History Main / GoingDownWithTheShip

-->-- ''Soldier an' Sailor Too'' by '''Creator/RudyardKipling'''

* Played straight on all sides in the ''SpaceBattleshipYamato'' series

* In the ''[[Videogame/{{X}} X-Universe]]'' series, Earth's [[EliteArmy AGI Task Force]] fighter pilots will ''never'' [[AbandonShip eject from their ship]] - likely to prevent the [[HumanityIsAdvanced superior technology]] of the ships from falling in the hands of the [[HumansByAnyOtherName Argon Federation]] or other races. Every other faction fighter has a chance to bail out when they decide that they have no hope of surviving. Because ATF fighters never bail out, they are impossible to acquire in ''X3: Reunion'' and ''X3: Terran Conflict'', though ''X3: Albion Prelude'' allows players to buy them from shipyards.

* In MikhailAkhmanov's ''[[ArrivalsFromTheDark Fighters of Danveyt]]'', Sergey Valdez is the captain and pilot of a three-man patrol craft called ''Lancelot'' as a mercenary for the [[SpaceElves Lo'ona Aeo]]. He is tasked with defending a female Lo'ona Aeo on her trade mission (actually, exile). He inadvertantly allows the [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Haptors]] to find out about her presence, and they sent a warship equipped with an AntiMatter weapon to take the Lo'ona Aeo by force. Realizing that the ''Lancelot'' is no match for the Haptor warship, he orders the ship's computer to eject his two gunners (in {{Escape Pod}}s, of course), while he sets a [[RammingAlwaysWorks collision course]] for the warship, so that the Lo'ona Aeo transport can escape. Just before the collision, the ''Lancelot'' decides that maybe this trope shouldn't be in effect and ejects Sergey against his will, before disabling the warship's DeflectorShields with a precise shot and colliding with its AntiMatter storage tank. Sergey nearly dies anyway from the resulting matter/anti-matter reaction but is saved.

* Notably ''not'' a prominent tradition in the US Navy. A captain who abandons ship prematurely is labeled a coward, and one that abandons ship before taking every reasonable effort to see to the safety of his crew is likely to be labeled a DirtyCoward. But, the captain should at least make an effort to abandon ship himself. If the captain goes down with his ship, ''both'' need to be replaced.

-->--'''Soldier an' Sailor Too''' by Creator/RudyardKipling

* A tragic version of this happens in a flashback scene in ''{{Pandorum}}'', describing the greatest disaster in space ([[spoiler:before Earth itself is destroyed]]) due to the titular syndrome. A spaceship captain goes insane and ejects all 5000 sleeping pods into space. Presumably, they all suffocated before he died, the last person aboard.

** Don't be unfair. He [[BlatantLies fell into the lifeboat]].
** Not to mention that [[NeverMyFault the crew should have been on the lookout for the reef in the first place.]]

* ''DaleBrown''s Sky Masters, the Chinese Admiral fails to invade Mindanao, and his ship gets struck by the Americans satellite. With his ship sinking he decides to sink with the ship and shoot himself, because even if he lives, he'll get court martialed, and executed by his superiors.

* Famously, Captain Edward J. Smith of the ''UsefulNotes/RMSTitanic'' went down with his ship. There are dozens of differing accounts as to ''how'' he died however, with some surviors claiming he shot himself just before the final plunge while others say he saved a child by swimming over to a lifeboat and lifting him in but dying from exposure before he could be saved.

* ''TheFarSide:'' In one strip, a lone man remains on a sinking ship while the rest of the crew rows away. He wonders to himself if "The cook always goes down with the ship" really is a maritime tradition, or the others just lied to him.

In many cases, the captain goes down with the ship because he would [[DirtyCoward face major disgrace if he didn't]]--especially if the ship is only sinking because of his screw-up.

