Robert Falcon Scott Markham's first choice as leader but, having decided on him, the older man's support remained constant. There were committee battles over the scope of Scott's responsibilities, with the Royal Society pressing to put a scientist in charge of the expedition's programme while Scott merely commanded the ship. Eventually, however, Markham's view prevailed; Scott was given overall command, and was promoted to the rank of commander before "Discovery" sailed for the Antarctic on 6 August 1901. King Edward VII, who showed a keen interest in the expedition, visited the Discovery the day before the ship left British shores in August 1901,
The captain goes down with the ship to the ship at his first opportunity to prevent its capture and rescue the crew. Abandoning a ship in distress may be considered a crime that can lead to imprisonment. Captain Francesco Schettino, who left his ship in the midst of the "Costa Concordia" disaster, was not only widely reviled for his actions, but lost his final appeal against his 16-year Italian prison sentence including one year for abandoning his passengers, five years for causing the shipwreck, and ten years for manslaughter of its victims. Abandoning ship is a maritime crime that has been on the books for centuries in