The morality of leadership in marine disasters is a contentious issue, with a variety of popular ideals having arisen from well-publicized maritime disasters such as the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912. For instance, it is a commonly held belief that “women and children first” was the norm in ship evacuation, as Captain Smith demonstrated in his emergency procedure. However, the popularity of the Titanic disaster may have instigated the generalization that all ships tended to evacuate in a chivalry-based manner. This investigation seeks to determine whether there was an expected moral code in ship disasters, and if so, what it was. Specifically, this paper will focus on the wreck of the RMS Atlantic in Nova Scotia, in 1873. The wreck of …show more content…
Williams’ conduct demonstrates an expectation of captains’ behaviour aboard doomed vessels. Moreover, the investigation will probe the details of Captain Williams’ survival to determine whether or not the “captain goes down with his ship” values held true during that time period. The study will examine the Canadian government’s official inquiry, which was completed in Halifax a fortnight after the disaster occurred. The inquiry comprises the captain’s statement, crew and passenger testimony. The government also heard from local lighthouse keepers and citizens familiar with the Nova Scotian shoreline. As the ship’s record books were all lost in the destruction of the ship, the eyewitness testimony obtained through interviews formed the backbone of the government’s investigation. These sources, along with relevant secondary literature, will determine whether there was an implicit moral code for the captain and crew members during the evacuation of a ship in peril. Hence, the specific question directing the research process seeks to determine how the Canadian government’s inquiry of the wreck of the RMS Atlantic demonstrated societal and governmental values with regard to conduct in marine
Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat” has long been acclaimed as a fascinating exemplar of Naturalism, generating many studies that range from the indifference of Nature to the “psychological growth of the men through the experience” (466). The psychological growth happens to every man on the boat, yet is mostly depicted through the voice of the Correspondent and in the form of his questioning and contemplating their desperate situation. Being a correspondent, who is innately able as well as inclined to interpret and communicate ideas, the Correspondent is singled out to articulate the mind of his three fellowmen and of Stephen Crane himself, should the story be seen partly as a journalistic account of his own adventure. Therefore throughout the story, the Correspondent takes the mediating role between the men and the outside world, combines a spokesperson with an interlocutor, and reflects the men’s growing awareness to the indifference of Nature.
We mourned the ship by the wharf and ordered the captain and the crew to open the hatch ways. We had assured the captain and his men that we had no intension of harming them. As the chests were brought up from the below decks, men opened them with axes while others brought them to the sides of the ship and dumped the contents over board. This same process was repeated on each ship. This had been the hardest work he had ever done. As they had continued dumping the tea crowds gathered on the wharf as they kept going on.”
Building upon the insights of Gerstenberger, Kent and others, l hope to show bow the structure of "The Open Boat" creates an epistemological dilemma, moving the reader from a position of epistemological indifference to a state of epistemological anxiety. Four key moments in the story create this shift from indifference to anxiety: first, in Section 1, the opening sentence...
In all of Herman Melville’s short stories the captain is a tyrannical madman, but in Billy Budd, Sailor he changed things up and the captain, Captain Vere had compassion and a sensitive side to him, yet at the same time he had a military disciplinarian side to him. This is what made him such a controversial character. Captain Vere is all the talk, many critics have discussed the issue in their essay’s including Charles A. Reich’s “The Tragedy of Justice in Billy Budd” as well as Robert K. Martin’s “Is Vere a Hero?” Both essays argue whether Vere was the hero or the Villain. They also both question the fine line between law and humanity. Just because a law is made a law it doesn’t necessarily mean it is humane. When comparing the two essay’s the points made in Reich’s “The Tragedy of Justice in Billy Budd” are stronger than those made in Martin’s essay and therefore is more persuasive.
