the dilemma of the captain

The dilemma of the captain

Once there was a captain of a ship. The ship was new and the captain was young. Time passed and the ship wore out, got repaired and became sturdier. Similarly the captain grew wiser with age. Also he knew the ship in and out, and was confident in the abilities of the ship. The ship and the captain grew a very tight bond, envied by many captains.

                The ship travelled many lands, saw many things and the captain experienced some wonderful things in his life. The ship wasn’t exactly a treat to the eyes, but was sturdy enough to take the rough seas. The captain also was one of a kind. He liked to take risks. He did unexpected things at unexpected times, yielding unexpected results. Mostly results were good, the rest were lessons in sailing. He learned from his lessons and now took calculated risks.

                This captain kept most of his experiences to himself. He liked it this way. It meant simplicity for him. One day, he decided to go on a journey to distant lands. He took passengers on board and set away. Initially the sailing was smooth and everything was going well. The ship did not throw any problems and the voyage was turning out to be fantastic. No one thought anything could go wrong.

                Suddenly some passengers became unruly. They started beating up the others. To the captain’s horror, they had brought weapons on board. The captain was furious with himself for not checking the passengers thoroughly. But now he had to do something. He was responsible for the ship, the passengers and to himself. He had only one thing on his mind: survival. Against armed dacoits, he stood no chance of winning. He had to do something else. They forced him away from the controls and blindfolded the captain. They took the ship in a different direction. When they were in the middle of nowhere, they removed the blindfolds off the captain’s eyes and told him to kill the other passengers. Obviously the captain was against this. What could he do? He had no idea where he was, and in which direction they were headed. He pleaded with their leader to spare the innocent passengers. It wasn’t like he could offer them anything; he was already at their mercy. He kept on pleading, in the hope that they might relent. After a long time, they agreed to keep the passengers alive for a while. Immediate danger was solved, and the captain heaved a sigh of relief. But he knew they were doomed. They turned their attention towards the captain instead. He was the one taking the beating. They beat him when they wanted and stopped when they felt like it. The captain just wanted this torture to end. But how?

                The captain wanted to live to tell his friends and family his story of immense bravery. But what can he do? The maximum he could do was to take the ship somewhere ashore and escape. In the middle of nowhere, with no stars and the planets guiding him, how does he decide where to go? He remembered that they were northbound before he lost control of the ship. Where were they headed now?

                Maybe he could ask for help? When the help approaches, the dacoits will surely kill all the passengers, or maybe just the captain? Who knows? What if they threw him overboard? And any SOS he sent would likely not reach anyone. Even if it did reach anyone, who knew if they will help? The risk was too high. Why would they bother? What if something went wrong during the rescue? Nobody wants blood on their hands. And what if the SOS was received by pirates? This was most likely, since he remembered that the area he last remembered was infested with corsairs. If he got caught sending the SOS signal, he was definitely doomed.

                The worst thing was the dacoits didn’t demand to go here or there. They were just intent on destroying the ship. It seemed they were plain sadists who wanted to watch the innocent people and the captain die helplessly. They too would die, that was for sure. Almost like a suicide mission.

                So what does the captain do? He could deliberately sink the ship, and make it all end. Or he could hope against hope for a miracle. He could send an SOS, which had very less probability of being received by anyone. That was again hoping for a miracle. He didn’t really believe in miracles either. What does he do?