Wondering about how sailors went on/off the battleships

Watching some of the Pearl Shows on TV during the anniversary I was stuck with a simple thought. Prior to the attack what were the logistics of moving sailors from the battleships moored at Ford Island to the main base? Conservatively we are talking over 7,000 sailors when the battleships were in Pearl coming and going from a location that provided no direct access to the base other than by shuttle launch or ferry. In 1941 the enormity of moving sailors back and forth must have required a substantial resource of boats and crews to provide these services. Add in the thought of the sailors of the battleships moored inboard having to traverse across the decks of the outboard ships to board and unload must have been quite a process. In watching some of the newsreel you can note the number of small covered whale boats going back and forth that must have been part of the shuttle fleet. Anyone out there have any understanding of how this actually worked? Most Liberty shifts were coordinated with large numbers of sailors going and coming in groups at a regular timing which must have been quite a bottleneck. Or, was there some other way they could have been transferred from the ships to the base without having to use the boats?

 

I would tell you they used the 'transporter' but that is still highly secrect, and now I must hunt you down and kill you. Sorry for the inconvience

A shipped docked at Ford Island would keep half or more of the crew aboard at any time. Moving them by whaleboat or something similar would be seen as worth the trouble compared to advantage of keeping undesirable's such as civillian's, reporter's, hooker's and oh yeah spies from getting on.

 

I must not type what I'm thinking...
I must not type what I'm thinking...
I must not type what I'm thinking...

To be fair OP knows his stuff, and I know I am a daft bastard.

 

Opana Pointer, as usual, is right on the money.

 

A correction of sorts; the ships were large enough and far enough away from Ford Island that there was plenty of room for each to use their own boats. If you look at this photo shot during the attack you can see West Virginia's embarkation ladder on the starboard stern (almost direct center of the photo) as well as some boats next to Tennessee by her forward Quay. This photo shows boats aft of the stern quays of both Nevada and Arizona (starboard side). I've got a high-res scan of this photo and it's clear that the battleships have boats out and tied off on both sides, as well as the cruisers (There are a couple of nests of 2-3 cruisers where both / all ships have boats tied off on the aft boat booms.