How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"Not wishing to oppose where there was two against one," Nickerson remembered, "the captain reluctantly yielded to their arguments." (6.18)
Time and time again, Captain Pollard is pushed around by his subordinates. The worst part is that, each time this happens, Pollard is actually right. If only the dude had grown a backbone, things might not have ended as badly as they did.
Quote #5
Only a Nantucketer [...] possessed the necessary combination of arrogance, ignorance, and xenophobia to [...] choose instead an open-sea voyage of several thousand miles. (6.28)
The officers' choices are shaped by their personal biases and beliefs. As we see here, their fear of "savage" Pacific Islanders leads them to make perhaps the most boneheaded decision of all time: heading for faraway South America instead of nearby Tahiti. Of course, the irony that their fear of cannibalism leads to their own use of cannibalism is not lost on us.
Quote #6
Pollard had known better, but instead of pulling rank [...] he embraced a more democratic style of command. (6.29)
This is one of those instances when democracy isn't such a good thing. Disasters like this require split-second decision-making, as no one knows what the next moment will bring. This small change of strategy might have made a world of difference.