Quote (ElCapitan @ Jan 25 2014 01:01am)
"The captain goes down with the ship" is the maritime concept and tradition that a sea captain holds ultimate responsibility for both his ship and everyone embarked on it, and he will die trying to save either of them. The concept may be expressed as "the captain always goes down with the ship" or simply the "captain goes down with his ship." Although often associated with the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912 and its captain, Edward Smith, it predates the Titanic by at least 11 years.[1] 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. It often results in either the death or belated rescue of the captain as the last person on board."
tl;dr duty to all onboard before oneself
Thank you. I love rational answers.
That being said, yes save the people but forget about the ship.