Chapter 480 Don’t Listen to What They Say

There are many unwritten rules at sea, such as "you must participate in the rescue when you receive a distress signal." One of them is "the captain is the last to leave the ship."

There was no such rule at the beginning.

In 1852, the British ship "Bergenhead" ran aground off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa. The captain of the ship, Salmond, and all the crew members were killed, but these people will be recorded in history forever.

They set a precedent: they left the only three lifeboats on the ship to women and children to ensure their safety!

This incident was so consistent with the aesthetic taste of British gentlemen that they began to publicize it. From then on, in the event of a shipwreck, women and children were given priority to escape, and the captain was the last to leave the ship. This became a glorious tradition of escaping from a shipwreck. Although the captain was the highest paid person on a ship, he also bore the most responsibility.

Just like on the Calypsope, even though Xiao Peng was usually in command, when a shipwreck occurred, the last person to leave was Chen Cheng, because he was the captain! For a long time, "living and dying with the ship" was the highest honor for a captain.

There is a very touching scene in the movie "Titanic" where Captain Edward John Smith refused his companions' help to leave the ship and locked himself in the cockpit until he was drowned by the sea at the last moment.

Of course, movies are movies, and reality is something else cold and cold.

Edward John Smith issued an order: first-class women and children were allowed to board the port-side lifeboats, while first-class passengers were allowed to board the starboard-side lifeboats first. Many wealthy individuals, eager to escape danger quickly, simply bought empty seats and ordered the lifeboats to flee. For example, lifeboat number 7, the first to flee the scene, was filled entirely with first-class passengers, and many seats were empty. These selfish actions prevented many people from boarding the lifeboats.

Some people's actions were even more despicable. For example, Masafumi Hosono, the then deputy counselor of the Japanese Railway Institute, changed into women's clothes and climbed onto a lifeboat full of women and children to escape.

Japanese people are awesome!

As time went by, it became more and more dangerous. Everyone on the ship wanted to escape. The scene was in chaos and finally turned into "everyone fleeing for their own". People surrounded Smith, and Smith was unable to control the situation and locked himself in the captain's room. According to the report of Harold Blade, the junior telegraph operator on the ship, Smith jumped into the sea to escape a few minutes before the ship finally began to sink, but unfortunately he did not escape.

Anyway, Smith also managed to "die with the ship", and the four lieutenants and 190 crew members on board all survived! So the reality is never as beautiful as in the movies.

What kind of people appear most often in real life?

Like Lee Joon-seok, the captain of the Sewol ferry.

Who was the first person to abandon the Sewol ferry during the disaster? Captain Lee Joon-seok.

There are legal regulations governing the captain's final departure. For example, South Korea's Seafarers Act explicitly stipulates that if a captain fails to "carefully save lives, ships, and cargo" when a ship is in danger, he or she shall be sentenced to up to five years in prison. South Korea also has an Act on Aggravated Punishment for Specific Crimes, which includes a provision for "abandoning ship and fleeing." Under this law, if a captain fails to fulfill his or her duty of rescue and causes the death of passengers, he or she can be sentenced to five years or even life imprisonment.

Just like Lee Jun-seok, who fled immediately after the incident, ultimately causing the deaths of nearly 300 people. And what about him? Although he was sentenced to 36 years in prison, is that a heavy sentence compared to the lives lost?

In the United States, if the captain abandons the ship and escapes, he will not be criminally charged, but if any passengers are killed or injured, he will face "manslaughter". Countries around the Mediterranean, such as Spain and Italy, also have similar laws.

The regulations in China are more specific. There are relevant provisions in the Maritime Code and the Crew Regulations, which stipulate that the captain should be the last to leave the ship when abandoning the ship.

After all, this is a life-and-death multiple-choice question, so when encountering similar situations, we cannot blame the captains for "having to be the last to leave the ship", but there is also a bottom line, which is "not to escape first".

If a ship is involved in an accident, the captain is the on-site commander, whether organizing evacuation, maintaining order, or seeking rescue assistance. In times of chaos, no one on board is more capable of stabilizing morale than the captain. Furthermore, someone must be able to make decisions during these chaotic times. Otherwise, the entire ship will be in disarray, hindering rescue efforts and causing greater casualties. For this reason, the captain should be the last to evacuate, regardless of both morale and reason.

However, there's always a gap between theory and reality. Westerners, often known for their "gentlemen," have long disregarded these traditional rules. Two professors at Uppsala University in Sweden studied maritime disasters over the past half century, identifying eighteen examples. In 11 of these cases, women had a lower survival rate than men. Who has the highest survival rate on board a shipwreck? The crew! Next is the captain. Children, followed by women, have the lowest survival rates...

On the contrary, in China, which is criticized by "gentlemen" as "barbaric and backward", the data is the opposite. Children have the highest survival rate in shipwrecks, followed by women, and finally crew members and captains.

Therefore, when understanding the West, don’t just look at what they say. Most of the world’s public opinion is controlled by the Anglo-Saxons who impose their values. How can they say bad things about themselves?

It is better to look at the data than to listen to them. Data cannot lie.

Let's take the simplest example: Everyone knows India is the world's "rape capital," but what's the reality? The UK's rape rate is significantly higher than India's! Yet, they don't tell their citizens this, instead using their media influence to repeatedly publicize Indian rape cases to divert public attention back home.

Their "gentlemanly" image is all propaganda... Take Xiao Peng, for example. He abides by the rules of the sea, knowing someone was in distress and running over a hundred nautical miles to rescue them. But didn't anyone else pick up the signal? Perhaps there were ships that received the distress signal but pretended not to.

Xiao Peng looked around and asked, "Do you have any objections to my rescue order?"

Everyone nodded. Some stifled laughter. "I've always disliked Little Hoffman. Even if I'm last in the rescue order, Little Hoffman is still at the bottom, right?" Besides, this Oriental guy said he was here to rescue people, but when he got to work, he was no slouch. He'd already held out for so long, so he might as well hold on a little longer!

"He's out!" Sine-Sara on the Calysop exclaimed, holding a telescope. "Xiao rescued someone! Did the camera capture it?"

"Don't worry! Miss Sarah, we've got some big news!"