When and Why did some of the current-day ships (what types of ships)
have privacy curtains around crew's bunks (WW II U.S. Navy ships)?

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Request for Question Clarification by cynthia-ga on 16 Dec 2005 20:24 PST

There Was A Time When There Were Two Submarine Forces
http://www.olgoat.com/substuff/dex247.htm (10th paragraph up from the bottom.)
..."Everybody gets their own bunk? And man, their bunks have bunk
lights that work, a multi-channel music system that allows you to
listen to whatever kind of music you like, through your very own
headset? They have privacy curtains so you can read after lights
out..."


Does this provide documentation that this is the reason for privacy
curtains? I could not find anything specifically about the history of
the privacy curtain.

~~Cynthia

I assume that WWII ships are the same as the current day naval
vessels. I am a LCDR in the the navy flying helos. There are two
reasons that I know of for the curtains. The first is a level of
privacy. The other bigger reason is that shipmates are always standing
watches at different hours of the night. So when you have to turn on a
light in a stateroom or open berthing, the light doesn't bother the
guy who is sleeping. Plus you can close your curtain and read a book
without bothering someone else. Hope that answers your question.