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Btw, what is the US Navy word for those crewmembers who don't stand watches?
Those guys that can sleep the whole night through? Like Cooks, Medics and such?
In german it is "Bauernnächtler" (literally "guys who sleep like peasants" - from sunrise to sunset). What is the USN or RN term?
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I don't think there is a term. We just called them "non-watch standers." In sailing ships they were called "idlers", but that was an RN term and I think it's obsolete even there.
The cooks worked for me and I can tell you they worked harder than watchstanders. One port and one starboard duty cook, a day on and a day "off". The day on began at 0500 and ended at 2330 when the night baker took over. (He worked every day.) On the off day the duty cook helped with stores break-outs, record-keeping, training mess cranks, cleaning, etc. as well as all ship's drills, usually about 6-8 hours per day of those. The night baker worked his six, then stayed up all day drilling, cleaning, training, etc. Usually got 4-5 hours down in late afternnon and early evening. Baking was usually your best cook as it took a ballet-like performance to get mid-rats finished and cleaned up, then do all the baking and get out of the way in time to set up for breakfast. If you lost fifteen minutes for anything you were screwed. Bread only rises so fast.