The Catalina night water landing was quite straightforward. Into wind if possible, set a power for stall speed plus about 3 knots and a descent of 200 fpm and wait. Daytime was to fly level just above and along the swell and slowly reduce speed to the stall. They quite frequently lost rivets and occasionally aircraft.
I feel sure that there were enough pilots from that era to influence the development of ditching techniques for the C130.