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.
The Sinking of the Titanic continue to perform as the ship sank. In April 1912, Bride had told the "New York Times": "[T]he band was still playing. I guess all of the band went down. They were playing "Autumn" then. I swam with all my might. I suppose I was 150 feet away when the Titanic on her nose, with her after-quartet sticking straight up in the air, began to settle - slowly...the way the band kept playing was a noble thing...and the last I saw of the band, when I was floating out in the sea with my lifebelt on, it was still on