Mal, Interesting about the manueverbiliy of shps, I remember from my naval days that if a ships captain came undr the displeasure of the higher ups, an admirable would board the ship, automatically take command then order an entry in say san Diego harbor at full speed then simply relinquish comand leaving the unfortunate commander with a serious problem and breach of harbor regulations.
You would have remembered the Drumbeat with it's bevy of half nude girls manning the sheets sigh
Cannot say I recall that. But we did not have much contact with the crew much at all as soon as loaded she was gone. However there was women on the vessel. Cannot say know much about the Navy. Merchant man myself.
Interesting to note in my family there has been mariners at least back to the early 19th century. My ancestor William Walsh was a English sailor that fought in the Napoleonic war and after that war and the war of 1812. They found themselves unemployed as seamen. They found employment on privateers fitted out in Delaware fitted out to attack Spanish Shipping during the war of South American independence. Another 2 years it will be two hundred years exactly my ancestor first settled in Chile with a senorita in Valparaiso leaving me a legacy of being a Chilean with a English surname of Walsh.
Since that time we had had countless family members seamen of all sorts and fishermen. And still today with the most English of sounding names I too carry on that sea faring tradition as did my father and fathers father before me. It was that sheer spirit of sea dog passed onto me as it was with my father. When I was young apprentice my father a captain never gave me favors other than if I had earned it. I had do every job from the bottom up. It gave me much better understanding of people and most of all dealing with people. Most of all the responsibility of lives you have in your and as captain the buck stops with you.
Cape horn as a shipping route traffic will soon diminish again as the Panama canal will get widened to take larger vessels. For me inter island shipping between the oceanic states is my bread and butter. Even then Chinese shipping are infiltrating and cutting us out of business. Fiji I get sugar exports and various cargo. Copra from Samoa. fertilizers and nitrates from Chile. Cement from Peru and timber from Ecuador. Wheat and rice from Australia. Building products from Australia and New Zealand and various other good on-shipped through various freight companies. The powerhouse is goods from Asia on shipped to pacific states. The main problem is most pacific island nations you leave port with hardly any cargo,
I have 15 crew
3rd mate chief engineer has rotating shift with two leading hands, they are in short an electrician and fitter. Their domain is engine room. Power plant and generators. At sea four hours on 8 off rotating shift. Myself the 1st mate, second mate. We make up the 3 executives of the watch. In which we rotate 4 on 8 off between ourselves. Each watch has 2 able bodied seamen. One acting as safety officer doing inspections and another floating between the bridge on look out duties or general maintenance or pestering me about crap. One in engine room monitoring, I have a chef and steward who does general cleaning duties with cabin and laundry and assist the chef when in food prep kitchen hand. They work set hours non rotating overlapping the 3 watches. 16 crew in all adding myself. Some times my wife comes with me but these days I have 3 sons in school.
In port duties various according to needs. As we a rather large vessel we need all hands required for docking procedures. I have crew all around the ship covering blind spots. Loading procedures vary according to cargo Although as stated before each port has complex set of procedures before we can get port clearance.
The chef and steward main duties in port is obtaining pre-booked supply of fresh food and toiletry supplies etc for the ship. Chief Engineer is in charge of oil and fuel supply and waste removal. 2nd mate is the load master of cargo as it is loaded as it must be loaded to procedure.. First mate generally handles the logbook, weather reports and communications in port and supervision of contractors. Some crew will be either loading or on shore leave or doing maintenance depending on needs.
And me in the office signing off on all work permits safety audits. Discharge environmental certificates, Safety and insurance requirements. Custom declarations, Crew and immigration manifest. Bio hazard declarations. Cargo manifests, ships cash flow. And all regulation required. Time in the busy ports is burning money. So speed is of necessity. Much cheaper waiting anchored out in the roads awaiting a berth.
That cost and perhaps pilot costs in some harbor where there is a requirements to be factored into transport rates in every voyage which as you could image varies from port to port.
At sea the ship is mostly run by auto pilot. Just taking navigation checks every have hour plotting on computer. Yet will still have charts as if the computer dies you can fall back on the charts. Even thou Now satellite navigation and transponders do all the navigation in the ship these days. In some modern ships now the electronics are nearly the same as an aircraft. We have radar that scan the sea as a collision avoidance system for ships that might come with in you danger zone.
Some times you have to work fast other times you just sit back and drink coffee. Coffee anyone?
Yep I some times wonder what my ancestor would make of it if went to day on my ship today?
Mal
After all, in the dark they all look alike, and you were indeed very far from home, and spending loads of time among an all-male community, with few chances for female type encounters. It is OK to admit it, after all it was wartime and life at a remote desert isle, they can't all look like Ginger and Maryann after all! 
What you and Mal failed to mention was the lack of bathing.
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