Aye, Aye! (Ay-Yi-Yi!)

O, Captains (America, Blood, Zero, Earth...):
thou be nowt if not captains courageous.
Sev'ral captains, however (there's never a dearth),
prove, on inquiry, captains outrageous. 
Might not each, switching ships (here's an ABC’s worth), 
change the universe...? Ponder these pages.

If Ahab had captain'd, instead of the Pequod, 
a carrack call'd Santa Maria,
then would Native Americans sigh with relief 
at the found'ring of "Chris's Idea"…?
And would hunting white whales, like all searches for grails,
now be hail'd as a fail'd panacea…?

If HMS Bounty'd been captain’d by Beefheart 
instead of by officer Bligh,
would its mutineers, rather than take to Tahiti, 
have open’d a bar in Dubai…?
And would Fletcher've been play’d not by Gable or Brando
but some far less self-absorb'd guy…?

If Endeavour'd been captain'd, instead of by Cook, 
by one Cap'n Horatio M. Crunch,
then would Botany Bay be one stop, since that day, 
on some serial cereal brunch...?
And would Cook's tours be publicized "Crunch Tours" instead...?
It’s a good bet they would. (Just my hunch.) 

If the schooner We're Here had as pilot Der Captain
of "Hans-und-Fritz" fame -- and not Disko,
then would young Harvey Cheyne have become Mama's bane
and migrated from Gloucester to Frisco,
where, no longer a kid, he'd do scenes in a vid,
playing Pancho to some sordid Cisco…? 

If ace Captain Eddie's belov'd Flying Fortress 
became Captain Eo's space vessel,
then would World War II prove a minor ado, 
scrub’d when Ed ask'd Herr Adolf: "Who'll wrestle!"…?
Or would spacetime get bent, with Ed's UFO sent
back in time to snuff young Georgie Jessel…?

If Flint and his Walrus became SS Feathersword 
and its eponymous captain,
would the foremention’d Feathersword balk at the switch, 
crying, "No bloody way I'm adaptin'!"?
And would Captain Fantastic, with no ship at all, 
of a sudden start speaking Sahaptian…? 

What if George -- "Captain Seafood" – would move to usurp
Captain Gantu's Galactic Armada…?
Would not Lilo and Stitch knuckle under and snitch…? 
What would happen…? In fact, next to nada:
George would grant Gantu's wish and serve everyone fish
with a side of baked beans, blah-de-blah-dah... 

What if Hook's Jolly Roger (once known as The Wasp)
were by Hornblower re-christen'd Sutherland…?
Then would Captain Horatio, thereby bereft, 
with no ship to return to the motherland,
taunt Herge's Captain Haddock, "You've no ship as well…?
Must we both end our days in some other land?"…?

What if Captain Insano had thrown in the towel…

Other captains who may feature in future alternate universes:
Captain January
Captain Janeway
Captain Kirk
Captain Kangaroo
Captain Kidd
Captain Lorca
Captain Marvel
Captain Morgan
Captain Nemo
Captain Obvious
Captain Picard
Captain Queeg
Captain Ron 
Captain Sisco
Captain Sparrow
Captain Spaulding
Captain Teague
Captain Underpants
Captain Von Trapp
Captain White
Captain Xavier
Captain Yuri
Captain Yamato
Captain Zoom
Captain Zack