There are those things which are “the customs of the sea,” but even there there are limits.
The issue is not Captain Honors’ fighting ability or technical skill; the problem is that a full captain is acting like an ensign who didn’t know better.
When I was a second lieutenant, with newly minted butter bars, I made a comment in jest with one of my sergeants. My captain called me in and chewed me out. An officer can’t be “one of the boys”; he or she must lead his or her men. He must never be cruel; he must never baby his soldiers or sailors; he must lead.
As John Paul Jones, our first naval hero said, ““It is by no means enough that an officer be capable...He should be a gentleman of liberal education, refined, manners, punctilious courtesy, and the nicest sense of personal honor... No meritorious act of a subordinate should escape his attention, even if the reward be only one word of approval. Conversely, he should not be blind to a single fault in any subordinate.’””
I can’t see Decatur, Dewey, Sims, King, Nimitz, or Halsey doing this.
Some officers don’t make it to the top because they do not master politics. Captain Honors made it high, but not high enough.
Nimitz was a submariner in the days when the kind of wusses now running the show "tripped" and "fell overboard" and were lost at sea.