Must a Captain Be the Last One Off a Sinking Ship?

Moral Code

The Titanic's captain went down with his ship

Accounts of captains leaving their sinking ships are extremely rare but not unique.

In 1991, Yiannis Avranas, the captain of a Greek cruise liner, was also strongly criticized after leaving the ship as it started to sink off the South African coast. He said he supervised the rescue effort from a helicopter. All 561 people aboard the Oceanos were eventually rescued.

In 2000, the captain of a Greek ferry, the Express Samina, which sank killing more than 60 people, was accused of failing to help passengers flee the sinking vessel.
File photograph of the Titanic The Titanic's captain went down with his ship

A court will ultimately decide whether the captain of the Costa Concordia broke the law by leaving the ship when he did, but he certainly seems to have acted contrary to many people's ideas of how a captain should behave.

Dr Laura Rowe, a historian at the University of Exeter who specializes in naval history, says the expectation that a ship's captain would stay on board until everyone has been evacuated developed in the mid-19th Century.

"At that point, the captain is expected to have a very close affinity with the ship itself. Captains are fully expected to be the last one off, if not to go down with the ship. They are known as the 'father of the ship'," she says.

This relationship was necessary to help enforce discipline, she says.

"The sea is a treacherous place and the crew have to have faith in the captain - if discipline is undermined or breaks down, then the ship becomes a less safe place, and more people risk being injured."