Commander DeVriess Ideal ships captain?

The secret is, in the world as well as in the Navy, is to run a tight ship without seeming like you are running a tight ship. If you can pull that off then you've got the secret.

I'd think they'd ultimately evaluate deVriess on the basis of results. His superiors would have been men who had not only been ships' captains themselves, but had done well enough to be selected to supervise other captains. They're not foolish martinets, but people who had sat in the captain's chair and knew what the job took. Especially in wartime, I'd think that a captain who consistently got the results asked of him would be valued.

As you said, deVriess was just adapting his approach to the situation. Maybe the ship would have looked sharper if everyone had shaved every day, but that wasn't the reality he had to work with. To put it another way -- if you have a job to do, say, driving a nail into a board, and you don't have a proper hammer, you can either waste time lamenting your lack of a hammer, or you can pick up a rock and use that.

I rather doubt there would've been too many ship's inspections by admirals during the war. At least, there wouldn't have been many in the forward operating areas, where the Caine was usually deployed. In the book, it mentions that the time the ship was spending at Pearl Harbor when Willie came aboard was almost an anomaly. For most of the war it had been at sea and operating in the forward areas (i.e. the combat zones) and had been in a lot of combat. The admirals wouldn't be carrying out exacting inspections on relatively minor vessels in combat zones. New vessels just being commissioned yes. But ships like the Caine in the combat zone? Most unlikely.

I also have a feeling that if an inspection HAD been scheduled it would have been during a prolonged time in port or a rear area. Then I'm certain DeVriess would've ordered the ship made as clean as possible as they now could spare the time and effort.

Yeah, in the book, Willie actually smiles to himself as he realizes how his opinion about DeVriess had changed.

Even prior to Queeg coming aboard, Willie visited their sister ship, the Moulton when in port to visit his friend from midshipman school, Keggs (who was never in the film). There, the captain is "Iron Duke" Sammis, a martinet who has every officer quivering in fear. However, while the Moulton is a neat and clean ship, it had dropped a paravane on minesweeping exercises, while the Caine had led the other ships in performance. As well, Willie sees that compared to Sammis, DeVriess is lazily benevolent.

At the end, Keefer recognizes that he's acting like Queeg. However, he says that he now feels an immense amount of sympathy for Queeg as he can now see that command of a ship is a nightmare in that any mistake could conceivably kill every man on board. He feels that knowledge is what ate away at Queeg.

Yes, Willie had a lot of growing up to do and the real theme of the book was his going from an adolescent mother's boy to a mature young man. This was only touched on in the film by his reaction to DeVriess and DeVriess seeing the change in him and telling him to "take her out".

During the same period Wouk wrote Caine Mutiny he wrote Marjorie Morning star about a young girl evolving from star struck adolescent to a mature young woman.

Willie's initial opinion of DeVriess seems to be typical of a young person's attitude toward their first boss. It is typical of them to compare them to some unrealistic criteria. At the time they consider their first manager the worst possible manager possible. Years later and a few managers later, they may realize he was actually the best manager they ever had.

The Navy evidently liked DeVriess, giving him promotion and another sea command, so there were no serious doubts about his captaincy skills. But I did wonder about the state of the Caine and its crew when first seen.

Yes, the USA was fighting the most serious war in its history, so spit and polish were not top priority, but would you like to serve in such a scruffy vessel with such a disreputable looking crew? Didn’t the apparent slackness under DeVriess infect his officers, inclining them to what was in effect a conspiracy against the more perfectionist Queeg?

Actually, it's implied that DeVriess, when relieved, is assigned to "new construction" back in the United States. Meaning, he's being assigned to a ship that's still being built and he will be tasked with putting it into commission, seeing it throught its sea trials and taking it to sea for the first time. It's considered a great honour for a captain to be a "plankowner". (i.e. A ship's first captain.) He surely wouldn't have been considered for that posting if his skills as a captain weren't considered top rate; as he would not only have to get the ship working properly but mould the officers and crew (who'd all be serving together for the first time with many fresh from training and on their first assignment) into an effective team.