There was a story doing the rounds some years ago about a lady of mature years, who embarked on a world cruise and was horrified to discover that the ship did not stop every night to let the crew get a good night's sleep. She said that she could barely sleep herself, worrying about the watchkeep-ers keeping their lonely vigils on the bridge and in the engineroom. Being tired at night is a function of seafaring, and watchkeepers have to construct their own personal defences to stay awake. I spent several years on the 'graveyard' midnight to 0400 watch and there is no pleasant way of being dragged out of a deep sleep at 'one bell' or quarter to midnight and trying to be alert and all enthusiastic. We all knew enough never to have sat down on the chartroom settee, or even the uncomfortable wooden pilot chair; both of them representing an invitation to unconsciousness and professional ruin.
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