FED - for the benefit of our non-pilot readers I think I should point out that a key part of your post are the first words "years ago". These days a lot more thought and training goes into releasing a copilot onto the line for night landings offshore. Yes, when I was a baby pilot (many, many years ago) I could have been your copilot, but these days they will have done plenty of Sim training, the non-rev real deck landings (11 IIRC) and an additional course of night Line Training, before being released to fly with non-training captains for night offshore ops.