Shipboard work requires sailors to adapt to changing conditions and solve practical problems. Time in harbour can then give them room to think and talk about their circumstances. Unlike a soldier who can go absent without leave, a sailor at sea cannot readily escape bad food or other grievances. Mutiny becomes one possible response to that confinement. How captains handle discontent matters, and the Soviet and imperial Russian systems are criticised for punishing or discouraging flexible responses even when a captain successfully restores order.
Chapter · 32:24-35:40
Shipboard problem-solving and confinement could feed mutiny
Sailors had to think independently at work, had time to discuss grievances in harbour, and could not escape bad conditions by simply leaving their ships.