History Main / GoingDownWithTheShip

* In ''Film/Yamato'', during the ill fated Operation Ten-Go, the ''Yamato'' is mortally damaged by American air attack. Both of the senior officers in charge, Vice-Admiral Seiichi Itō and Captain Kōsaku Aruga decide to stay on the bridge after giving the order to abandon ship, and they would both ultimately perish just like [[TruthInTelevision in real life]]. The film though, implies that Vice-Admiral Itō commits suicide before the ship sinks.

The origin of this practice is maritime salvage law — if a ship is abandoned by all the crew but doesn't sink, anyone who comes on board can claim the ship and its contents as salvage, so a senior officer has to remain on board until it becomes clear that the ship really is going down, to prevent the embarrassment of losing the ship to scavengers. (Note that the captain ''is'' clear to leave once everyone else is safely out and the ship is plainly doomed.)

** Captain Francesco Schettino of the ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costa_Concordia_disaster Costa Concordia]]'' not only left the ship before the evacuation was complete, but drew the incredible ire of local Coast Guard Commander Gregorio De Falco, whose frustrated exhortation "Vada a bordo, [[ForeignCussWord cazzo]]!" (roughly "Get back on board, for [[PrecisionFStrike fuck's sake]]!") became a global {{meme}} and even found its way onto T-shirts. 33 people died, and Schettino was later found guilty of manslaughter. The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX_08zcCmx8 full exchange]] between De Falco and Schettino is worth a listen:

* In ''VideoGame/{{Poptropica}}'''s SOS Island, the captain decides to go down with the sinking Titanic. [[spoiler:Fortunately, you manage to convince him to leave at the end, after navigating through the mostly waterlogged ship.]]

--->'''Shaw:''' She didn't count herself. "Get in," she says, "ThatsAnOrder!"

** Captain Lee Joon-seok of the South Korean ferry ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_MV_Sewol MV Sewol]]'' abandoned the sinking ship with passengers still aboard and was among the first to be rescued -- in spite of South Korean law ''requiring'' the captain to remain on the ship. He was also spotted on the lifeboat without his pants, and it was suggested that he was attending to [[ADateWithRosiePalms "business"]] in his cabin at the time of the accident, and that the crew was drinking beer on the deck as they tried to resolve the problem. The South Korean public was ''infuriated'', especially as around 300 people died (many of them high school students), and the captain was found guilty of homicide and given a life sentence.

The origin of this practice is maritime salvage law — if a ship is abandoned by all the crew but doesn't sink, anyone who comes on board can claim the ship and its contents as salvage, so a senior officer has to remain on board until it becomes clear that the ship really is going down, to prevent the embarrassment of losing the ship to scavengers. Note that the captain ''is'' clear to leave once everyone else is safely out and the ship is plainly doomed.)

The origin of this practice is maritime salvage law — if a ship is abandoned by all the crew but doesn't sink, anyone who comes on board can claim the ship and its contents as salvage, so a senior officer has to remain on board until it becomes clear that the ship really is going down, to prevent the embarrassment of losing the ship to scavengers.

* Averted in an early episode of ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' when the St. Anne sails into rough waters, the [[DirtyCoward Captain]] immediately jumps into a lifeboat, sparking a [[AbandonShip panicked evacuation]] of everyone else.

** [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] in the episode ''Babylon Squared''. The last remaining crew members of [[spoiler:Babylon 4]] are being evacuated before the it gets drawn back into a NegativeSpaceWedgie. As it is [[CollapsingLair unclear]] if [[spoiler:Babylon 4]] will survive the transition, Commander Sinclair compares it to [[SpaceIsAnOcean a great old ship sinking]]. Garibaldi [[AvertedTrope reminds his commander]] that he is emphatically ''not'' TheCaptain there and he is ''not'' going down with the ship. ([[spoiler:This [[{{Foreshadowing}} foreshadows]] the fact that his [[MyFutureSelfAndMe future self]] is also on Babylon 4, and was in fact [[StableTimeLoop part of the team]] that [[TimeTravelTenseTrouble will have caused]] the NegativeSpaceWedgie in the first place.]]) Sinclair and Garibaldi are the last ones off the station.
** Shortly before that, in the same episode, the man who ''is'' in command there had just taken off to get to the shuttles himself, but only after [[TheMenFirst seeing the rest of his crew off]] and imploring Sinclair and Garibaldi to get going rather than [[spoiler: staying behind to try and save Zathras, who had appeared shortly before all of their problems began.]]
* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'': Lee Adama, Commander of the Pegasus, is the last to leave the ship (and says the customary good-bye) before it takes off on a collision course with the Cylon Baseships. Also in Season 4, [[spoiler: Adama is the last to leave the Galactica, except for Sam who is now more part of the ship than part of the crew]].
* In the final episode of ''Series/BlakesSeven'', Scorpio is shot down by gunships while RunningTheBlockade and is ComingInHot. The crew teleport out but Tarrant stays on the controls because if he releases them, Scorpio will flip over and break up before they can reach the teleport pad. When Avon hesitates (ever since his arrival on the series, Tarrant and Avon are involved in a running dispute over who should be TheCaptain), Tarrant points out that he's the only one with the [[AcePilot skill to pilot the crashing spaceship]], as it's already passed beyond the MasterComputer's ability to do so. [[spoiler:Tarrant survives the crash, only to get killed along with everyone else in the climatic final scene.]]

