Breaking Proud Tradition, Captains Flee and Let Others Go Down With Ship

[n2doc]

By CHRISTOPHER DREW and JAD MOUAWAD

Ever since the Titanic sank on its maiden voyage, carrying its captain and many of the passengers with it, the notion that the captain goes down with his ship has been ingrained in popular culture.

But now, for the second time in just over two years, a sea captain — first in Italy and now in South Korea — has been among the first to flee a sinking vessel, placing his own life ahead of those of his terrified passengers.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/20/world/asia/in-sad-twist-on-proud-tradition-captains-let-others-go-down-with-ship.html?_r=0

This is heartbreaking:

One, Park Ho-jin, 16, found a 6-year-old girl standing alone and wet on the side of the ship as it was sliding slowly into the water. She had been left there by her older brother who went back into the ship to hunt for their mother. Mr. Park swept the child into his arms and delivered her to rescuers who had pulled a boat alongside the ship. Mr. Park made it onto a later rescue boat.

Another high school student who survived reported that a crew member named Park Ji-young, 22, had helped teenagers to get life jackets and escape by urging them to jump into the frigid waters of the Yellow Sea where rescue boats were waiting. She stayed behind without a life jacket for herself despite the youngsters’ entreaties to jump with them. “After saving you, I will get out,” she said. “The crew goes out last.”

She was later found dead, floating in the sea.

[AngryAmish]

1. Honor is gone.

Both of these captains should be given a bottle of scotch and a revolver. They have shamed theor families long enough.

[KansDem]

2. We all like to believe we will act selflessly...

...in moments of grave danger in order to save the lives of others.

But we will really never know until that moment comes.

[pipi_k]

13. That's so true...

I have no idea how I would act in certain situations.

[TexasTowelie]

3. They went to the Ayn Rand School of Seamanship.

[VanillaRhapsody]

7. I was thinking the EXACT same thing...

Rand Paul and Paul Ryan would have pushed old ladies and babies in strollers overboard to save themselves...

[MineralMan]

4. Another tradition, far less proud expressed in French as:

Sauve qui peut. The equivalent expression in English is "Every man for himself."

It's a libertarian thing, I think.

[L0oniX]

5. Likewise the 1% will flee as our country crashes and burns.

[malthaussen]

10. Got that right.

If a bloody revolution comes, the rich will flee to the Caymans and laugh their balls off as we eat each other.

-- Mal

[ballyhoo]

11. They are doing it now.

[Cooley Hurd]

6. The Captain should always be the LAST to leave the ship...

If any passengers are left behind, then he should stay (like Captain Smith of Titanic did ).

[Turbineguy]

16. There's an interesting new book out on that...

http://www.amazon.com/Titanic-Evidence-Former-Inspector-Accidents/dp/1442218908/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1398010956&sr=1-1&keywords=titanic+john+lang

It turns out that Captain Smith, once he found out that the ship would sink, retired to the Bridge and never did or said anything to help save those on board.

These sorts of events can easily overwhelm a person. I think this accident investigation will show a complicated chain of events starting well before the ferry sailed (as was the case in the Titanic as well).

In my experience as a ship's Chief Engineer, I have found that peoples' behavior is entirely unpredictable in extreme circumstances.

[treestar]

8. Does that tradition have any meaning nowadays?

That is to say, is the Captain a rescue worker? What if he is not at fault for the sinking?

[malthaussen]

12. Question of responsibility, I think.

It's from military tradition, where an officer should be responsible for the welfare of his people first. No, the captain is not a rescue worker, but he is responsible for seeing that the rescue workers on board are up to the task, and should stay behind to ensure that they perform it. Every one who sails the ship puts himself under the Captain's protection, thus the Captain should ensure that all are tended before he saves his own precious skin.

Whether or not the accident was the captain's fault has no bearing. His responsibility is to the passengers and crew, not to circumstance.

As for going down with the ship, that's extreme. One could say it is a perversion of the tradition, unless there are not enough lifeboats for everybody. To stand and be still to the Birkenhead Drill is a damn tough bullet to chew.

-- Mal

[exboyfil]

9. 69 years old seems too old

to be captain of a passenger vessel. From the reports he seems overwhelmed by the accident. Was his position mostly a sinecure?

[MADem]

14. It wasn't the Queen Elizabeth....it was a passenger ferry.

We aren't talking about a complex power plant or a massive crew, here.

And 69 is the new 49....at least that's what everyone tells me...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/divers-cant-reach-bodies-spotted-inside-sunken-south-korean-ferry/2014/04/19/3d16f624-c7a8-11e3-8b9a-8e0977a24aeb_story.html

[MisterP]

15. Andrea Doria was abandoned, too

viz