Crew Selection.
Of course, in practice there will be many different scenarios:
- Attrition crews - crew will wander off the boat without being detected.
- when that sailing vessel arrives at the next harbor someone will be sent out to replace them.
- after some years there will be feeble crew vessels that will have no one who was on them when they first set out.
- Mutually assured destruction crews - everyone will be heavily armed with plenty of ammo and more than an adequate supply of narcotics and other judgement "improving" substances.
- depending on the quality of the marksmanship, firepower, ammo etc., self destructive crews may have similar trajectories to attrition boats.
- or go up in a ball of fire.
- Self destructive crews - crews with a taste for the "roaring forties," pirate lairs, heavily travelled shipping channels, the horn.