Not knowing the captain’s history or CG certificate, it is patently false to say a ship is better at sea. With the projected sea conditions and clear NWS and NOAA mariner’s warnings, the decision to go to sea may have been “calculated” based on something other than nautical facts and weather data. It will be interesting to learn where they were headed, because if it wasn’t South, hugging the coast..well.
In any case it is not true that a ship is safer at sea than in port (that phrase may have originated with ship’s captains trying to keep their sailors out of trouble in port).
To wit, from Navy Times— most of the major elements of the Naval Station Norfolk put to sea Friday 26 Oct.:
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2012/10/navy-norfolk-ships-to-sea-hurricane-sandy-102612
yes, I doubt that line was referring to weather