Why, Timocles, you superlative admirer of the gods,
in the one case you would have seen the captain
always planning what had better be done and making
ready beforehand and giving orders to the crew, and
the ship would contain nothing at all that was
profitless and senseless, that was not wholly useful
and necessary to them for their voyage. But in the
other case your captain, the one who, you say, is in
command of this great ship, manages nothing in a
sensible or fitting way, and neither do the members
of his crew; the forestay is carried aft, maybe, and
both the sheets forward, the anchors are sometimes
‘of gold while the figurehead is of lead, and all the
ship’s underbody is painted while her upper works
are unsightly.