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.
Sinking of the RMS Titanic handle; the total pumping capacity of all the pumps combined was only per hour. Andrews informed the captain that the first five compartments were flooded, and therefore "Titanic" was doomed. By his estimate, she could remain afloat for no longer than about two hours. From the time of the collision to the moment of her sinking, at least of water flooded into "Titanic", causing her displacement to nearly double from to over . The flooding did not proceed at a constant pace, nor was it distributed evenly throughout the ship, due to the configuration of the flooded compartments. Her initial