** Averted in "Nerve"; when a Peacekeeper base has a reactor meltdown, its commander is the first to head for a Prowler to escape.

** In ''Series/StargateAtlantis'', in "The Last Man", an alternate reality Carter rams a Wraith Hiveship with the ''Phoenix'', a much smaller 304 Battlecruiser. The ''Phoenix'' not only destroys the Hiveship, but two more are destroyed when they get caught in the blast of the first. It is unknown whether Carter meant to go down with the ship, or whether she intended to beam down to the planet below but couldn't because the transporters were knocked out.

** ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'': A SubvertedTrope in "The Doomsday Machine". After the ''U.S.S. Constellation'' is put out of action, Commodore Decker evacuates the crew to a ConvenientlyClosePlanet, remaining aboard because TheCaptain is the "last man to leave the ship". Unfortunately the transporters fail, and he's ForcedToWatch as the eponymous weapon [[NotWorthKilling ignores his spaceship]] and begins devouring the planet her crew had taken refuge on.
-->'''Decker:''' They called me, they ''begged'' me for help! Four hundred of them! I couldn't... I just couldn't...
** In the PilotMovie of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' a FlashBack shows us Lt. Commander Sisko and crew abandoning the ''Saratoga'' 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. It 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.
** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''. In the climatic scene of the TwoPartEpisode "Year of Hell", Captain Janeway remains on board ''Voyager'' for a ramming SuicideAttack. Thanks to a temporal ResetButton, she fares better than Decker did. Janeway lampshades the trope in "Dark Frontier" as one of the "three rules of being a Starfleet captain" (the others being [[StiffUpperLip always keep your shirt tucked in]] and [[LeaveNoManBehind never abandon a member of your crew]]).
** ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise''. This happens even in the amoral MirrorUniverse. Captain Forrest stays on board I.S.S ''Enterprise'' to give his crew time to escape, in particular his lover Hoshi Sato.

-->-- ''WesternAnimation/ReturnToNeverLand''

* Averted in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'': [[spoiler:Christina tricks Feldt into joining Sumeragi and Ian Vashti in a support craft moments before the Ptolemaios is destroyed. Few minutes afterwards, she and Lichty end up TogetherInDeath. (Sorta)]]
* Played straight in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED'' and ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny'' by [[spoiler: Natarle, who goes down with the [[EvilCounterpart Dominion]] when she [[TakingYouWithMe locks Muruta Azrael in with her on the bridge]] while the rest of the crew evacuates on her orders, and Captain Todaka, who goes down with ORB's flagship carrier when he (deliberately) leads it to ruin and is killed by Shinn in the Impulse.]]
* Averted in an early episode of ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' -- when the ''St. Anne'' sails into rough waters, the [[DirtyCoward Captain]] immediately jumps into a lifeboat, sparking a [[AbandonShip panicked evacuation]] of everyone else.
* Played straight on all sides in the ''Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato'' series. [[BackForTheDead Captain Okita]], ''Yamato's'' original captain in the series (until cancer forced him to give the seat to Susumu Kodai), goes down with her at the conclusion of ''FinalYamato'', originally the GrandFinale of the original 1975 series.
* This was the fate of [[spoiler:Captain Gloval]] in the final episode of the first season of ''{{Anime/Robotech}}'' (his Japanese equivalent in the original ''Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross'' survived).
* In ''The Legends of Galactic Heroes'', Admiral Bucock and his captain, as well as many others during the Battle of Mar-Ardetta.

* ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide:'' In one strip, a lone man remains on a sinking ship while the rest of the crew (including a man who is obviously the Captain) 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 ''WesternAnimation/ReturnToNeverLand'', when a giant octopus is about to sink Captain Hook's ship, he begs Peter Pan to save him from drowning, to which Peter Pan mockingly answers: "You know the rules, Hook! A good captain ''always'' goes down with his ship!". Captain Hook's reply? "I DON'T WANNA BE A GOOD CAPTAIN!".

