 In his 1990 book Sea @-@ Brothers : The Tradition of American Sea Fiction from Moby @-@ Dick to the Present , author Bert Bender noted Crane 's sympathetic portrayal of the oiler Billie , the most physically able of the four characters , and yet the only one to perish . The correspondent even notes with wonder Billie 's exceptional ability to row despite having worked a double shift before the ship sank . Bender wrote that Crane " emphasizes that Billie 's steady , simple labor is the tangible basis for his role here as a savior , " and that the oiler 's portrayal as a " simple , working seaman , clearly expresses his sympathy with the democratic ideal of the sailor before the mast that figures so crucially in the tradition of American sea fiction . " That Billie does not survive the ordeal , however , can be seen as an antithesis to Darwinism in that the only person to not survive was in fact the strongest physically . 
