As to how seaman work......

The ability numbers on a seaman are a percentage boost function and not an ability add. AS PER NAVYFIELD explaination.
How the function works is a bit of a mystery because a seaman with, say, a repair ability of 15 does not boost the repair ability of all sailors by 15%. It seems like it is more on the lines of 1.5%.....a small amount. What is important is that All of a sailors abilities are boosted by the boost function.

The ability numbers of a seaman boosts all sailors ability by the boost function. i.e. a seaman with a higher repair percentage then a restore percentage will boost ALL sailors repair ability more then their restore ability. This has been seen in testing.

Thus seaman have more expertise in some areas then others. A seaman with high repair/restore ability will impact SDE, whereas a seaman with lower repair/restore abililty will have very little effect. For example...A crew with a sum total of SDE of 150, after adding the seaman have a SDE of 155. The sum of the SDE is greater then it's parts due to seaman boost. Proven by testing!!

Some seamen have been seen to boost OH speed by 1 knot. Proven by testing!

It stands to reason then, that if the boost works in this manner on repair and restore numbers, it is likely to work on Fighter and Bomber stats. Particularly if the seamans ability is oriented towards aircraft.

The seaman boost ability is also affected by the number of vets and experts the seaman has. Higher numbers mean higher boost.

How the seaman actually works and how it applies boost is still mysterious. It may be a non linear boost and it may be capped. But testing has positively shown that seaman do impact abilities.

Sorry about the "SD"...the computer can't spell without adding an "E". 8>)

As to potential for seaman, this is an unknown area. In testing seaman, different players
get different results when doing identical tests. However, the lvl and abilities of the seaman
of different players are never the same including potential. Thus, test results differ.

If the abilites of a seaman are percentage multipliers, then it stands to reason that the seamans'
potential ability mutiplies the potential of all sailors onboard by the "potential" boost % of the seaman.

It appears, in some cases, that sailors with higher potential tend to accumulate experts sooner/quicker/more
then those with lower potential. In this case, the seaman "potential" boost should enhance a seanans ability to
acquire experts. This was done with lvl 1 sailors on an FF. In almost every case the sailors with the highest potential acquired more experts sooner then those with lower potential. The acquireing of experts is supposed to be random
but with a seaman as BO, it appeared to be semi-random. Multiple tests were done and this trend kept appearing.

Does the seaman boost Sonar or the Planesman air ability? No tests have been run in this area, but it would seem that it should since Sonar and Air are extensions of Potental and therefore a seaman with high potential would have a higher Boost in these areas. The higher the potential, the greater percentage of boost.

For a BB, one would think that a seaman with higher accuracy/reload abilites would help. However, since BB players
tend to use manual, accuracy falls by the wayside except that spread and reload may be improved. In this case, one would think that a "gunner" oriented seaman with Hi Potential would be the way to go. Spread is hard to prove in testing, however, some players have seen a slight reduction in reload time. Others claim that they seen no change. Again, different seaman have different abilities and different "boost" percentages.

This is about all that is known about potential for seaman. One would think that High potential would be good, and it certainly can't hurt.

Sorry to be long winded.

I'd go for an elite fighter seaman.

Here's a simple reasoning:

I had two KM seamen with different restore stats (10 and 11). They boosted the total restore score differently.

That means it is not their potential stat that boosts all other stats, but the seaman's stats in repair, restore, fighter etc. that boost total repair, total restore and fighter abilities.

A seaman's potential stat boosts your BO's potential (longer guidelines). If you have a medic, a seaman's potential stat should boost the medic stat. On a sub, a seaman's potential stat boosts a planesman's air stat and a sonarman's sight range (NOT their repair/restore, that would be boosted by the seaman's repair/restore stats).