Lucchese's use of "fleet" is an awkward euphemism for control of Immobiliare's board: "We’ll gladly put you at the helm of our little fleet. But our ships, must all sail in the same direction." I inferred that "fleet" meant the various business interests of Immobiliare's board that may or may not have been included as part of what Gilday promised Michael. The line served no purpose other than for Puzo and FFC to try to inject some "fancy Old World idioms"
into a feeble script.
They also put the line in because the whole plot was so confusing no one would comprehend Dontomassino's identification of Luchese as the one person who had his feet in "both worlds,"
without Michael immediately repeating the line about ships sailing in the same direction.
