First I belive that this was a good question. From my experence in the Navy you would be amazed to how quickly you bake when you are getting sun from both top and bottom. As far as I know their was no sun screen and your skin just baked untill it got used to it. Long light shirts and pants, I believe, would have been the course of the day. I am sure that skin cancer was very common but would not have been known. I am sure that if someone died of cancer the cause would have been labled something else like natural causes. Just my two cents worth.