The captain who wouldn't go down with the ship

You've all probably seen or heard about that cruise ship that hit a rock and sank. Yes, it was tragic. And it could have been stopped. Mainly because of that loser of a captain. I saw on the news that this guy went off course without informing his supervisors of his change, so they couldn't warn him about the dangers that lay ahead. What really makes me angry is that he's the one to make this mess, and yet he leaves the ship before announcing, "abandon ship" to the passengers, leaving them to figure things out for themselves. Now, that's pretty darn stupid. I remember, my first and only cruise in the summer of 2005, we had to do a drill where we got our life vests and report to our designated areas. It didn't really inform us as to what we were supposed to do after that. But that's because the captain, who wouldn't ditch, would tell us what measures would be taken based on the situation we were in. But, in this case, the passengers couldn't even rely on their captain. It's pretty sad. Now people are going to question whether they want to even go on a cruise in fear of the captain leaving them in a crisis. And on this ship, the crew didn't even know what to do. That's why so many people died.

I really like how the author set it up as a Q&A session with "the dean of ocean-liner historians" (Mashberg). His purpose was to inform others of what really happened, and to explain what is supposed to happen, as well as the after-effects with will occur. The guy left without warning, he was supposed to stay, and this event looks really bad on the cruise line. The author's argument is very valid, mainly because it's hard to disagree with him. I don't know of anyone who would stick up for the captain, because what he did was wrong (and fortunately, he's in jail now).


Article: The captain who wouldn't go down with the ship by Tom Mashberg