As with everything in this world, it depends.
Let’s take two real world examples, the Costa Concordia and the Oceanos.
In both cases the captains evacuated themselves from their ships while many passengers were still onboard.
In the famous case of the Costa Concordia, Captain Francesco Schettino famously left his ship aboard a launch and headed for shore despite being repeatedly warned to return to his ship by radio from a coast guard unit responding to the sinking.
He didn’t. He went to shore and was seen wringing out his wet socks as rescuers struggled to get passengers out of the water and safely to shore.
He was nicknamed ‘Captain Coward’ by the press for his inactions and seeming lack of concern for those under his care.
He was ultimately charged with a variety of crimes, among them ‘abandoning a ship with passengers.’ He ended up being sentenced to 16 years for all the crimes which also included multiple manslaughters, causing a maritime accident, and lack of cooperation with rescue operations.
The other sinking was the passenger ship Oceanos. This French ship got caught in extremely bad weather and some rogue waves tore off a water inlet beneath the ship. Normally watertight compartments would prevent total sinking but uncompleted work left an uncapped open 4″ water pipe to let flooding water out of the compartment and into the rest of the ship.
Captain Yiannis Avranas and his crew never announced an emergency. As something was obviously wrong, entertainers and other passengers made their way to an empty bridge. One of the entertainers, Moss Hills, got on the radio and broadcast the first Mayday calls!
Captain Avranas and most of his entire command staff left the boat with many crew following, virtually abandoning the passengers.
The entertainers aboard the ship took over crew duties and managed to get all the passengers either into life boats or lifted off the deck by helicopter to safety.
Captain Avranas even had the audacity to call the ship and ask how the evacuation was going!!!
The captain was later quoted as saying, “When I order abandon the ship, it doesn't matter what time I leave. Abandon is for everybody. If some people like to stay, they can stay."
A Greek board of inquiry found Avranas and four officers negligent in their handling of the disaster, but he was never incarcerated, and his company, Epirotiki, gave him command of another ferry until his retirement.
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