Abandon Ship

One Sunday morning more than 15 years ago I decided not to go to church. Later that morning I found myself watching an old black and white movie called “Abandon Ship”. I never forgot it. When I became a Principal I thought about that movie every single day. I showed it to my teachers. I showed it to my International Baccalaureate students. I recommended it to everybody that asked me about the secrets to our success in transforming our school from the worst in our district to one of the best.

The movie is about leadership, decision-making, crisis management, group dynamics, ethics, favoritism, passion, and so many other things. Starring Tyrone Power, Stephen Boyd, Mai Zetterling, and Lloyd Nolan, the movie begins with a cruise ship striking a mine left over from World War II. The ship is destroyed and eventually Tyrone Power winds up on a life boat filled with other survivors including the ship’s captain, who is mortally wounded. Before he dies, the captain transfers command of the boat to Tyrone Power, who had been the second officer on the cruise ship. His last words to Tyrone Power is “save as many as you can”.

The boat is designed to accommodate nine people. There are twenty seven people either in the boat or holding on to the side of it. The people on the boat include young and old, male and female, strong and weak, black and white, meek and courageous.  Some of the people on the boat are grievously wounded. Some have faith and trust in the new captain, others think they are better qualified for leadership than he.

Mr. Holmes, (Power) initially believes they only need to survive for 24 to 48 hours until help arrives. He is confident that an SOS was sent before the ship sank. He is then informed by the dazed radio operator that both of the ship’s transmitters were destroyed before the distress signals could be sent. With no help on the way and the nearest land 1500 miles away in Africa, Holmes begins to realize the impossible situation he faces.

Another of the cruise ship’s officers, (Lloyd Nolan) is also seriously injured, and whispers the obvious to the beleaguered captain, “there are too many people on the boat, it has provisions and was made for nine, it will stretch to fifteen, but twenty seven has no chance. You have to get some of these people off this boat! Some are already dead! Like me!” He then jumps off the boat. Holmes jumps in the ocean to try to save him, but fails.

Soon it is obvious that a storm is coming, and the vacillating Holmes finally decides that he will have to sacrifice some of the people on the boat to save the rest. He informs everyone what he is about to do and begins to order the injured, weak, and cowardly to abandon the ship. He orders each to be given a life vest and placed over the side. One crew member (Boyd) is so opposed that he will only follow the order at gun point when told to place an unconscious woman over the side. When Holmes obliges he follows the order but insists on going over the side with her, despite the objections of Mr. Holmes.

One of the fifteen allowed to remain on the boat is so angry with Holmes that he wounds him with a knife, and Holmes shoots him dead with a flare gun.

The boat and the people on it survive the storm, and when they awake the next morning they hail Holmes as a hero and are effusive in their praise for him, unanimously thankful that he had saved their lives. However, Holmes’s wound has worsened, and applying the same standard to himself, he transfers command to the radio operator, giving him a ring signifying command that had been given to him by the previous captain, and throws himself overboard. The other passengers go after him and put him back on the boat.

Shortly thereafter, a ship appears on the horizon and everyone is jubilant when the ship acknowledges seeing them. But then, the passengers begin to disassociate themselves from the captain. They begin to express their objections to what the captain had done. The radio operator returned the Captain’s ring to him. The passengers literally turned their back to him in the boat.

The Captain was charged with murder and convicted. He was sentenced to six months in prison.

As a Principal, each day I reminded myself that “I can’t save everybody on the boat”.  Sometimes I would say it out loud. I wanted to save them, but until I accepted the fact that I couldn’t, each time I lost a student I considered myself a failure. To save them all was an unrealistic goal that endangered all of them. I believe that our students that were put over the side needed to be jettisoned. If they had remained we would have been in danger of losing the entire school. The life jackets that we offered included evening school, job corps, and alternative schools.

I remember this movie because of the similarities with my own experiences as a Principal. I remember the passionate discussions I had with my assistant principals, teachers, counselors and students about the moral dilemma faced by Mr. Holmes. Some of them realized that I faced the same dilemma every day.

Should a leader sacrifice the few to save the many?

I did.