Poll: If you were a captain of a ship, how many of you would go down with your ship?

Maybe I wouldn't go down with the ship, but I sure wouldn't be the FIRST to leave!

Ship captains are not supposed to go down with the ship. They are responsible for staying on the ship and coordinating with rescuers until they are in danger. The cruise ship was not sinking and the captain was not in danger. Rescue crews were able to enter the vessel while the Captain was high tailing it away on a life boat. Captains of cruise ships and big ocean vessels can make mid six figures. They can take a little risk now and then for that kind of cash. The coast guard rescuers who were dispatched risk their lives week in and week out for a fraction of that.

Precious Roy wrote:

Ship captains are not supposed to go down with the ship. They are responsible for staying on the ship and coordinating with rescuers until they are in danger. The cruise ship was not sinking and the captain was not in danger. Rescue crews were able to enter the vessel while the Captain was high tailing it away on a life boat. Captains of cruise ships and big ocean vessels can make mid six figures. They can take a little risk now and then for that kind of cash. The coast guard rescuers who were dispatched risk their lives week in and week out for a fraction of that.

You didn't answer my question. So, am I to believe you would have stayed aboard the ship? At what point do you think it is appropriate for a captain to retreat from a sinking ship?

If I took a job like captain of a ship, I would understand and accept my responsibility to do the best that I could to save those on board until I was in immediate danger. If you don't want that responsibility, don't be the captain.

Its wasn't the captain's fault he left the ship. He wanted to stay but he tripped and somehow fell into the lifeboat.

I can't find that Monty Python bit about abandoning ship. Women, children, astronauts and stylized versions of the complete renaissance man first.

Somebody help an a hole out.

da Captain wrote:

Its wasn't the captain's fault he left the ship. He wanted to stay but he tripped and somehow fell into the lifeboat.

Ha ha ha ha. Gotta hand it to the fella. No shame whatsoever.

for those of you thinking about the economy, pause to consider that we are going to ask people like this to sacrifice so the Euro stays together--how do you think that is going to go?

Did the Italian cruise ship captain abandon ship for some other reason? Was he drunk on duty, for instance, and was trying to avoid being caught?

id be outta there wrote:

You didn't answer my question. So, am I to believe you would have stayed aboard the ship? At what point do you think it is appropriate for a captain to retreat from a sinking ship?

From what I understand the captain is always the last one off the ship. So, if you've got everyone off except 10 people you stay on board until those 10 people are safely off the ship. If they go down with the ship - you go down with the ship. There are some grey areas, of course.

id be outta there wrote:

Everyone is denegrating the captain of the Costa Concordia for abandoning his stricken ship, but how many of you would have done otherwise?

Answer honestly, please.

Yes I definitely would provided the water was only 30 feet deep and even with the ship sinking to the bottom it was still above water. So no matter how you slice it the captain was a dick for leaving. I would guess pretty much everyone would stay and help with no threat of drowning.

Id try to get everyone out. Which I would, because I am a successful person and then I would get out last. I would end with eating some Pizza Pizza!

I'd like to think that even if I were not the captain I'd stay until everyone made it safely off. It's a little ironic how hard we try to avoid death when in the end it will catch us all.

Not me. May be that's why I'd never be a captain.

You stay until you know nobody else is alive on board.

I am staying until everyone else is off. Plain and simple it is your job. I teach school and if there is a fight I jump in it to break it up. I am not nearly as big as most of the guys but it is my job.

Letsrun Gunner wrote:

I am staying until everyone else is off. Plain and simple it is your job. I teach school and if there is a fight I jump in it to break it up. I am not nearly as big as most of the guys but it is my job.

Attending a sinking ship and breaking up a high school fight are not similar. Do not even try to compare the two.

id be outta there wrote:

Answer honestly, please.

Well if I was captain of the Love Boat I'd think "going down" with just part of the job description.

However I don't think going down with the ship was what was being asked of the Chicken of the Sea. He already made it to shore and was calling his Mom on his cell before the bad s**t happened. So would I after taking the training and accepting the responsibility to manage the ship try to bring order to a rescue effort? Damn straight. Someone with his knowledge of the ship and position to make decisions could have easily stayed on board and helped direct rescue efforts with no danger to himself at all. He got out of there and on shore so fast you'd think he was French. Hell, most of the bridge is still above water.

Oddly enough, my wife and sister-in-law took a cruise on that same ship, on the same route, a couple years ago. It is a big ship that's easy to get lost in on a good day for a passenger. For a captain that's on the ship cruise after cruise it's pretty inexcusable.

Is staying on a sinking ship an explicit obligation in the captain's contract?