A boat without a captain...

What is a boat without a captain ?!
It is a lifeless vessel drifting... or merely a being without pulsing heart. If the captain steps down willingly, there will likely be one who will take the lead (his 'right-hand man', one may guess) but if he's killed, chances are that no course is found, no way nowhere...

The following poem (titled "Aboard at a Ship's Helm in the "Sea Drift" chapter) refers to a strong leadership (which doesn't imply 'imposed leadership')... one any ship needs. And leadership is gained from respect and responsability... not from hiearachy and authority alone.

Here it goes...

"Aboard at a ship's helm,
A young steersman steering with care.

Through fog on a sea-coast dolefully ringing,
An ocean-bell - O a warning bell, rock'd by the waves.

O you give good notice indeed, you bell by the sea-reefs ringing,
Ringing, ringing, to warn the ship from its wreck-place.

For as on the alert O steersman, you mind the loud admonition,
The bows turn, the freighted ship tacking speeds away under
    her gray sails,
The beautiful and noble ship with all her precious wealth
    speeds away gayly and safe.

But O the ship, the immortal ship! O ship aboard the ship!
Ship of the body, ship of the soul, voyaging, voyaging, voyaging."

          - Walt Whitman, in "Leaves of Grass"