Are you better off alive in jail with no honor, or dead but honored?

It’s not honor, it is responsibility. He left things in a mess. If he had been leading, there is no reason to assume he would have lost his life, but maybe he could have organized things to avoid as much loss of life as possible.

If he wasn’t such a bad boat driver in the first place, that whole thing probably would not have happened! Since the majority of people are not dead, he may have made it out alive.

Being in jail for a dozen years would be death for me, so, I’d take real death over rotting away in a cell and being infamous for my disgraceful act.
I feel bad for the man, but, he blew it, big time.

As the question is asked (without associating this to the ship’s captain), I’d take death.

With regard to his abandonment of the ship, it is an egregious disregard for duties and a complete display of idiocy. No, I would have been a true ship’s captain in the same situation. My sorry ass wouldn’t be worth saving if I abandoned ship.

I love Zapata, I always kept this quote close to me in the past and it still resonates for me today.
“Better to die standing, than to live on your knees”

I’d choose my moral compass over my fear. If by doing the right thing it meant certain death, then so be it.

Death before dishonor

I always choose the moral and responsible way out when the pavement hits the road.

With regards to this captain: he deserves everything he gets as he accepted responsibility for all his passengers when he took the job. Shame on him for saving his skin first.

Nobody really knows what they would do in a life or death situation. I would like to believe I’d do the right thing but unless put in that situation, I could never be sure. Heroism is not typically a choice but rather a reaction. Cowardice, likewise.

@Jaxk I’ve been in situations that felt like life or death so I am pretty confident knowing what I’d do.

@Jaxk I think you’re right. I don’t think anyone knows or can know for sure because circumstances like these are completely unexpected. The effect of the uncertainty seems to me to be downplayed by most people here.

I don’t even know what the right thing would be for me, were I a passenger on the boat. If there was anything I could do to reduce the chaos and care for my family at the same time, I would like to think I would try to do it. But if I had to choose between making sure my family was ok, and saving a few other lives… I have no idea what I would do. Probably go for my family, but you never know. Depends on the facts on the ground.

I say it all depends on whether you still want to breathe or not.

You would never know the honor after death, so stretch out your life in jail.

How bad can it be????

I’m ex-Navy and what the captain did was totally dishonorable. A captain is always the last to leave the ship and is ultimately responsible for the ship and all aboard. He made a mistake and was in a place he shouldn’t be. At the very least he should have made sure that as many passengers and crew got off the ship as possible.

Shame on the Bastard!

I don’t believe the captain should necessarily be the last one off the ship. He should be the last one off the scene. If he can better supervise the evacuation of his ship from a lifeboat that is where he should be.

However, this captain apparently did not fulfill his responsibility as master of the ship.

When a person signs up to be the caption of a ship, he is agreeing to that (unwritten?) code of honor. It seems like this caption just bailed out of a situation when he was the man who is responsible for helping to save the passengers’ lives. I can’t say what would have happened otherwise, but I must wonder if lives could have been saved if he did not abandon ship. It wouldn’t just be death in honor, but it could have possibly been a death while saving the lives of others, which is more important.

If it was me, I would probably have panicked and done the same. But that’s why I’m not in the navy.

He made a series of poor decisions, acted without honor, and exhibited poor judgment and leadership. I would never have put my passengers, vessel, and crew in that position.

A captain should do everything in his power to insure the safety of all others first. He lacks a basic understanding of the first rule of a sea captain: “A Captain is the last one off his ship when it is in danger”. Going down with the ship is the only honorable choice.

I assumed part of the job of being a ship’s captain is having the integrity to be relied upon to take responsibility for the ship and all aboard. This captain endangered the ship then further endangered his charges by not heading the evacuations. Technically irresponsible to his job description and also lacking common social ethics, at least there were some like the young teen who stepped up to help others.

I agree with @Neizvestnaya

It’s like a pilot hitting the eject button and letting his passengers plummet to their deaths. lol

Er, hm. If I was a captain, I’d hope that I’d know enough about it to know what it entails, and what is expected of me, especially in a situation like this. I may have no honour whatsoever, but then, I’d never be a captain, even if I had everything required to be one. But if I was, I think the boat would be my responsibility, as well as the people on it, obviously. Even if I didn’t go to prison, I’d feel so horrible not doing what I could to try and help. I mean even if you can’t do anything at all, at least the captain remaining cool and collected will be a beacon of hope for the people, whether there’s hope or not. At least go out with some fuckin dignity lol.
On the other hand, never having lived something like that, I guess it’s pretty easy to say. But if being a captain isn’t about loving your boat and having a concern for the people with you, and if it’s just a job after all…going to prison would suck. I doubt I could hack it in there, and I’m told women prisons can get even more ferocious than men prisons. Whatever the case, I wouldn’t want to find out lol. And anyways, if I go on a boat, it will always be as a passenger.

@Symbeline

You & me both. I have never wanted to tempt prison time. lol

Yeah. And if prison isn’t like in the movies, it’s probably really fucking boring and depressing, anyways.

I feel very sorry for anyone willing to sacrifice honor for a few more days of life.

Well said Captian.

@Ron_C

Thank you. : )

I would rather be worthy of honor than honored, and I’d rather die honorably than live disgracefully. I hope that I would not have acted as this captain did—not because it is a disgrace to value your own life, but because he was violating a duty he had voluntarily taken upon himself.

Now on the news they’re saying that the captain says he and the higher officers of the ship “fell into a lifeboat accidentally.” Ya gotta love it.

And then there’s this guy.