Could you please answer this hypothetical for me......

I have a hypothetical situation for you....

You're a sailer on an old fashioned gallion (ship) and you're out on the open ocean. The gallion hits a reef which punches a small hole in the hull. The ship starts to sink very slowly, could be days or maybe weeks tops before it goes under, you're really not sure. If it sinks you'll surely die. Meanwhile the captain of the ship who's your boss gives very stern orders that all crew are to remain on the ship and not try to get off it on a life raft. Meanwhile the captain himself goes off on a liferaft, but stays near the ship.

The captain tells you that he's sent a rescue SOS to nearby ships. Meanwhile staying in the safety of a his lifeboat. The captain shouts at the crew from the lifeboat telling them that the lifeboats are too risky. But that if they wait, the rescue ship will eventually arrive, and save the crew.

So at first you decide to wait on the ship. Meanwhile some other crew mates make a run for it and take the last remaining lifeboats against the captains orders.

So now the ship you're on is slowly sinking. You're panicked, stressed out, scared and perplexed. Your captain still remains close to the ship barking orders that all remaining crew are to remain on the sinking ship, and that help is on it's way, that's his orders. You're affraid that if you disobey the captains orders that you could face trouble later on if and when the ship actually gets rescued.

So you're below deck looking around to see if there's anything that could be used as a floatation device. YOu're beginning to pannick. This this stow away creeps out of the shadows. He says to you: "look I know you need a lifeboat. I'll tell you what, for $100 bucks I'll show you where the last lifeboat is hidden. Deal?

So you can pay this person in the hopes they will show you were the lifeboat is hidden. And if you get that lifeboat you'll be safe, but you'll be going against your captains orders. You might even get in some trouble if you're catch leaving the sinking vessel on a lifeboat. As you were given orders now to leave the sinking boat.

So now you have 2 choices, pay the dude 100 bucks for a map showing where the last lifeboat is hidden. Then use that life boat to escape the sinking ship, even if that means going against your ship captain (you still don't know if your captain is ultimately trying to save you or not, but you know getting in a lifeboat on the open ocean is very risky as well). Or..... you can stay on the sinking ship and wait for that rescue that never happened yet, which means you could end up sinking and dying before help can arrive.

So do you follow your captains orders and remain on a sinking ship?

or

Do you pay the fee and get the map which could show you where the last hidden life raft ?


Ultimately you realize that you're faced with two major delemahs. Each posing great risk, risk of death even. What do you do. Take the risk of staying on the sinking ship? Or disobey a direct order and try and find a way off this sinking ship???

=================

Your thoughts???? Thanks.

It all depends on how fast the ship is sinking.
That is the only information required.
The rest is logical.

a reply to: Iamnotadoctor

days or a few weeks tops. But you really can't be certain any rescue message had been sent out yet.

Well your two choices dont matter... the captain never made it to that boat I tied him to a chair while me and the boys used tar cotton and parts of a table to patch the leak. Tossed his arse in the brig... we are chilling in the west indies SALUT!!!

a reply to: Iamnotadoctor

throw the captain out of the ship, take his ship.

The captain is no longer a captain
Because he left his vessel

The captain is supposed to stay with is ship
If it sinks

Grab the life boat

a reply to: lavatrance

Personally i would look for a small sail . Tie ropes to the sail , pass it under the boat until it covers the hole , tie the ropes in place and let water pressure do its thing . Leave the captain behind and elevate yourself to captain .

A Captain isn't a bitch - he doesn't leave his ship and his crew. Isn't that at the top of the Rulebook? He especially doesn't pansy aside on a #ing life-boat, ordering his disavowed crew to flim-flam with fukery.
GTFO.
Such a 'Captain' is not worthy of the title should he disembark yet order others to remain. What type of person responds like a dog to such BS 'authority?'

Why do you ask this question?
The Captain having disembarked is enough for any sensible fellow to determine that Ol' Crunch is trying to hide his self-preservation alongside his lack of dignity and responsibility - a leaky ship indeed.

a reply to: lavatrance

Patch the ship & pump the bilges.

Accuse the captain of dereliction of duty and disregard for ship and crew.

Propose to the crew that you assume duties of captain and continuation of the mission/orders of the ship. The captain will stand trial when the ship docks. As the captain has transgressed, a mutiny has not occurred.

Id buy the map, locate the raft and possibly relocate it. Then id wait to see if rescue came. If it didnt id still have the raft available.

a reply to: lavatrance

If the boat is sinking, and all the lifeboats are gone, then what I would do is give the hundred dollars to the stowaway, break up the lifeboat to patch the hole in the hull (a small one being patched at sea would be utterly common) and sail on to the shores of wherever. In the event that the stowaway is actually a lying git, I would knock him out, take back my hundred, and break up any barrels, cabin doors, railings and packing cases I could find, and patch the hole with those, with the same result. A ship on the open sea always has spare wood on it. Supplies, cargo...it is always present, and on a galleon of the age, would have been packed in wooden storage mediums.

a reply to: lavatrance

Meanwhile the captain of the ship who's your boss gives very stern orders that all crew are to remain on the ship and not try to get off it on a life raft. Meanwhile the captain himself goes off on a liferaft, but stays near the ship.

Who ever follows this coward deserves their fate...

a reply to: kissy princess

A Captain isn't a bitch - he doesn't leave his ship and his crew

Not all captains .
www.dailymail.co.uk...

a reply to: lavatrance

The captain abandoned ship.
Your the captain now.

a reply to: lavatrance

my thoughts - i have nevever had to read such a contrived pille of bull# before

a reply to: ignorant_ape

Agreed. There are a number of issues that simply would never happen. Even if it's a hypothetical situation, it's one that doesn't really lead anywhere, one that doesn't really follow what history has taught us, one that doesn't really follow what would be done in that situation anyway (as there are means to patch a leak that small), galleons aren't big enough to need a map to find your way around, and to top it all off $100 in modern times would be about $3,000 (possibly more) in the 1700's (not exactly "carry around money").

To answer your story. I'd kill all crew and captain, wait for the SOS to come, if it didn't by the time the ship sank, I'd grab the captains lifeboat.

a reply to: lavatrance

My advice to you is leave that ship before it sinks. Nice parable you fabricated. Whatever real life "devil and the deep blue sea" delemah you are faced with… you can see the end coming, everyone else has left (even the boss), what keeps you from doing the same thing?

Let the person promising you a way out show it to you before giving them the money. They may be playing you.

To all the 'patch the hull' advice: The boat is on a reef, you can't go down below to patch the hole you'll get caught between the rocks and the hull and squished.

OP's scenario doesn't include a fix it option, the ship is sinking.

a reply to: lavatrance

Is this going to be a US political allegory? Is the stowaway some type of Trump metaphor whilst the absentee Captain is Obama? It is, isn't it?

Otherwise, it seems the captain has abandoned ship and failed in his moral duty to ensure the safety of his crew. Yeah, I had a look at Maritime Law. This means you'd have a great legal argument to act freely and in your own best interests for survival.

The stowaway would be better used as help. What would he do with a $100? How could he know? WTF do you 'hide' a lifeboat?

Better to conscript him to aid in building a form of raft and gathering supplies. You'd put some supplies on the raft and leave the rest somewhere accessible on the ship's decks. Instead of using raft supplies, it'd be more prudent to make visits to the punctured ship and live off those supplies until rescue arrives.