The lives of a whole ship's company may be sacrificed by the neglect or incompetence of an officer when in harbour.

I will pay you the compliment, Falcon, to say, that I feel convinced that the masts of the ship are as secure as knowledge and attention can make them." The first lieutenant thanked the captain for his good opinion, and hoped it would not be the last compliment which he paid him.
"I hope not too; but a few minutes will decide the point." The ship was now within two cables' lengths of the rocky point; some few of the men I observed to clasp their hands, but most of them were silently taking off their jackets, and kicking off their shoes, that they might not lose a chance of escape provided the ship struck.
"'Twill be touch and go indeed, Falcon," observed the captain (for I had clung to the belaying-pins, close to them, for the last half-hour that the mainsail had been set).

"Come aft, you and I must take the helm.

We shall want _nerve_ there, and only there, now." The captain and first lieutenant went aft, and took the forespokes of the wheel, and O'Brien, at a sign made by the captain, laid hold of the spokes behind him.

An old quarter-master kept his station at the fourth.
The roaring of the seas on the rocks, with the howling of the wind, were dreadful; but the sight was more dreadful than the noise.