A question! (or two!)

[desperance]

So if you were taking dictation of a story set on shipboard and the phrase read out was "Let go of the gunnel," would you write "gunnel" or would you write "gunwale"?

And if the story's author had used first "gunwale" and then, a few pages later, "gunnel", would you heap scorn and contumely upon his head for inconsistency? And would it make any difference if the first were in narration and the second in dialogue?