Micromanagement

A post by Bayou Renaissance Man bestirred me enough to comment, and since it was more than 3 words I've posted it here as well.

There is a scene in Two Years Before the Mast where the captain attempts to by-pass the first mate and give orders directly to the crew. The first mate objects, telling the captain that if he was going to continue like that, then he, the first mate, was going to return to forecastle and just be one of the crew, and the captain could have free rein to run the ship. The captain relented and returned to giving orders to the mate and left the running of the ship to him. I read that 10 or 20 years ago and it's still with me.