Commanders are given their positions because they have demonstrated their ability to execute sound judgment. Judgment is the key factor when committing to actions that could be either favorable or disastrous, or anything in between. Moral decision making, however, takes more than sound judgment when complex problems with undiscernible outcomes arise. When developing leaders to understand decision making in high-stress or combat situations, a thorough understanding of moral judgment is warranted. Case studies provide leaders with valuable tools to stimulate thinking and challenge subordinates. When evaluating the decision the commander of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) has to make, understanding the difference between moral dilemmas and
Rich, Adrienne. “Diving into the Wreck” The Norton Introduction to Literature. Ed. Kelly J. Mays. 11th ed. New York: Norton, 2013.1010-1012. Print.
Often when we think about the Titanic the first thought that comes to the mind is the film “Titanic” which was produced in 1997, 85 years after the disaster struck. It starred Kate Winslett (Rose DeWitt Bukater), Leonardo DiCaprio (Jack Dawson) And Billy Zane (Cal Hokley) as the main characters. The film is about a love triangle between the three main characters. This movie was produced by James Cameron who put enormous amount of research about the shipwreck of the titanic in order to depict the turn of events in his film. Amongst the purposes of his research he wanted to accurately depict the ship wreck itself from the very instant the ship hit the iceberg to the very last part of the ship that was subdued into the water. Another very significant part of Cameron’s research was to understand the socio-economic status of the passengers which will be discussed in detail later. Although historians have criticized certain aspects Cameron’s film the accuracy in which he depicts certain aspects such as the socio-economics of the passengers can’t be ignored.
The captain is characterized as incompetent even at sailing a ship despite his title. The captain should have been the one to lead the castaways but his incompetence caused the island dwellers to despise him. Ten years after being marooned on the island, “the captain become a very boring person, without enough to think about, without enough to do.”(294). Trying to find a purpose to his boring life, the captain hovered around a spring, the island’s only water supply. He would tell the kanka-bono girls the kind of mood the spring was in on that day despite the fact that “The dribbling [from the spring] was in fact quite steady, and had been for thousands of years”(295). The kanka-bono girls did not speak english and therefore the captain’s attempt at humanising the spring were lost on the girls making it a completely pointless endeavor. Moreover,If not for the lack of tools on the island, the captain would have tried to improve the springs and consequently might have clogged it(296) potentially putting the life of castaways at risk. The captain was desperate to find a purpose to his mundane life on the island, so much that he was willing to put his and the island’s inhabitant 's life at risk. The captain’s attempt at accomplishing something to find a purpose in his life was useless and even
Captain Aubrey exhibits and demonstrates leadership characteristics that inspire his crew to be the best that they can be. One of the most important leadership traits that Captain Jack has is a single-minded focus on his purpose. All of his decisions are held up against the g...
Stephen Crane’s short story “The Open Boat” is a story of conflict with nature and the human will and fight to survive. Four men find themselves clinging to life on a small boat amidst a raging sea after being shipwrecked. The four men, the oiler (Billie), the injured captain, the cook, and the correspondent are each in their own way battling the sea as each wave crest threatens to topple the dinghy. “The Open Boat” reflects human nature’s incredible ability to persevere under life-and-death situations, but it also shares a story of tragedy with the death of the oiler. It is human nature to form a brotherhood with fellow sufferers in times of life threatening situations to aid in survival. Weak from hunger and fatigue, the stranded men work together as a community against nature to survive their plight and the merciless waves threatening to overtake the boat. The brotherhood bond shared between the men in “The Open Boat” is evident through the narrator’s perspective, “It would be difficult to describe the subtle brotherhood of men that was here established on the seas. No one said that it was so. No one mentioned it. But it dwelt in the boat, and each man felt it warm him” (Crane 993). Crane understood first-hand the struggle and the reliance on others having survived the real life shipwreck of the S.S. Commodore off the coast of Florida in 1897. “The Open Boat” is an intriguing read due to Crane’s personal experience and though it is a fictional piece it shares insight into the human mind. Crain did not simply retell a story, but by sharing the struggles with each character he sought to portray the theme of an inner struggle with nature by using the literary devices of personification of nature, symbolism of the boat, and iron...
