the captain looks around at his increasingly mutinous crew , and i know what is going through his mind-he 's got a crew half out of its collective wits with superstitious terror over the sightings of the black ghost , he 's got men terrified of being turned into giant seaweed sponges , he 's got sailors worried he 's gon na kill 'em at the end of the voyage-he 's got to figure , hell , why not toss them a bone , and keep 'em happy ?