How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
The strain of watching the dark loom of the land grow bigger and denser was too much for me. (2.173)
By the end of the book, the captain has almost gone over the edge into insanity. He realizes that he could be killing himself and his whole crew by taking his boat toward the "dark loom" of Koh-ring island. But he can't help himself. Jeez, and we don't even know whether or not if this Leggatt dude is actually real to begin with.
Quote #8
But what I felt most was my being a stranger to the ship; and if all the truth must be told, I was somewhat of a stranger to myself. (1.7)
This comment about being "a stranger to myself" seems like a giveaway about the mental health of our narrator. That's not to say that he's totally insane. But if you think about the space between sane and insane as a sort of spectrum, them you can definitely say that the captain is leaning a little toward the "insane" end at times like this.
Quote #9
My strangeness, which had made me sleepless, had prompted that unconventional arrangement, as if I had expected in those solitary hours of the night to get on terms with the ship of which I knew nothing, manned by men of whom I knew very little more. (1.16)
So it turns out that our captain/narrator hasn't been sleeping very well lately. We guess that explains why he wanders the decks of his ship alone in the middle of the night. It also lends support to the idea that Leggatt might be a hallucination…or not.