The Captaincy: A Short Essay on Seascum Leadership

[James Gryphon]

A stray thought about Saltar crossed my mind, and I decided from that to write a general essay about how corsair captains maintain power, using Mariel of Redwall and Pearls of Lutra as sources.

The first and most obvious detail is that a corsair captain is always a skilled fighter. Saltar, for one, was a legendary duelist. This holds for every other major vermin leader; Ublaz and Gabool, as retired captains, for instance, were also both infamous fighters. This is a necessary trait because if a captain loses enough prestige, he has to be able to defeat any single challenger that might come up, like how Graypatch took down Bigfang. This is fairly self-explanatory and requires little explanation.

Something that's less obvious, though, is how captains attempt to make themselves indispensable to their crew by more subtle methods. I direct y'all to exhibit A:

The charts in Saltar's former cabin were few and sketchy. Searats were notorious for sailing by instinct and rule of paw.

This may be partially due to some personality trait of corsair captains, but I suspect a more practical and primary reason for the captain only keeping vague information in his records. It seems to be alluded to by Romsca referring to the death of Conva, when she says she isn't "half the cap'n Conva was".

The captain is the most knowledgable member of the crew at most things, due to his experience. Because of this, he calls the shots, determines what his crew does, and gets the most profit from their plunder. However, he is also the one whose job is most at risk -- if anything goes wrong, he's the natural scapegoat, and all pirates (whether Redwall-series or real life) are in it for their own gain -- they want a captain who can lead them to more profit than they think they could get on their own. The moment a captain seems to fail in this regard, his career (and life) are both at stake.

The captain, among other things, is also the ship's navigator, and thus keeps track of everywhere the ship goes. Considering that this position could extend over many seasons, one would presume that having good charts would be a natural result of this experience. Among more genteel crews, that likely would be the case (one needs look no further than the exploration efforts of the Renaissance to see how sea captains improved Europe's understanding of the world), but among Redwall pirates it apparently is not. I submit that the reason for this is that the corsair captain deliberately stores all the information in his memory specifically so that there will be little or no information available to would-be successors. Thus, if your ship is stranded out on the high seas, or on some distant coast, the vermin still have to keep their captain alive simply because he's the only one who knows how to get home! By this method, even an unpopular captain can survive away from home port by virtue of being the only skilled navigator, and only in the most dire circumstances would a lesser corsair revolt against that -- since it's a life-or-death gamble whether he'll be able to take the ship back to where it came from.

Finally, corsair captains are also fond of storing away their treasure in hidden places. As this knowledge would die with them if they were killed, most vermin would rather leave their captains alive -- in exchange for a more equitable share of the plunder -- instead of trying to kill them, and if successful, losing all knowledge of wherever the goods were hidden. An example of this is Gabool's treasure hoard, which he hid away, with none of his captains or their crew knowing its whereabouts, so he could use it to strategically bribe his followers. This tricky relationship between a vermin captain and his crew is echoed by Gabool's relations with his subordinate captain Bludrigg over the treasure, and Ublaz Mad Eyes with his captains over lumber rights.

What're y'all's thoughts on this?

[Galedeep]

Well, that was a very logical description of a seascum captain. I applaud you sir.

[Matthias720]

Totally agree with your points, James. That's what makes the captains smarter than the average corsair; they think ahead, scheme, and plot the demise of their enemies.

[Taggerung_of_Redwall]

Totally agree with your points, James. That's what makes the captains smarter than the average corsair; they think ahead, scheme, and plot the demise of their enemies.

I would second all that.

[Log-a-Log]

Yeah, the corsair and searat captains usually seemed to have control over their ship and crew. Even Reynard Chopsnout, who seemed to be one of the worst captains, still maintained control.

[Lutra]

Most of the sea captains rule by fear, and it works on the ships.  Your average searat or seaferret or seaweasel doesn't have that kind of command or control.  Keeping the knowledge for oneself makes you valuable, and that's a pretty common theme among the corsairs of Redwall...if you valuable or can be of service, you live, if you can't, you're dead by the end of the chapter. 

Good short writing James.

[Tiria Wildlough]

Very good! I think that it's quite logical. 

[Skalrag of Marshank]

Nice! I really like it!

[Romsca]

You're right! they don't use maps
As Romsca said:

"Lissen, dead'ead, yer out at sea, in blue water! There ain't a thing you, me, or the Emperor can do about the weather, get that inter your thick skull lizard! We're all in the paws o' fate, see, and luck'n'judgedment is all I got. Right now I don't know if'n we be sailn' south east or north. No stars, sun, or wind, just fog everywhere, an' it ain't my fault!"

[Dannflower Reguba]

You're right! they don't use maps
As Romsca said:

"Lissen, dead'ead, yer out at sea, in blue water! There ain't a thing you, me, or the Emperor can do about the weather, get that inter your thick skull lizard! We're all in the paws o' fate, see, and luck'n'judgedment is all I got. Right now I don't know if'n we be sailn' south east or north. No stars, sun, or wind, just fog everywhere, an' it ain't my fault!"

Love that quote. 

[Romsca]

Well you probably noticed that I misspelled some of the words when I was typing the quote 
Oh well