“People in charge of survival craft should ensure that the use of playing cards does not lead to gambling for food or water rations or to bad feeling among the survivors. Survivors should only be allowed to smoke providing great care is exercised with matches and cigarettes, and providing other occupants do not object at times when the entrances are closed.
Smoking may exacerbate thirst and should not be allowed when the water supply is low. Depending on water supply and the dryness of throat and mouth of survivors, morale may be sustained by singing, by prayer, by discussions on the achievement of survival, and by telling jokes, stories, and so on.” – Survival at Sea – Australian Maritime Safety Authority manual (2000)
(We can be reasonably confident that whoever wrote this for AMSA twenty years ago had never spent time adrift in a 6-man liferaft.)
