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.
Olympic-class ocean liner saved. Thirty men lost their lives in the disaster. One survivor, nurse Violet Jessop was notable as having also survived the sinking of RMS "Titanic" in 1912, and had also been on board RMS "Olympic", when it collided with HMS "Hawke" in 1911. "Britannic" was the largest ship lost during World War I, but her sinking did not receive the same attention as the sinking of her sister, "Titanic", or the sinking of the Cunard superliner , when she was sunk by a torpedo in the Irish Sea. When "Titanic" sank in 1912 and "Britannic" sank in 1916, their sinkings