The first thing a solver should notice is that certain crew members can fit two (or more) different boat descriptions. For example, an ACTRESS "is often miked on stage" based on the pre-placed pieces in the first moat, but they may also be "obsessed with lines", and "their sentences may induce crying".
One can assemble six complete moats of eight pieces each in this manner, using the pre-placed pieces as a guideline. One can now turn to the numbers on the moat pieces and the red-colored letters. Noting that there are exactly two red letters in each job title and at most one number on each side of the job title, one can associate each red letter with a number. For example, the C in the preplaced ACTRESS can be associated with the 3 on the preplaced moat.
Next, one can note that the numbers within any given moat compose a sequence from 1 to N. Assembling the letters in this order spells the name of a naval captain—in the first moat, this is JACK T COLTON, captain of the Angelina.
As it turns out, every naval captain in the puzzle runs a boat with a name eight letters long—exactly the number of pieces in each moat. Each moat piece also has a space underneath the boat for a single letter. The boat pictures in the puzzle sail clockwise, so the name should also be entered clockwise using the pre-placed pieces as guidelines.
One can now turn to the central turret in each moat, and note that the letters spell out the word SIGNAL; in addition, the captain's arms are each marked with a lowercase Roman numeral, and each piece in the moat is associated with a cardinal or ordinal direction. This is a clue that semaphore is important to the puzzle. In fact, by arranging the captain's arms to form the letter on the turret in semaphore, one can associate each Roman numeral with a letter from the ship's name. For example, the letter S points west and southeast; the letters pointed to are A and L, respectively, which associate to the numerals ii and vi. Noting that the Roman numerals also run a sequence from i to xii, one can arrange the letters in this order for the final answer.
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