No need to be sorry! When I made Samuel, I sort of envisioned him as the kind of officer who can't leave this or that unexplored, or this person unrescued (if that's a word). So, yeah, he gets into jams, but on purpose. Which might be worse, if you pause to think about it...
Anyways, this is my first PbP game, and I don't play tabletop games with people remotely interested in roleplaying. So, thanks for your input! This is a new experience for me, so I appreciate comments.
Oh, and speaking of the captian, did his Spellcraft check turn up anything of interest?