* Notably ''not'' a prominent tradition in the US Navy. A captain who abandons ship prematurely is labeled a coward, and one that abandons ship before taking every reasonable effort to see to the safety of his crew is likely to be labeled a DirtyCoward. But, the captain should at least make an effort to abandon ship himself. If the captain goes down with his ship, ''both'' need to be replaced.

* Used in ''KindHeartsAndCoronets'': "...all hands were saved, save one. Admiral Lord Horatio D'Ascoyne, obstinate to the last, insisted on going down with his ship."
** The ship sank because [[WhatAnIdiot he didn't know starboard from port]].
** In another Ealing comedy, ''The Ladykillers'', Mrs. Wimmerforce relates that this is how her late husband died.

* Famously, Captain Edward J. Smith of the UsefulNotes/RMSTitanic went down with his ship. There are dozens of differing accounts as to ''how'' he died however, with some surviors claiming he shot himself just before the final plunge while others say he saved a child by swimming over to a lifeboat and lifting him in but dying from exposure before he could be saved.

* Averted by captain Avranas of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oceanos Oceanos]], who was one of the ''first'' off the ship. He later stated that "abandon ship is for everybody. If some people want to stay, they can stay," but many people on board said there was no alarm raised and they ''had no idea that the ship was sinking''. To make matters worse, his crew didn't close the lower deck portholes, which made the sinking even ''faster''. The rescue operation was carried out by two ''entertainers''. People were furious with the captain and crew for abandoning them. Luckily, all people on board were rescued.

* ''MassEffect2'': Shepard is told Joker is ignoring orders to abandon ship; in his case it's less about dying honorably and more about trying to save the ''Normandy''. After Shepard manages to get him into an escape pod, an explosion blasts him/her away from it. S/he sends the pod off anyway, saving Joker but sacrificing him/herself. Shepard didn't ''want'' to go down with the ship, s/he's just ridiculously altruistic.
** Besides, Shepard's [[BackFromTheDead death didn't stick]].

* Averted and cruelly subverted in the case of ''HMS Guardian'' in 1789. The ''Guardian'' was a British ship of the line, hastily converted into a transport ship to try and resupply the newly founded colony at Botany Bay in Australia. During this - her maiden voyage - she [[DoesThisRemindYouofAnything collided with an iceberg]] and began to sink. Most of those on board [[AbandonShip escaped in the ship's boats]], while the captain, Lieutenant Edward Riou, remained on board with a skeleton crew of [[RagtagBunchofMisfits sailors, civilian passengers,]] [[PluckyMiddie midshipmen]] [[ReformedCriminal and convicts]] - all of whom expected to die. Remarkably, they decided they weren't about to go down without a fight and frantically began a series of quick repairs and gruelling, non-stop shifts at the pumps. Riou - in an [[CrowningMomentofAwesome incredible feat of seamanship]] - managed to guide the crippled ''Guardian'' back to Cape Town; according to some accounts by the time she arrived she was little more than a gigantic raft. In a tragic subversion, only the occupants of one of the lifeboats - 15 people who took the ship's launch - survived; they were lucky enough to be found by a French merchant ship. The rest - over two hundred and forty people - were never seen again.

** [[spoiler: Besides, Shepards [[BackFromTheDead death didn't stick]].]]

A maritime tradition that if a ship is sinking, the Captain should remain aboard it, or at least [[TheMenFirst 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 [[MenAreTheExpendableGender "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 [[YouAreInCommandNow 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.

* Subverted by the Battlecruiser Captain in ''StarCraft2''. One of his (joke) quotes is "We're going down. Stay with the ship. I'm out!". Not taking heavy damage or close to death. Just as soon as they're hit.

* Famously, Captain Edward J. Smith of the RMSTitanic went down with his ship. There are dozens of differing accounts as to ''how'' he died however, with some surviors claiming he shot himself just before the final plunge while others say he saved a child by swimming over to a lifeboat and lifting him in but dying from exposure before he could be saved.