Not sure what kind of vessels you work on but when we go astern on “big ships” (and large yachts) we have people back there with radios. “Running into things” going astern isn’t like backing your car into a parking spot by looking over your shoulder.
They probably said the same thing about ratlines and crow’s nests.
And having a man with a flag waring off traffic when automobiles were first invented,
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I miss the weevily biscuits.
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You mean you don’t get your daily ration of weevily biscuits and tot of rum on British ships any more?
That should be a case for the Unions to take up and demand that such traditional right is met. Ground for a strike!!!
My first two ships actually did have weevils in the knäckabröd. If you tapped the table with it, they’d fall out and scurry off. Extra protein. Nobody complained.
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I sailed on a ship where we loaded copra in several small ports in the Phillipines
The copra bugs got into everything, incl. your coffee mug, if you left it on the table for a little while. You quickly learnt to filter the coffee, or whatever, through your teeth.
But some just didn’t bother after a while. They used the same term as you; “it’s extra protein”.
PS> We discharged in Karlstad, Sweden in the middle of winter, resulting in heaps of dead copra bugs on the deck between the hatch coaming and rail where the bags of copra past over while hoisted ashore.
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Waves of cockroaches streaming up the galley bulkheads when you switched the lights on.
The good old days.
Aah, the dishrag stampede.
Cooking on the hotplate; flip the burger, splat the roach, flip the burger, splat the roach.
Repeat.