The captain goes down with the ship The captain goes down with the ship "The captain goes down with the ship" is an idiom and maritime tradition that a sea captain holds ultimate responsibility for both his ship and everyone embarked on it, and that in an emergency, he will either save them or die trying. Although often connected to the sinking of RMS "Titanic" in 1912 and its captain, Edward J. Smith, the phrase precedes "Titanic" by at least 11 years. In most instances, the captain of the ship forgoes his own rapid departure of a ship in distress, and concentrates instead on saving other people.
Wreck of the RMS Titanic April 1912 when he waved goodbye to his wife and daughter as they left aboard lifeboat 14. They never saw him again and he presumably went down with the ship. The watch was loaned to Haisman "for life"; when she died four years later it was reclaimed by RMS Titanic Inc. On another occasion, a steamer trunk spotted in the debris field was found to contain three musical instruments, a deck of playing cards, a diary belonging to one Howard Irwin, and a bundle of letters from his girlfriend Pearl Shuttle. It was first thought that Irwin, a musician and