Naval night-vision experiments predated mature radar

Did navies test night-vision equipment on ships, or did they simply wait for radar?

They experimented with night vision; the Royal Navy had pursued low-light systems since World War I, though early versions were limited.

Navies experimented with night-vision equipment aboard ships. The Royal Navy had been trying to improve low-light observation since roughly 1916. Early systems did not perform as well as later equipment and never removed the difficulty of identifying targets in darkness. Radar therefore belonged to a longer sequence of optical and electronic experiments rather than being the first technical response to night fighting.