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Mare et ventī nēminī oboediunt nisi Neptūnō. Ille cūrāvit ut nōs ē tempestāte servārēmur nēve mergerēmur — vel potius nōs ipsī quī mercēs ējēcimus.
It's a sentence out of Chap.28 of Lingua Latina per se Illustrata. It's the first time that potius has ever occured in this book but without any hints.
Potius seems to be something like rather but I can't understand why there is a noun phrase (we who throw the goods away) and I can hardly figure out the meaning of the whole sentence.
You're basically there. Potius does mean "rather", so the whole sentence means:
He made sure that we should be saved from the storm and not drown -- or rather we ourselves (made sure of it), who threw the goods away (=overboard).
