The naval officer to choose for a remote shipwreck

Which naval officer would you most want with you after a shipwreck on Auckland Island?

Robert Sherbrooke, as a destroyer officer considered more level-headed than Philip Vian.

Engineering experience would be useful after a remote-island shipwreck, so the preferred companion is a destroyer officer. Clarke chooses Robert Sherbrooke as the steadier personality. The comparison with Philip Vian is humorous: Vian would declare war on the island, while Sherbrooke would work with it. Another participant tries to identify an explorer who brought his men home, but the exchange between Shackleton and Franklin remains confused and does not establish a definite alternative choice.