About the "freeze" bug
I enjoyed playing this game but after a few days of digging I found myself unable to press the "Continue to upgrades" button. I reloaded the page to play this again and try to trigger this bug on purpose and I think I manage to do so.
The "Continue to upgrades" button has an animation where it swoops in from the right side of the screen. I could trigger this bug if I really tried to click on this button before the animation was completed preventing me from continue the game.
If I'm just patient and wait for the captain to speak his mind and wait for the animation to complete I can click this button without any problem.
Just be patient and wait for the button animation to finish.
I think it's better if the continue to upgrade button is there at once when you return to the ship after a days hard work of digging. You can skip the introscene so why can't you skip the scorescreen as fast?