On the upside, I didn't lose any friends. On the downside, she lost many.
Extreme example: when the Spanish conquistadors landed in the Americas, they immediately burned their ships, so they would have no way of escaping back home to Spain in case things didn't work out. They would either conquer an empire or die.
Obviously, there are situations where burning your ships isn't warranted. But frankly, gambling on the success of the relationship is not the best way to keep your friends, either. It's a tradeoff.
Sometimes in life you have to burn your ships. I hope everyone finds someone worth burning their ships for.
funny thing was, they mostly did both!
Even if I hadn't read that, it wouldn't make sense. Ships of any era represent large capital expenditures. No navy would give up a ship unless it's unusable or can't be defended; worst case, they'd sail home empty with a skeleton crew.
"Those of his men still loyal to the Governor of Cuba conspired to seize a ship and escape to Cuba, but Cortés moved swiftly to quash their plans. To make sure such a mutiny did not happen again, he decided to scuttle his ships, on the pretext that they were no longer seaworthy. There is a popular misconception that Cortés burned the ships to prevent further mutiny, instead Cortés scuttled all but at least one, which were simply ran aground. This misconception has been attributed to the reference made by Cervantes de Salazar in 1546 as to Cortés burning his ships.[7] This may have also come from a mistranslation of the version of the story written in Latin.[8]
With all of his ships scuttled except for one small ship with which to communicate with Spain, Cortés effectively stranded the expedition in the so-called New World and ended all thoughts of loyalty to the Governor of Cuba. Cortés then led his band inland towards the fabled Tenochtitlan."
As you say, gambling on relationship success may cost friends; I chose my friends and believe I am happier for it.