I never took part in a hands to bathe. I don´t remember getting many oportunities. I remember one being piped in the Med, but I was on watch. I can´t recall one ever happening on the one WIGS deployment that I did, but we got plenty of opportunities to swim in the sea when ashore anyway.
I remember seeing the rifle stowed on the bridge when sailing around the Windies, and being told it was there for the protection of swimmers during hands to bathe. I can´t remember if someone was jobbed to be the duty marksman, or if someone from the on watch bridge crew was expected to pick up the rifle and engage the shark(s). I don´t expect that whoever it was had received any extra marksmanship training for the task.
I wondered what would be more dangerous if a shark attack occured during a hands to bathe – the sharks, or the excited matelot blazing away with that rifle only a few feet above the bather´s heads.
