 The Captain is characterized in all of the following ways EXCEPT:
Food, on the other hand, is a challenge shipmen face three times a day, so central to their thoughts that a history of sea-faring can be read from a commissary list. The Ship's Cook, the man who accomplishes the daily miracle of turning offal into eatables, is in many ways the most vital man aboard a spacer. Ship's Surgeon was myself, Paul Vilanova. Though I'm signed aboard as Ship's Surgeon, I seldom lift a knife in space. Generally the man aboard who'd serve as the most popular murder-victim is the Cook. This trip, the-man-you-love-to-hate was our Captain.
 acrimonious
 melodramatic  sardonic  exasperating  acrimonious