A Captains Responsibility

I will never forget the "miracle on the Hudson" when Captain "Sully" exemplified the role of a captain and leader. He acted not only in exemplifying a technical skill but as a captain upholding his responsibilty. Unfortunately, we have not seen that in two recent events involving vessels; one in Italy the other in Japan. Granted, I was not there and can only glean my knowledge from the media, but, based upon that, it appears the captains were only interested in saving themselves - what ever happened to "going down with their ship'?

That phrase implies that the ships' captain is responsibe for every soul on his vessel and will do whatever he can to save them - he will be the last to leave the vessel in distress and only after he is certain all are safe. That is exactly what Captain Sullenberg did that day on the Hudson. He is an example of a Ships' Captain and one we all hold in high esteem.

Let us hope that more will follow his lead and the two captains of these horrible disasters are within a very small minority!