By and large air conditioning was not something that was to be expected to be enjoyed by most members of the ships' company all the time. Certain areas might have systems installed where it was extra important to keep reasonable temps, but that was not universal, and usually only on newer vessels. Places like the CiC, Galley and food storage areas, some of the important work and storage spaces like magazines, flag country if the ship had an admiral aboard, those sorts of things. But each compartment and especially places like berthing could become dreadfully hot.

Crew members often resorted to sleeping on deck or in any ventilated area they could find when it got too unbearable. And different vessels adapted to it in different ways. Aircraft carriers for instance were usually both better and worse, better in that they could open the sides of the hanger deck and get tons of air movement that way, worse in that there were tons of work spaces below that had poor air flow that fans and keeping hatches and doors open could only do so much to help.

In other cases there were attempts to have sufficient A/C systems to provide general crew comfort, the big fleet boat type submarines like the GATO class had more extensive A/C systems since even on the surface there wasnt much in the way of ventilation, though even then it was often barely livable.

Things did improve pretty rapidly after WW2 though. The first USN vessel built from the ground up to have near universal access to A/C were the second two hulls of the DES MOINES class heavy cruiser, designed during the last years of the war and built in the late 40's to a reduced number of hulls. Making NEWPORT NEWS and SALEM the first of the new generation to incorporate air conditioning for crew comfort in many more ways.

Refits for older ships usually also included adding cooling to help the crew live better. The ESSEX class carrier for instance finally got their full compliment of A/C infrastructure during the SCB-125 series of overhauls in the mid 50's as many were being updated with an angled flight deck and other improvements to allow them to continue useful service.