Nav lights should be on in home waters. I think it's normal practice unless a blackout was in effect, Especially back in those days... Navigating a busy harbor or channel at night in dicey water can be trickey.
Once coming home from patrol, (lorient) it was about 0230, Heavy seas and Dense fog, overcast. I had a Cruiser come steaming flank straight at me and i narrowly missed being run through as i couldn't get visual on it until it was inside 250-300M and we were both going almost straight down eachother's centerline. I pulled hard starboard at the last, and i missed by less then 20ft
Some home water lights would be good... or the search light where the player could control it from the bridge