Originally posted by GeekGranny:

Agreed. You should be able to attach an oil (resin) lamp or torch to the mast or front of the boat. This is how sailors sailed at night, including vikings.

Sailors did use exterior lights on their ships at night. These were not head lights but navigation lights. Their purpose was not to illuminate the sea surrounding the ship but rather to make the ship visible to other ships and sailors.

I only play solo. I do not need to make my ship visible to others. If I did play with a group, I would only need to make my ship visible if there were ships made by others in the group and we wanted to sail at night at the same time in the same vicinity.

In short, lights available on sailing ships were useless to see where the ship was going. A head light would, in fact, hinder navigation at night because it would wreck the sailor's night vision.