Going Down with the Ship: Difference between revisions

''Their choice it was plain between drownin' in 'eaps''

''an' bein' mopped by the screw,''

 

A maritime tradition that if a ship is sinking, the Captain should remain aboard it, or at least [[The Men First|be the last one to escape]]. This can also extend to other crewmen, usually so they can oversee and direct passengers onto the lifeboats first. The latter often goes hand in hand with [[Men Are the Expendable Gender|"Women and children first"]] (leading to jokes where adult men dress in drag or like children). A common twist in comedic works is for the captain to [[You Are in Command Now|appoint someone else captain]] and let ''them'' go down with the ship. Sometimes the new captain then uses the "promotion" to reassign the old captain as captain, often going back and forth repeatedly.

 

Because, of course, [[Space Is an Ocean]] this also applies to starship captains. Even though [[2-D Space|there's no (literal) "down" for them to go]]...

 

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== Anime and Manga ==

* [[Disappeared Dad|Clyde Harlaown]] in ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's]]'', who remained in the [[Cool Starship|Hestia]] when the [[Artifact of Doom|Book of Darkness]] started taking control of the ship's systems so that he can ensure that all of his surviving crew members escape. Once he was sure that everyone else had evacuated, [[Heroic Sacrifice|he asked for the ship accompanying them to open fire on the Hestia]], as the Book of Darkness had already taken over the Hestia's weapon systems by that time and was going to fire first if they don't.

* Brutally averted in [[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]: Christina tricks Feldt into joining Sumeragi and Ian Vashti in a support craft moments before the Ptolemaios is destroyed.

 

* The French-Belgian comic ''[[Les Tuniques Bleues]]'' has an album containing two subversions to this:

** First, when a boat Chesterfield and Blutch are sailors on gets sunk, they are outraced by the captain swiming to the safety of a lifeboat.

== Live-Action TV ==

* The ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' sketch [http://www.montypython.net/scripts/ww1.php "World War 1"] has a ship captain announcing "women and children first!", then we see that the captain and crew are all dressed as women and children... and other costumes, which forces the captain to change the announcement to "women, children, Red Indians, spacemen, and a sort of idealized version of complete Renaissance Men first!"

* In the [[Pilot Movie]] of ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' a [[Flash Back]] shows us Lt. Commander Sisko and crew abandoning ship during the battle of Wolf 359; Sisko is the last to board an escape shuttle (the captain had been killed; Sisko as first officer was now in command). He had to be dragged aboard, not because he felt he should go down with the ship but because his wife was killed and he was in despair.

** Happens to Sisko again with the ''U.S.S. Defiant'' as it's being blasted to scrap. He's the last one on the bridge after calling for the crew to abandon ship, and probably the last one off before the Dominion finish the job.

** This happens with the captain of the space cruiser liner ''Titanic'' in "Voyage of the Damned". However, in this case, the captain is the one who causes its collision with meteors, having been paid to do so to care for his family. He stays on the bridge and dies during the impact. However, the Doctor manages to save the ship (but not [[Always Save the Girl|the girl]]).

* In [[The Muppet Show]], Statler mentions that he was on the Titanic, to which Waldorf remarks that he still has the dress he (Statler) wore to get off.

 

== Literature ==