This story focuses on the many realizations that pass through men in that situation. By very slow degrees, as readers we witness their initial hope for aid and hospitality, then the indifference nature has for their situation/existence, finally their realization that their efforts may well be futile and must accept as best as they can what comes to happen. The phrase, "If I am going to be drowned--if I am going to be drowned--if I am going to be drowned, why, in the name of the seven mad gods who rule the sea, was I allowed to come thus far and contemplate sand and trees? Was I brought here merely to have my nose dragged away as I was about to nibble the sacred cheese of life?" (756), encompasses the heart of this story. It is a continual hope that every man's existence is relevant to the balance of the world. In the end though, death looms so heavily on their minds that a sense of reconciliation is forced upon them as to their situation.
P.S. I am not sure I understand what the titles "correspondent" and "oiler" mean, or the dimensions of the ship.
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