The crew blamed the captain “for their misery and wondered what he was doing to rescue them.” Do you think they were right to do so? Is there anything Captain Cheap could have done to improve their situation?
I’m not sure he ever identified with the men - he was always more concerned about his position, his authority, his reputation. He didn’t want to listen to concerns or advice. As a result, the men were not loyal to him - except as a matter of duty.
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Yes! Cheap was obviously not a good leader, especially in a crisis you must be clear about your intentions, involve everyone so you have a cohesive group strategy which involves letting the group know you are listening to their concerns. Captain Cheap never involved the men in deciding on a compromise as the best solutions so the men never felt they were heard. I believe Cheap was too self absorbed to be successful as a captain in general, let alone in a dire crisis!. That on top of his violent outburst and poor decision making, I felt, lead to the Mutiny. A more experienced Captain probably would have faired better.
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It’s easy to blame the captain for the shipwreck, but the circumstance of the weather and their lack of familiarity of the terrain were challenging. When it was obvious after several months that they were stranded, the Captain was opposed to the group that wanted to find a way to return to England.
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In my opinion, Captain Cheap ruled in a very authoritative way. I think he considered his decisions the “correct” ones no matter what. The men in his command were removed from decision making when in fact some of their ideas could have proven to be the wise choice. Too bad they couldn’t have been free to take some positive initiatives without considered ones of mutiny.
Yes and no. I mean, what was he to do? They were stranded on a deserted island with no way to communicate to the world and no supplies or manpower to build another ship. The seas were also too rough to try and venture even along the shore on a canoe safely, but as a camptain, he should’ve done more to keep his men’s morale up and should’ve encouraged them to explore the island more for resources and food. As I stated previously, he also should’ve tried harder to keep the indigenous people around and should’ve utilized their knowledge and help more to get them off the island.
I think it’s just human nature to look for blame when tragedy or disaster happens. I never realized how important leadership depended on a strict code of conduct to circumvent personal hostilities to take over and destroy the cohesiveness necessary for “smooth sailing”.
It is easy to blame the captain, but in this instance the storm was too much for a lot of captains. Cheap had his problems and should have paid more attention to his men. He tried to do it all on his own. I would, indeed, put blame on Cheap, but not all of it. Nature had a heavy hand in this disaster.