I too have marvelled.. (re: The more I read of the horrible conditions he had to work under, I marvel that he ever went to sea. )
It does say something about how wonderful 'farm life' and 'city life' was at the time for many people, that they would think to go out to sea.
life, as short a while as a 150 years ago, was short and brutal for the poor and most everyone was poor.
as for working in the dark, i think people were much more used to it, and their eyes were more accustom to seeing in the dark. a single 60 watt bulb gives off about 700 lumens. 1 lumen is the light given off by 1 candle at 1 foot distance from the flame. I would hate do light a room with a single 60 watt bulb, and can't imagine how people managed with less than a "night light" (10 watt bulb's worth of light to light up a whole room) worth of light.
but if you got used to do doing things by star light or moon light, or even doing them in the dark, all the time, anyway, i guess it wouldn't make much difference. (in fact it might be easier to climb, if you couldn't look down and see how high up you were!
we don't think much of everyday comforts like lights, running water, (both hot and cold!) and all that we can do with just water (washing; body, clothes, dishes, food,) drinking,ice. even foods that nowdays are cheap, (oranges and lemons) used to be imported luxury foods for most of US and UK!
Fat too, was a luxury food.. my parent's spoke fondly of 'bread and drippings' as a treat, and another form of the same, 'fried bread'(bread fried in left over bacon fat).
slush
