The captain goes down with the ship

"The captain goes down with the ship" is the maritime concept and tradition that a sea captain holds ultimate responsibility for both his ship and everyone embarked on it, and he will die trying to save either of them. The concept may be expressed as "the captain always goes down with the ship" or simply the "captain goes down with his ship." Although often associated with the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912 and its captain, Edward Smith, it predates the Titanic by at least 11 years. In most instances the captain of the ship forgoes his own rapid departure of a ship in distress, and concentrates instead on saving other people. It often results in either the death or belated rescue of the captain as the last person on board.

History

The concept is closely related to another protocol from the nineteenth century, "women and children first." Both reflect the Victorian ideal of chivalry in which the upper classes were expected to emulate a morality tied to sacred honour, service, and respect for the disadvantaged. The actions of the captain and men during the sinking of HMS Birkenhead in 1852 prompted praise from many due to the sacrifice of the men who saved the women and children by evacuating them first. Rudyard Kipling's poem "Soldier an' Sailor Too" and Samuel Smiles' Self-Help both highlighted the valour of the men who stood at attention and played in the band as their ship was sinking.

"Death before dishonor" is a broader, modern sentiment that is common in military parlance.

In practice

The idiom literally means that a captain will be the last person to leave a ship alive prior to its sinking or utter destruction, and if unable to evacuate his crew and passengers, the captain will not evacuate himself. In maritime law the responsibility of the ship's master for his ship is paramount no matter what its condition, so abandoning a ship has legal consequences, including the nature of salvage rights. So even if a captain abandons his ship in distress, he is generally responsible for it in his absence and would be compelled to return to the ship when danger to the vessel has relented. If a naval captain evacuates a vessel in wartime, it may be considered a capital offense similar to desertion, mutiny, or sedition unless he subsequently destroys the ship or permits it to sink. Even in peacetime abandoning a ship in distress may be considered a crime that can lead to imprisonment. Hence, Captain Francesco Schettino, who left his ship in the midst of the Costa Concordia disaster, was not only widely reviled for his action, but was arrested by Italian authorities on criminal charges.

Notable examples

Bounty sank during Hurricane Sandy on October 29, 2012. Two people died, including Captain Walbridge, after the ship lost generator power and flooded.

• September 12, 1857: William Lewis Herndon was in command of the commercial mail steamer Central America when it encountered a hurricane. Two ships came to the rescue, but could only save a fraction of the passengers, so Captain Herndon chose to remain with the rest.
• April 15, 1912: Captain Edward Smith was in command of the RMS Titanic when it struck an iceberg. Smith knew within minutes that the ship was doomed and did all in his power to prevent panic. Smith did not survive the sinking. As the ship went down, Smith was seen walking towards the bridge, only a few minutes before it and the rest of the ship's forward superstructure were engulfed by the sea. When the ship's lamp trimmer Samuel Hemming entered the bridge seconds after Smith was seen walking towards it, he found the bridge apparently empty. There are conflicting accounts of what happened to Smith: Some, including second radio operator Harold Bride, claimed to have seen him jumping in the water, or in the water swimming either toward a lifeboat or near the capsized collapsible lifeboat "B," while others claimed he committed suicide by shooting himself. Others including first class passenger Robert Williams Daniel said that Smith entered the wheelhouse on the bridge and died there when it was engulfed. The actual fate of captain Smith will probably remain uncertain.
• June 5, 1942: Rear Admiral Tamon Yamaguchi, on board the aircraft carrier Hiryu, insisted on staying with the stricken ship during the Battle of Midway. The ship's commander, Captain Kaku, followed his example.
• February 7, 1943: Commander Howard W. Gilmore, captain of the American submarine USS Growler (SS-215), gave the order to "clear the bridge," as his crew was being attacked by a Japanese gunboat. Two men had been shot dead; Gilmore and two others were wounded. After all others had entered the sub and Gilmore found that time was critically short, he spoke his last order: "Take her down." The executive officer, hearing his order, closed the hatch and submerged the crippled boat, saving all of the crew from the attack of the Japanese convoy escort. Commander Gilmore was never seen again, but the submarine made repairs and returned to battle. Gilmore received the Medal of Honor posthumously for his "distinguished gallantry," the first submariner to receive this award.
• December 9, 1971: Mahendra Nath Mulla, the captain of the Indian frigate INS Khukri, went down with the ship after it was attacked by a submarine in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. At least 194 members of the crew died in the sinking, which reportedly took 2 minutes.
• October 29, 2012: Captain Robin Walbridge of the Bounty, a replica of the HMS Bounty, stayed on the ship until it capsized during Hurricane Sandy. Fourteen crew members who made it to life boats survived the sinking of the sailing ship and were rescued by U.S. Coast Guard helicopters. Walbridge's last known words were to his crew: "Abandon ship."

Counter-examples

• July 17, 1880: The captain and crew of the SS Jeddah abandoned the ship and their passengers in a storm expecting it would sink, but the ship was found with all passengers alive two weeks later.
• August 4, 1906: Captain Giuseppe Piccone abandoned the SS Sirio at the first opportunity. Somewhere between 150 and 400 people died when the ship sank.
• November 12, 1965: During a fire abord the SS Yarmouth Castle, Captain Byron Voustinas was on the first lifeboat, which had only crew and no passengers aboard. A total of 90 people died in the disaster.
• April 7, 1990: Captain Hugo Larsen abandoned the MS Scandinavian Star after an act of arson cause the ship to burn. 158 people died in the disaster.
• August 3/4, 1991: Captain Yiannis Avranas of the cruise ship MTS Oceanos abandoned ship without informing passengers that the ship was sinking. All passengers survived.
• January 13, 2012: Captain Francesco Schettino abandoned ship during the Costa Concordia disaster. 32 people died in the accident.
• April 16, 2014: Captain Lee Joon-seok abandoned the South Korean ferry MS Sewol. The Captain and all of the crew (except one) were among the first to leave, abandoning nearly 300 junior high school students. Hundreds of people are missing.

Fiction

Joseph Conrad's novel Lord Jim centers around a ship's captain who abandoned a ship in peril and deals with how he comes to terms with action. It is largely based on the SS Jeddah incident.

Extended or metaphorical use

When used metaphorically, the "captain" may be simply the leader of a group of people, "the ship" may refer to some other place that is threatened by catastrophe, and "going down" with it may refer to a situation that implies a severe penalty or death. It is common for references to be made in the case of the military and when leadership during the situation is clear. So when a raging fire threatens to destroy a mine, the mine's supervisor, the "captain," may perish in the fire trying to rescue his workers trapped inside, and acquaintances might say that he went down with his ship or that he "died trying."

The concept has been explicitly extended in law to the pilot in command of an aircraft, in the form of laws stating that he "[has] final authority and responsibility for the operation and safety of the flight." Jurisprudence has explicitly interpreted this by analogy with the captain of a sea vessel. For example, following the crash of US Airways Flight 1549 into the Hudson River, pilot Chesley Sullenberger was the last person to exit the aircraft, and performed a final check for any others on board before doing so.

See also

• Last words