Confrontation always advances the plot, because it causes a lose-lose solution, meaning no one is happy, so there was no solution and confrontation could've made it worse.
Personification
The ship has human-like characteristics. The sentence is talking as if the ship has the brains to decide it can sigh and hesitate.
You can remember by seeing that the word "person" is in "personification".
As an aging, conventional person of little consequence
Hiiii Im good what about you?
