All of us with an interest in the sea and the cruising lifestyle should be interested in what is going on at present in Italy, especially with the captain of the ship. Here is this guy, captain of a major luxury liner, finds himself in the worst possible emergency situation short of sinking in 2 miles of water, and he apparently panics and goes into save yourself mode. We've all heard the stories and the expectations that the captain goes down with his ship or at least is the last person possible off and here is this guy leading the rush to the lifeboats. Not the sort of leadership that you would expect, is it? The truth is that there is nothing in the rules of the sea that states that the captain should go down with the ship, there is only a tradition and an expectation. In the old days that usually happened because the captain knew that if the sinking was due to a goof on his part, he had better go down with it since if he didn't go to jail he would never get another job at sea again.

The problem is, who knows how anyone is going to behave in a crisis until they actually face one. Oh sure, people train for it, perhaps even get exercised in various scenarios, but the truth is all the while that you are being trained, deep in your heart you know that it's only an exercise. After it's over you can pick up the pieces and hopefully learn something and get on with your life. That's one of the things about a peace-time military - the guys in leadership positions have never really done it when someone is shooting at them. One of the reasons why it is "healthy" (if that's an acceptable word in this case) for a military to be bloodied occassionally - you get to find out who the leaders really are. Sometimes it is someone quite junior. That's one of the things that a military trainer does - he will strees a situation to see who breaks, and if they break, what they do to recover. Even then we know that it is still only an exercise.

I know that sounds awful but look at this situation unfolding in Italy. Here is a fellow who has probably passed all the theory and practical tests, put all the sea time in, got his watch keeping ticket, etc, etc and has been made a skipper of a multi-million dollar ship with thousands of lives in his charge. Probably for most of his career he got high ratings for his performance. He navigated his ship from A to B. He looked good at the captain's table at dinner, charmed the ladies, betcha he's a great dancer, and all the other fair weather and even stormy weather captain's jobs. But when his ship was sinking he forgot his training; he forgot his responsibilities; and looked out for himself.

My point is - whose fault is that? I grant you that shipping lines can't deliberately sink ships to see how people will behave under stress, but there has to be some method to determine how a potential captain will react in a life and death situation. The fact is until it actually happens you will never know for sure. But here the company who made this fellow the captain is trying to distance themselves as much as possible from him and any fallout. They are trying to knit themselves a teflon overcoat.

Fact is, as someone who has his commercial seaman's papers, I can tell you that the training is pretty extensive but short of automated bridge simulators there is very little that has been developed to test deck officers and potential captains in a real crisis environment. It's hard to envision how they could do it. In the military training and exercises are pretty much all they do but in the merchant marine any time dedicated to that is money out of the ship's owner's pockets so guess what they don't do much of if at all. In the case of the Italian liner as one of the survivors said, "the emergency drill was more of an advertisement for shore excursions!"

Fact is, they (Carnival Lines)are responsible for making him captain. They are the ones who made the judgement call that he was the one who would make the right descisions and take the right steps in the event of an emergency. If this hadn't happened he would likely have continued and maybe even been promoted at some time in the future and be put in a position to select other men for captaincy who could be equally flawed.

Fact is, since this guy, who may very well be a great fellow - loves his mom, faithfull to his wife, cares for his kids, pats his dog etc., who was thrown into the cruicible and found wanting, was made captain by Carnival Cruise Lines because presumably they though that he would be a good choice; I can't help but wonder how many of their other captains would also fail if the baton was passed to them.

To make a scapegoat out of this fellow and ignore the bigger problem with the cruise line itself would be completely unfair but I'm afraid that is exactly what is going to happen. This fellow should never have been put in that position, but that assessment or lack of it, is possibly the real flaw. Carnival Cruise lines and all of the other lines should have their feet held to the fire until they cough up some sort of plan showing how they are going to ensure that they have the right people on the bridge.

Harry S Trueman had a great sign on his desk in the oval office. It read:

"The Buck Stops Here"

Very appropriate, for all in positions of authority, don't you think?

Oh well. End of blather. Thanks for bearing with me.