OK, I get that Queeg turned and ran early while escorting the landing crafts, instead of the 1,000 yards from the beach he was supposed to go. But why did he drop a yellow dye marker? Did he actually think he was at the 1,000 yard mark and this proved it? I got the impression that he knew at the time he was more than 1,000 yards away, and just lost his nerve.
Nobody gets to be a cowboy forever.
The book explains it a bit more clearly. The Caine was supposed to escort the boats to within a thousand yards of their section of beach. The boats lie low in the water, and can't see the island. Queeg orders a die marker dropped to keep them on tangent; they can see the yellow water, so they know what direction to go in and know where the 1000 yard mark is. In the courtroom scene, he's asked multiple questions about this marker by the board, who want to know just why he dropped it. They know something is fishy about it, because it's not routine practice. Queeg at first hems and haws about it, saying he didn't remember if he dropped one or not, or if he had orders to. Then he says that Maryk had the con, and that Maryk had run far ahead of the boats and that he, Queeg, dropped the marker because of Maryk's "poor seamanship." This was a lie, of course, because Queeg was the one who gave the order to speed up...not Maryk. When asked why Maryk had the con at such an important time, Queeg gives a flip and unconvincing response. The court knew he was full of it, and it's one of the points in the courtmartial that really seemed to hurt him.
share