The first time I was so nervous, I had to reshoot four times. The line shooting from one ship to another may not be as easy as one would think. You have to take into account the winds, the speed of both ships and where the line will land so crewmembers can grab it before the ocean does. What we are normally taught to do is to look at the ship's ensign and see how the wind is blowing. Basically, what it all comes down to is practice and experience.
Experience leads to change, and lessons learned become textbook.
In a wartime situation, two ships tied together transporting fuel is a dream come true to any enemy. We practice getting all the lines away as fast as possible before something bad happens. Where a Sailor like Brown participated in 20 replenishments, others have more under their belt. That may not seem like a big number for six months at sea, but just add up the total millions of gallons of fuel and tons of food and stores that were transferred. Total weight transferred was in excess of 4,000 tons.