Question

the following passage describes captain ahabs activities onboard the pequod, a whaling ship. select the best evidence to support the statement \the crew of the pequod was made up of experienced sailors.\ there may be more than one correct choice. as the sky grew less gloomy, he became still less and less a recluse; as if, when the ship had sailed from home, nothing but the dead wintry bleakness of the sea had then kept him so secluded. and, by and by, it came to pass, that he was almost continually in the air; but, as yet, for all that he said, or perceptibly did, on the at last sunny deck, he seemed as unnecessary there as another mast. but the pequod was only making a passage now; not regularly cruising; nearly all whaling preparatives needing supervision the mates were fully competent to, so that there was little or nothing, out of himself, to employ or excite ahab, now; and thus chase away, for that one interval, the clouds that layer upon layer were piled upon his brow, as ever all clouds choose the loftiest peaks to pile themselves upon. adapted from herman melville, moby - dick; or the whale

Explanation:

To support the statement that the crew of the Pequod was made up of experienced sailors, we analyze the relevant sentence from the passage: "nearly all whaling preparatives needing supervision the mates were fully competent to". This shows that the mates (part of the crew) were capable of handling whaling preparations that required supervision, implying they had the necessary experience to do so. Other parts of the passage focus on Ahab's behavior and the ship's journey, not on the crew's experience. So this sentence provides the best evidence.

Answer:

The sentence "nearly all whaling preparatives needing supervision the mates were fully competent to" is the best evidence. It shows the mates (crew members) were capable of handling supervised whaling tasks, indicating experience.