No, they didn’t realize that it was an actual product. They didn’t count on the resourcefulness of the boot.
some were good(me included!) but others, we just shook our heads...
we had this one kid who dropped out of nuke school(after he got his 3rd class crow. a real dork. didnt even know what a crescent wrench was or how it worked. but super smart. I was sitting under a blower on the lagging pads on one of the ships turbine generators reading thru a tech manual... he came wondering up and asked what I was reading... I says Johnny... If the turbine is spinning at 12800 RPM and the circumference of the turbine housing is 3.9 feet, if ya took it out and set it on the ground how fast would it go?
He looked up and in about 3 seconds looked at me and said “ooohh about 560 miles per hour”... i just shook my head and we went on talking about other stuff. later after watch I was up at my locker and I noticed my little calculator laying there in the drawer. so I punch in the numbers and laughed to myself. 567.3 MPH!!
He never did excel in the mechanics of the engine room, but he was always welcome around me...