This theme is sort of a red herring. The narrator seems really focused on strength and skill. For example, the oiler is strong, the shark is strong, and the ocean is strong. The correspondent is super impressed by these qualities, and as you go through the story, you start to think that this story is all about the importance of strength.
Not so fast, Shmoopers. Fast forward to the end of the story: as the four men swim toward shore, there's the oiler swimming way out ahead of the others, all strong and brave and awesome. He's definitely going to make it, we're absolutely sure of it. We look away for a second as the cook clumsily tries to row himself to shore and the correspondent gets ungracefully washed to the shallows by a rogue wave, and suddenly, the oiler is face down in the shallows, inexplicably drowned. We totally thought his strength would save him—so what went wrong? Or, rather, what might this say about strength?
Questions About Strength and Skill
- By strength we're talking about physical strength (as opposed to mental strength, which would fall more under determination), but what about skill? What are the different ways in which skill is demonstrated in the story?
- The correspondent paints a humble, almost self-deprecating picture of himself in the story. Can you think of any examples where he shows strength and/or skill?
- Does Crane suggest that strength and skill support each other—or do they contradict each other? Are the skillful stronger, or do the two go hand in hand?
- The captain decides they need to try again for shore while they still have some strength remaining. Do you think they actually have any strength left at this point?
Chew on This
The death of the oiler proves that strength and skill are ultimately irrelevant characteristics.
Since the captain is hobbled by injury and sunk in depression, we are led to believe he is neither strong nor skillful, but at the story's end he shows great strength (holding onto the boat) and skill (advising the others how to get to shore)—maybe these two attributes are pretty important after all.