“There was no storm.”

This line immediately alerts the reader to the socio-political scandal that would eventually follow Velasco’s complete story as he told it to Márquez. The official story prior thereto was that a storm caused eight men to be thrown overboard in the Caribbean, resulting in all but Velasco dying. His updated story revealed that there were other causes of the tragedy and that the government was attempting to cover up its own mistakes and corruption.

“What if something like that happened to us?”

The Caine Mutiny is a type of foreshadowing. The crew in the film experiences a terrible storm, and Velasco’s crew are thereafter full of anxiety in returning to sea. The reader is well aware by the first chapter that Velasco will suffer 10 days shipwrecked at sea; this line thus infuses the story with a sense of foreboding and tension. In a way, it is not only foreshadowing but an omen.

“‘It’s a safe ship,’ Luis Rengifo said.”

Shortly after Velasco confesses to Herrera his anxieties about weathering a storm similar to the one depicted in The Caine Mutiny, Rengifo consoles him with the statement that the destroyer, Caldas, is a safe and very sea-worthy vessel and that the ship sank a German U-boot during WW2.