On my recent boat trip around Manhattan I noticed a minor detail just as I was entering the boat: on walking off the gangway, a member of staff warned each passenger with “Watch your step.” The same procedure of course, when it came to disembarking.

The question is, wouldn’t it have been more economical to eliminate the dangerous step? Just fix a board/step to adjust the height difference, a five-minute job!

Regardless, be it either ”German engineering” or American pragmatism, we disembarked safely.