about the crews for new ships?

The ratings are press-ganged. Governors of planets may also release their undesirables into the custody of the Imperial Navy. Ratings are used in tasks that require brawn more than skills so they are expendable.

Officers are from noble families. The BFG novels had one officer as one of the junior children of a hive noble family. I would imagine that junior offspring with little chance of inheriting the family business or estates might traditionally be sent off to the Navy.

All technical staff are either Adeptus Mechanicus or trained by them in basic tasks.

The whole thing about children of crew growing up on the ship is a bit silly IMO. Maybe on civilian merchantmen perhaps, but on a warship of the Imperial Navy, I cannot see that happening on any scale sufficient to make a difference to crew losses. Think about it: it is basically an extra unproductive mouth to feed for years on end. And for what? Another unskilled pair of hands? The Navy has more than enough of those from press-ganging already.

A mixture of generational crew and press gangs.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

Iracundus wrote:

The whole thing about children of crew growing up on the ship is a bit silly IMO. Maybe on civilian merchantmen perhaps, but on a warship of the Imperial Navy, I cannot see that happening on any scale sufficient to make a difference to crew losses. Think about it: it is basically an extra unproductive mouth to feed for years on end. And for what? Another unskilled pair of hands? The Navy has more than enough of those from press-ganging already.

Not when you're talking about ships which have standard crew numbering from hundreds of thousands up to a million or so. The children would likely begin laboring once they're 7-8 years old. Plenty of work for unskilled laborers on ships that size and machines that complex. Even if its as simple as cleaning duties. Enough to where it would be worth feeding them a pittance.

And think about it. The crews of these vessels would spend most if not all of their remaining life aboard the ships. Now the Imperium isn't known for caring about quality of life, but they're not stupid. That many humans in cramped spaces would need diversions, which would necessitate a sizable civilian contingent aboard to run a small economy to support it. You'd have the equivalent of a small city in every ship to ensure your crew have some diversion, because you don't want your crew going stir crazy. So you'd allow for, and support, civilians setting up shops, chapels, bars, brothels, movie theaters, restaurants, etc... to set up in the unused spaces in your ship so that your crew have a place to go for "Shore leave". This would inevitably lead to families being formed, and the children would inevitably become future crew.

Would it be sufficient for total crew replenishment? No, but you'd supplement by pres ganging.

The extra effort into supporting a civilian presence on your ship would be worth it because otherwise your crew would mutiny due to boredom. Remember these ships could be on assignment for many decades at a time. They're not like ships here on Earth where you come into port several times a year. They're out there long enough for crew to die of old age before making port again.

Andy Chambers, creator of BFG, on a post to the old BFG mailing list gave the crew scale as up to 2k per damage point. That means 16k for a cruiser and 24k for a battleship. This scale was also largely adhered to in Black Library novels.

A copy of that post is here: http://inisfail.realmsofinisfail.com/bfg/bfg-andy-crew-sizes.html

Those claims of millions on a ship are ridiculous hyperbole along the same lines of people claiming Warlord Titans are as big as literal mountain ranges. Similarly the claims of not putting into port for decades is hyperbole. In the supplement Warp Storm, page 75, the Mars class battlecruiser Marquis Lex held the record for longest patrol at 1741 days. That is under 5 years.

In short, there has been ridiculous inflation of numbers not borne out by the actual GW textual evidence.

Maybe so but it seems likely that ships would indeed have a substantial amount of support and likely have children aboard. a minitz class carrier for example has shops and concession stands aboard apparently.

Pressganging mostly. Sergeant-At-Arms are recruited from Imperial Guard NCOs, so they have no allegiance to members of the ship other than the Master-At-Arms, Fleet Commisar, and the Ship's Commander. Midshipman are commisioned from local elites or royality.

BrianDavion wrote:
Maybe so but it seems likely that ships would indeed have a substantial amount of support and likely have children aboard. a minitz class carrier for example has shops and concession stands aboard apparently.

Yup, although an outlier (as the crew consists of mutants and vatborn, so quality of life be damned with how many of those you can cram on a ship) Fabius Bile's ship Vesalius includes a shanty town built into it by the crew. Vesalius is a Gladius class frigate for scale reference there.

 Grimtuff wrote:

BrianDavion wrote:
Maybe so but it seems likely that ships would indeed have a substantial amount of support and likely have children aboard. a minitz class carrier for example has shops and concession stands aboard apparently.

Yup, although an outlier (as the crew consists of mutants and vatborn, so quality of life be damned with how many of those you can cram on a ship) Fabius Bile's ship Vesalius includes a shanty town built into it by the crew. Vesalius is a Gladius class frigate for scale reference there.

other novels mention similer situations on ships.

Ship of the Damned deals with a non-warp capable Pilgrim ship, with a multi-generational crew.

Isn't it supposed to be hornblower in space (age of sail)?
So same sources really, though IRL you couldn't get tricked into taking the kings shilling.
There is a necromundan noble in execution hour and I think the petty officers were schola progenium? maybe wrong.
There are definitely comissars on board I've read that in multiple sources and lots of preists, even with the gellar field working it's described that the warp
gives you nightmares and has other spooky effects.
In the gaunts ghost novels there is one where there is an entire town with markets, bars and "women of ill repute" onboard the troop ship.

Iracundus wrote:
The ratings are press-ganged. Governors of planets may also release their undesirables into the custody of the Imperial Navy. Ratings are used in tasks that require brawn more than skills so they are expendable.

Officers are from noble families. The BFG novels had one officer as one of the junior children of a hive noble family. I would imagine that junior offspring with little chance of inheriting the family business or estates might traditionally be sent off to the Navy.

All technical staff are either Adeptus Mechanicus or trained by them in basic tasks.

The whole thing about children of crew growing up on the ship is a bit silly IMO. Maybe on civilian merchantmen perhaps, but on a warship of the Imperial Navy, I cannot see that happening on any scale sufficient to make a difference to crew losses. Think about it: it is basically an extra unproductive mouth to feed for years on end. And for what? Another unskilled pair of hands? The Navy has more than enough of those from press-ganging already.

People can also voluntarily enlist in the Imperial Navy. Some planets actually have recruitment centers for both the Guard and Navy, much like the real-world recruitment centers we have today.


Most of those who are press ganged are considered "slave ratings", lower down the totem pole than the actual enlisted ratings. Based on the lore, I assume that most (but not necessarily all) of your enlisted and warrant ratings are volunteers or run-of-the-mill conscripts.

The largest Navy warships and void stations do have entire civilian societies that form among both the slave ratings on board (in the case of warships) and civilian workers/merchants (void stations). Many new recruits into the Navy comes from those sources. If the population gets out of hand on a vessel, Navy commanders have a tendency to just dump them on the first habitable (or barely habitable) world they come across, and BOOM! You have a brand spanking new colony for the Imperium of Man.

I'm going to throw my vote for generationals being a thing. We know the Imperium of Man doesn't care what's between your legs, as long as there's the Emperor in your heart and blind obediance between your ears.

Through a bunch of men and women into a stressful situation for months and years at at a time, locked in together, and kids will be born. People will form relationships, have casual flings, and I'm going to be realistic and say there's probably more than a handful of female crew members assaulted by the men on board.

We also know the Imperium doesn't waste manpower, and a child born and raised on a ship makes a useful deckhand.

They probably also poach a lot from merchant shipping and at shipping ports and bases.