We have all heard about the Titanic. Either we have watched the romance movie or done our research in a different way. No matter where we get our information from we know the biggest parts of the tragedy. The ship Titanic crashed into an iceberg on a cold April night on the Atlantic Ocean while sailing its first trip. But haven’t you ever wanted to know more details about? Maybe how the people who were on it and survived? How could the situation be prevented? Couldn’t they have saved more people? Well in the book “A Night to Remember” it has details on the Titanic you have probably never thought of knowing. While reading the first chapter some parts really caught my attention. One was when people felt the jolt from the collision with the ice berg people didn’t suspect what tragedy was to come. A girl named Marguerite Frolicher, who was accompanying her father on a business trip, woke up with a jump since she was half asleep she was thinking about ‘little white lake ferries’ landing sloppily which made her laugh and thought to herself “Isn’t it funny…we’re landing!”. They really did...
In every story, past or present, fantasy or reality, there is the good and there is the bad. These “forces” are expressed through antagonists and protagonists. More often than not, these antagonists and protagonists collide. In the well-known novel, A Night to Remember, by Walter Lord, there are quite a few antagonists. One that is prominently presented to the readers is society as a whole. The author wrote, “After all the Titanic was considered unsinkable” (Lord 64). As expressed in the quotation, the infamous vessel, the Titanic, was essentially known for its “unsinkable” reputation. But, it is simply impossible for a ship to be unsinkable. People are gullible. The human race, in its entirety, can be told something absurd hundreds of times,
The struggle for survival by mankind can be found in many different settings. It can be seen on a battlefield, a hospital room or at sea as related in “The Open Boat”, written in 1897 by Stephen Crane. The story is based on his actual experiences when he survived the sinking of the SS Commodore off the coast of Florida in early 1897. “The Open Boat” is Stephen Crane’s account of life and death at sea told through the use of themes and devices to emphasize the indifference of nature to man’s struggles and the development of mankind’s compassion.
Fear has taken a hold of every man aboard this ship, as it should; our luck is as far gone as the winds that led us off course. For nights and days gusts beyond measure have forced us south, yet our vessel beauty, Le Serpent, stays afloat. The souls aboard her, lay at the mercy of this ruthless sea. Chaotic weather has turned the crew from noble seamen searching for glory and riches, to whimpering children. To stay sane I keep the holy trinity close to my heart and the lady on my mind. Desperation comes and goes from the men’s eyes, while the black, blistering clouds fasten above us, as endless as the ocean itself. The sea rocks our wood hull back and forth but has yet to flip her. The rocking forces our bodies to cling to any sturdy or available hinge, nook or rope, anything a man can grasp with a sea soaked hand. The impacts make every step a danger. We all have taken on a ghoulish complexion; the absence of sunlight led the weak souls aboard to fight sleep until sick. Some of us pray for the sun to rise but thunder constantly deafens our cries as it crackles above the mast. We have been out to sea for fifty-five days and we have been in this forsaken storm for the last seventeen.
In 1842 a tragedy occurred when a ship struck an iceberg and more than thirty passengers piled onto a rescue boat that was meant to hold a maximum of seven people. As a storm became evident and water rushed into the lifeboat, it was clear that in order for anyone to survive the load would need to be lightened. The commanding captain suggested that some people would need to be thrown overboard in order for anyone to survive. There was a great argument on the boat between the captain and the passengers who opposed his decision. Some suggested that the weakest should be drowned, as miles of rowing the lifeboat would take toll on even the strongest. This reasoning would also make it absurd to draw names of who should be thrown over. Others suggested that if they all stayed onboard no one would be responsible for the deaths, although the captain argued he would be guilty if those who he could have saved perished in the process. Alternatively the captain decided that the weakest would be sacrificed in order to save the few left on the lifeboat. Days later the survivors were rescued and the captain was put on trial for his virtues.