S identifies the sailor who ascended from the orlop as the young man who he saw be taken from the ghost ship. Now the man is withered and blueish-he looks like the other sailors. S, curious, asks Maelstrom “What was he doing down there?” (213). Maelstrom responds “Tha’s na’ f’you t’cog” (213), a somewhat ominous statement. As Maelstrom says this, he aggressively pinches S’s lips shut. This hints at what could possibly be to come, given that all of the other sailors have their mouths sewn shut.

In the margins, Jen notes that the phrase “man-hauling his way toward death or something worse” (213), the phrase used to describe the ghost-man’s actions, is great. Eric and Jen proceed to go into a conversation debating the nobility of suffering. Eric argues that “The nobility isn’t in the suffering. It’s in the discovery” (213). This is likely referring to the struggles that Jen and Eric are going through as they attempt to make a discovery about “Ship of Theseus,” FSC, and S. Jen’s closing note on the topic is decidedly less optimistic:

“Those dead British guys (those who believed in the nobility of suffering) probably told themselves pretty much the same thing”

(213). This obviously-ironic statement reflects frustration with the suffering that she has to go through as she attempts to balance school with “Ship of Theseus” all whilst being targeted by some unknown group.

The concept of nobility in suffering is a theme in the real world as well. People ranging from Catholic officials to endurance athletes debate the value of suffering; it is likely that British explorers held similar values.