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.
Lifeboats of the RMS Titanic were taken to the White Star Line's Pier 59 in New York, where souvenir hunters soon stripped them of much of their equipment. The "Titanic" nameplates were removed by White Star Line workmen and the boats were inventoried by the C.M. Lane Lifeboat Co. of Brooklyn. They were assessed for salvage at a collective value of £930 ($4,972) as the only salvageable items recovered from "Titanic", they may have been taken back to England aboard "Olympic", which left New York on 23 May 1912, before either being destroyed or quietly redistributed to other vessels. Although nothing now remains of the