system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why does the captain go down with the ship?
gpt
They don’t. It’s basically seafaring tradition that the captain accepts responsibility over the safety of everyone aboard the ship. 

It doesn’t mean that the captain must die if the ship sinks, it means that the captain has a responsibility to ensure everyone else’s safety before his own. So if there are passengers trapped on the ship, the captain is expected to do everything including risk his life to get them to safety. 

But if the ship is evacuated and everyone else is safe, the captain may then leave.