A CAPTAIN GOES DOWN WITH HIS SHIP
..........OR DOES HE?

There is a tradition in maritime history saying: "A Captain Goes Down With His Ship". I also found out in research that it's actually the law.

If things start to go wrong, a Captain is supposed to put the safety of everyone on board above his own. He should be the last person he is thinking about.

Or that's the way it's supposed to work. This is such a simple law and yet it seems that a lot of Captains in the last few years are either forgetting it exists or just not caring.

We start with the delightfully named Costa Concordia. This cruise liner capsized off the coast of Isola del Giglio in Italy. The Captain neglected his duties and 32 passengers were lost. 

Then we have the MV Sewol which sank off the Island of Jindo in South Korea. Again the Captain was negligent and there was a loss of nearly 300 lives. The most tragic thing was many of these were high school children who had their whole lives ahead of them.

The Captains of both these ships abandoned their passengers and crew, but why? Cowardice? Stupidity? Or callous disregard for anyone, but themselves? We may never know. Whatever happened, they broke the law and will possibly pay the price for it. 

The Captain of the Costa Concordia was charged with manslaughter and abandoning ship. The Captain of the Sewol was charged with homicide through gross negligence. And to add insult to injury, he tried to pass himself off as a passenger.

The sadness of all this is that the deaths didn't stop with the drowned passengers and crew. In the case of the Costa Concordia, one of the salvage crew also died. And in regard to the MV Sewol, there is the emotional and heartbreaking story of the teacher who believed he was at fault and committed suicide because he couldn't cope with his guilt. There is also the parent who threatened to do the same if her daughter was found, because she allegedly pushed her daughter into going on the trip in the first place. And one of the civilian divers also died.

These two Captains broke the law and let people die. They should never have been placed in charge of a ship - ANY SHIP - in the first place and they should not be allowed to serve on a ship EVER AGAIN. They are a disgrace to maritime tradition, maritime history and worst of all a disgrace to their respective countries. 

I must point out that there were other contributing factors to these tragedies. That is not in dispute, especially with the Sewol where the ship was overloaded and the ferry company were also believed to be at fault.

However, once on board a ship, the buck stops with the Captain. 

A CAPTAIN GOES DOWN WITH HIS SHIP. And that's the way it should be.

"There are three things to remember about being a Captain: Keep your shirt tucked in; go down with the ship; and NEVER abandon a member of your crew". ~ Kate Mulgrew   

Flowers for the Victims of the Sewol Disaster (with kind permission from NBC's Bill Neely)