Second in Command???

[flutepilot]

On aircraft, the co-pilot has, for several years now, had complete authority to supercede the Captain's authority in a situation where the Captain is obviously doing something unsafe. A good exampe would have been the horrible accident on Tennerife, where the co-pilot of today would have prevented the accident by simply refusing to attempt the take-off.

 

Have things not changed yet on ships? Is the Captain the only authority now? Is anybody, including the Second in Command in mutiny if he/she intervenes in a bad situation? Just wondering?

[AWorldCruise4Me]

You have posed an excellent question. I had always assumed that they could but maybe that is from watching Star Trek and seeing Spock take over when Captain Kirk was incapacitated by some alien virus.

 

We were on the Celebrity Mercury sailing with a drunk captain in 2006. He was arrested after the cruise and I had always thought his officers turned him in. But from reading this article it was the coast guard that smelled alcohol on his breath and pulled him from the ship and arrested him.

http://www.*****************/Periklis_Petridis.html

 

At the time his nonsense announcements and rolling of the ship from side to side while we were in a calm channel puzzled us. I thought it was just bad English and some mistakes being made on the bridge. When we got back and read of the arrest we figured he was drunk and that his officers turned him in. Turns out they didn't. But perhaps there was a whistle blower behind the scenes. Whistle blowers generally aren't treated kindly.