Pretend that the lobby of the Benedum Center is a ship. With a deck that size, our ship would be a Brig or perhaps a 5th or 6th rate ship (the Indomitable would have beeen a second rate ship (this is not an insult) and few ships on the sea would be larger. Nelson's flagship, the HMS Victory, was a first rate with 88 guns on three decks, although a very few ships sported as many as 100 guns. A first-rate ship would be crewed by 700 men, but the 90 men you see onstage would be a fine crew for our imaginary 6th rate.

The lobby would be the main deck, and the gallery below (where the restrooms are) would be belowdecks. Of course, that much space would be enough for two decks – the ceilings would be lower. Our ship would hold perhaps a dozen small cannons, and the masts (there would probably be two) would easily climb 100' into the air – much higher that the Lobby's ceiling. Everything is moved by human muscle, there are only simple machines (like pulleys and wedges) so a large (strong and fit) crew is needed to haul, reef, belay, and splice. It will be cramped to get 90 men in the space available, but it's much much more crowded than that!

You now have to add food, water, ropes, sails, powder and shot, galley and mess, etc., and then figure you'd be on board for over 6 months at the whim of the wind and waves (and orders that were issued from thousands of miles away with no radio), with only two toilets (basically seats of ease that drop straight into the ocean), no showers, and probably only the most very rudimentary medical facilities (a 5th rate would have only a barber, surgeons were rare and none of them washed their hands yet, since antibodies were not speculated upon until the 19th century).

Food is either fresh (so there are live chickens, ducks, sheep and goats on board) or preserved (salt horse, portable soup, and ship's biscuit – and that possibly rotting or infested with weevils), and if you want better you bring it yourself (but remember, refrigeration didn't exist either). Add to that the borborygmus, snoring, and flautus in a closed deck, sleeping between the cannons, working round the clock with equipment that can crush or maim the unwary, going aloft in all weather (which often means clinging to ropes 100' above a pitching deck) to reef and furl sails (ungainly square rigged masses of heavy canvas, sodden with salt and spray, moved with human muscle and little else). And while a thousand leagues from a friendly port, sailors had to effect repairs at sea – everything from mending sails to splicing ropes to baulking leaks to swaying up a new mast to replacing a rudder. And if things went bad, you probably drowned – there were no lifeboats, and if the cutters were successfully launched (no mean feat even in calm conditions), the captain and officers went in first. Sailors avoided learning to swim – going overboard for any reason meant you would almost certainly drown, and they figured it was better to drown quickly instead of after being exhausted.

Discipline, order, and the chain of command are essential. Cruelty exists (Claggart's character is certainly not a fabrication), but obeying an order is often a life-or-death matter, and in the closed environment a bad example (disobeying orders, violating rules) is one that will soon be followed by all – and that can mean the loss of the whole ship. So Billy's shipmates are the ones who will haul the rope that hangs him, and sew him into his hammock for burial – just as it would be they who would have bound him to a grating to be flogged, and tenderly carried him below to tend his wounds after the cat is put back in its baize bag. It is hoped by all that discipline is meted fairly to all, and whatever is done is witnessed by all. Many disciplinary actions were summary judgements, but because his was a capital offense, Billy was given a court martial (even that is a loaded term – it just means "military trial", usually a tribunal of officers presiding).

At least the English Navy was "civilised". The French were a lot worse off, and the whalers of the time lived in apalling conditions (being at sea for 2-3 years at a stretch). The Royal Navy men were relatively well fed (and pensioned when they became supernumeraries). Civilian ships often lacked discipline, order, and even the rough quality of life that Billy has (and don't even get me started on the blackbirders). In Melville's story, the Indomitable is shown to be a cruel ship, but there were worse (and far better!) ships to crew on. But what we all have to remember is that a ship is not a democracy, it is a monarchy. The captain is the king of his small floating patch of the earth, and the captain's word is law.

As a foretopman, Billy's life was a hard one, and his fate harder still. But his last words are "God Bless Captain Vere". Billy knew what was at stake.