I've seen them make it back as the gangway was being hooked up to the crane , I have seen them holding each other up , I have done a watch in Cape Town with the Greaser in the Catacooms , No where have I said that the British Seafarer , ( Officer , P.O. or rating ) , was perfect I have held conversations with drunken fourth Engineers who should have known better , and was on watch with a third Engineer who used to keep Bacardi in the Boiler Chemical bottle marked sulphuric acid , and take a test tube full at regular intervals during his watch I have seen a stoppage of tap more than once ,I know a second mate who could sleep standing up whilst on watch , he called it considering his next thought . I have dreaded the next meal when the cook has been on a bender for a day , but when the chips are down and the funnel is on fire from the inside because the Thermic oil boiler has burst a flange and is leaking burning oil all the way down past 300 that I have sailed with , I still prefer the British Guy , ( British in my definition would also for the sake of preventing disagreement and ethnic whinging , include the Kiwis , Aussies and South Africans of British Ancestry that I have sailed with , who have all been pretty good blokes ) . I have been in an emergency situation with Bangladeshis and the best thing they can do in an emergency is to make tea . I have sailed with Indian , African - Not just South African and European officers , and find overall that the best trained are British .The modern computer controlled ornamental officers with highly polished degrees , well I am not sure , do they have the experience that the mate and second engineer knocked into their predeceasors , well i will leave that to more experienced others to answer