* ''Film/{{Titanic 1997}}'' is full of this. Apart from the captain himself, there's the band who remain on deck (which actually happened in RealLife) and anyone who took the orders of "women and children first out" to heart.
* ''Film/UnderTenFlags''. Captain Windsor refuses to abandon the ship he's captained for thirty years, but the German BoardingParty just tell him he's got five minutes to collect his things and get dressed. We then see him grim faced on the German raider with the other prisoners as demolition charges send his ship to the bottom. Ironically he ends up going down with the raider when it's sunk at the end of the movie, but he urges the German captain to save himself, having come to respect him.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries''. A SubvertedTrope in "The Doomsday Machine". After the ''U.S.S. Constellation'' is put out of action, Commodore Decker evacuates the crew to a ConvenientlyClosePlanet, remaining aboard because TheCaptain is the "last man to leave the ship". Unfortunately the transporters fail, and he's ForcedToWatch as the eponymous weapon [[NotWorthKilling ignores his spaceship]] and begins devouring the planet her crew had taken refuge on.
-->'''Decker:''' They called me, they ''begged'' me for help! Four hundred of them! I couldn't...I just couldn't...
* In the PilotMovie of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' a FlashBack shows us Lt. Commander Sisko and crew abandoning the ''Saratoga'' 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.
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''. In the climatic scene of the TwoPartEpisode "Year of Hell", Captain Janeway remains on board ''Voyager'' for a ramming SuicideAttack. Thanks to a temporal ResetButton, she fares better than Decker did. Janeway lampshades the trope in "Dark Frontier" as one of the "three rules of being a Starfleet captain" (the others being [[StiffUpperLip always keep your shirt tucked in]] and [[LeaveNoManBehind never abandon a member of your crew]]).
* ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise''. This happens even in the amoral MirrorUniverse. Captain Forrest stays on board I.S.S ''Enterprise'' to give his crew time to escape, in particular his lover Hoshi Sato.

* Occurs in ''VideoGame/FreeSpace'' when the ''Galatea'' is destroyed by the ''Lucifer''. The ''Galatea'' launches escape pods, which you are charged with defending, but the the mission debriefing states that the Captain stayed behind and went down with his ship.

* ''Videogame/AHatInTime:'' The Captain of the Arctic Cruise attempts to do this after the ship crashes into an iceberg and starts sinking, even trying to refuse rescue as you carry him to safety. [[spoiler:While there are sadder implications considering his mentor did the same and died, this captain is a ''walrus'', and is thus never really in any danger of drowning or hypothermia, which he points out bemusedly after you went through all the trouble]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Return of the Obra Dinn}}'': [[spoiler:Captain Robert Witterel seems to be a good example. He is reaching the DespairEventHorizon when he sees the entirety of his crew, including his wife, being wiped out due to the ship being attacked by the [[OurMermaidsAreDifferent mermaids]], the Crab Riders, and the {{kraken|andLeviathan}}, which is too much for him to bear. As a result, he accepts the fact that he will not be leaving the ship alive, and authorizes the surviving female passengers, stewards, and Dr. Henry Evans to leave the ''Obra Dinn'' in the last remaining lifeboat. He also intervenes on their behalf when topman Leonid Volkov attempts to prevent them from doing so, demanding that Volkov "let them go." Afterward, when there are only a few remaining crew members left to attack the Captain for the magical shells, the Captain is forced to kill them all, including his own brother-in-law and First Mate, in self-defense. Afterwards, [[DrivenToSuicide he shoots himself in the chest]], fulfilling his vow to his wife that [[TogetherInDeath he would be with her in the afterlife]].]]

* ''[[VideoGame/TronTwoPointOh Tron 2.0]]'' played it straight with [[spoiler: I-No, the old Tower Guardian]] who chose to de-rez with the server. However, it's discussed, then averted with [[spoiler: Alan and Jet]] when it comes to them [[spoiler: crashing the F-Con server]].

[[folder:Webcomics]]

** He's not the only one; Durka kills a junior officer and takes his uniform in an attempt to escape the destruction of the Zelbinion.

* This trope was occasionally used in Jonah (a comic strip in ''ComicBook/TheBeano'' about a man who managed to sink everyship he went on).

** 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.

** Most of the ship's department heads and officers also went down with the ship. Chief Officer Henry Wilde and Second Officer Charles Lightoller both had the ship sink beneath their feet as they tried to load the remaining two collapsible lifeboats; Wilde perished but Lightoller survived, becoming the highest-ranking officer to do so. First Officer William Murdoch's manner of death is unknown, but he is believed to have been crushed by the forward funnel. Chief Engineer Bell and his entire staff remained below decks to ensure that the ship had power until the last moment. Senior Wireless Operator Jack Phillips continued to send wireless messages up until near the end, and although he escaped the final plunge, he didn't survive either. All five of the ship's postal workers drowned early in the sinking as they attempted to save the hundreds of bags of mail. The chief purser, chief steward, and even the owner of the ship's on-board restaurant all went down with the ship.

* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' invokes this trope a few times in Season 3. I'm not sure whether this falls squarely under this trope since no immediate crisis is involved -- Adama simply kicks (almost) everybody off the ship when it's not in active duty, but refuses to leave with them. The other IS this trope, though. Lee Adama, Commander of the Pegasus, is the last to leave the ship (and says the customary good-bye) before it takes off on a collision course with the Cylon Baseships. Also in Season 4, [[spoiler: Adama is the last to leave the Galactica, except for Sam who is now more part of the ship than part of the crew]].

* Creator/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, scapegoated for everything and executed by his superiors.

* [[spoiler:[[DisappearedDad Clyde Harlaown]]]] in ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaAs'', who remained in the [[CoolStarship Hestia]] when the [[ArtifactOfDoom 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, [[HeroicSacrifice 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.

* Averted in ''Literature/MobyDick''. When Moby-Dick sinks the Pequod goes down, Ahab curses it for denying him this honor.

* Played straight on all sides in the ''Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato'' series.

** Captain Lee Joon-seok of the South Korean ferry ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_MV_Sewol MV Sewol]]'' abandoned the sinking ship with passengers still aboard and was among the first to be rescued -- in spite of South Korean law ''requiring'' the captain to remain on the ship. He was also spotted on the lifeboat without his pants, and it was suggested that he was attending to [[ADateWithRoseyPalms "business"]] in his cabin at the time of the accident, and that the crew was drinking beer on the deck as they tried to resolve the problem. The South Korean public was ''infuriated'', especially as around 300 people died (many of them high school students), and the captain was found guilty of homicide and given a life sentence.

** Captain Lee Joon-seok of the South Korean ferry ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_MV_Sewol MV Sewol]]'' abandoned the sinking ship with passengers still aboard and was among the first to be rescued -- in spite of South Korean law ''requiring'' the captain to remain on the ship. He was also spotted on the lifeboat without his pants, and it was suggested that he was attending to [[ADateWithRosyPalms "business"]] in his cabin at the time of the accident, and that the crew was drinking beer on the deck as they tried to resolve the problem. The South Korean public was ''infuriated'', especially as around 300 people died (many of them high school students), and the captain was found guilty of homicide and given a life sentence.

** Captain Lee Joon-seok of the South Korean ferry ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_MV_Sewol MV Sewol]]'' abandoned the sinking ship with passengers still aboard and was among the first to be rescued -- in spite of South Korean law ''requiring'' the captain to remain on the ship. He was also spotted on the lifeboat without his pants, and it was suggested that he was attending to "business" in his cabin at the time of the accident, and that the crew was drinking beer on the deck as they tried to resolve the problem. The South Korean public was ''infuriated'', especially as around 300 people died (many of them high school students), and the captain was found guilty of homicide and given a life sentence.

** Captain Yiannis Avranas of the ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTS_Oceanos MTS Oceanos]]'' was one of the first off the ship when it sank off South Africa in 1991. He later decried the concept that the captain must go down with the ship, stating that "abandon ship is for everybody. If some people want to stay, they can stay." The problem was that Captain Avranas dreadfully mismanaged the sinking, doing little to stop it (sometimes making it worse) and failing to even notify the relevant authorities or the passengers that the ship was sinking. In fact, he was only aboard as long as he was because he'd been previously caught trying to escape multiple times by lifeboat. Instead of leading emergency efforts, the majority of the crew and all of the senior officers -- including Captain Avranas -- abandoned their post to load the two most seaworthy lifeboats with their personal possessions and escape while the passengers were kept ignorant. The ship's ''entertainers'' had to run the evacuation after discovering the deception, alongside manning the now-abandoned bridge and calling for help. Their attempts were initially met with incredulity by the authorities, owing to the fact that the radio was being operated by the ship's stage magician instead of an officer. Fortunately, rescue authorities believed them and everyone aboard survived, but they were ''pissed'', and Avranas and his senior crew were later found guilty of negligence by Greek maritime authorities. It's notable that unlike the cowardly crew, the entertainment staff-come-makeshift emergency crew ''did'' wait until passengers were saved to be rescued thenselves, and were hailed as heroes by the passengers for it.

* In 1959's ''Literature/BenHur'', the galley captain tells titular captive Judah Ben-Hur that he won't escape as long as the Roman legion who controls the ship is able to but in case they lose control to outside forces, Ben-Hur, not his Roman captors, will sink with the rest of the slaves, chained to their assigned oars.

In modern cases, captains go down with the ship because they will [[MyGreatestFailure face major disgrace if they don't]], [[DeathEqualsRedemption especially if the ship is only sinking because of their screw-up,]] or if there are passengers or junior crew still on board. This tradition has been transferred to aviation, since TheSkyIsAnOcean.