Going down with the ship?
Tradition would have us believe that the captain goes down with his ship. I guess if your ship doesn’t, exactly, go down, that you can call “a mulligan”. Based on news from the coast of Italy, I mean.
First of all, the ship in question hasn’t gone down. Nor up. In fact, the current position is nothing more (or less) that a textbook case of things gone wrong. I offer up a photo from a news site (no, I wasn’t there).
Not exactly docked for easy wheelchair access. And I suspect that certain cabins (OK, all cabins) are going to add to passenger distortion, the kind that usually gets blamed on too much champagne. But back to the situation as it stands. The call comes, over the Tannoy, to abandon ship. Hey, captain, you didn’t mean everybody, right?
The coast guard certainly didn’t think so, and there’s a rather condemning transcript of the “ship to shore” conversation. Wherein, the coast guard tells the captain to get back on board and take charge. And the captain replies “In this moment, the boat is tipping…”
Insufficient. After a second pointed request from the shore team, the captain replies “But do you realize it is dark and here we can’t see anything…”
Wrong response, captain.
This tale is far from over, as the rescue efforts continue. Suffice to accept that the captain has made a decision to change career paths, suddenly. Pity his course change hadn’t been made with the same heart-felt desire. My condolences to the families that have lost loved ones, at sea. My derision towards Mr. Schettino, formerly known as “Captain”.
