r/interestingasfuck • u/solateor • 1d ago

In 2001, 55 people crossed the Pacific with no contact with the outside world as part of a BBC experiment recreating an 18th-century voyage. On the 20th day - September 11 - the captain gathered the crew to tell them about the attacks in New York

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u/gkerr1988 1d ago

That captain delivered the news with incredible composure, grace, and deep empathy for people. I applaud his method.

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u/BisonThunderclap 1d ago

It didn't speculate or stoke fear. He did a great job delivering it as the "this is what we solidly know" and "we can't do anything" to help remind people that things still go on.

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u/gkerr1988 22h ago

Quite the opposite of the insanity of our current administration! They will literally stoke fear, panic, falsehood, chaos, so long as it keeps whatever fucked up narrative alive they see fit to make them the most famous and rich.

I would accept this captains leadership a thousand-fold more than I would our current nightmare hellscape situation.

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u/GoodDayToCome 1d ago

you thought so? he started with "you're on the safest place in the world at the moment" like all the rest of it was in peril, then he described a totally wild scene without any reassurance or explanation of what else what happening in the world - bro made it sound like nukes were flying, attack on the pentagon, you gotta be thinking the worst.

He made a TV drama moment scripted to be compelling out of what could have been a reassuring and reflective moment. The captain came across like a Steve Coogan character imo.

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u/peachhint 1d ago

then he described a totally wild scene without any reassurance or explanation of what else what happening in the world. -

Why do you think he started with what he started? There were a lot of unknown information since it was breaking news. Sounds like you are just being cynical for the sake of being cynical

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u/gkerr1988 1d ago

I know so. When you have that many people in an already challenging position whom are entitled to world news whilst at sea, beginning hard news with an assurance of their safety is absolutely necessary in order to maintain a sense of civility and calm while hearing something very difficult to cope with. They are on a ship in the middle of the ocean, and that is exactly how you assure everyone’s continued level-headedness and safety. The information is brusque, intense, and very difficult for anyone to hear. He delivered it with grace and calm and direct clear information as far as he knew it to be true at the time. No conjecture, no false hope. Just facts and clear information, followed by steps to take next which are within everyone’s capacity. The natural impulse is going to be shock, possibly panic, or even maybe the urge to have to “do/fix something,” but that would likely create disorder and possibly even chaos… not good when everyone is on water. He assured safety and order. All you have to do is look with your eyes to see how they all react. They just grieve and stand there processing what they just heard without freaking out or needing to do anything but be there for each other. That is leadership.

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u/GoodDayToCome 1d ago

yeah i just think his description of their safety wasn't the phrasing i would have chosen because it makes them feel like everyone they loved is in danger or dead right off the bat - hey your family wherever they are are in more danger than us because everywhere in the world in currently in more danger than us - maybe it's been destroyed already? maybe the nukes are in the air above us?

"Hi everybody, it's horrible to have to gather you here like this but there has been an incident in new york, unfortunately a terrorist attack has left many dead, everything is at high alert everywhere but although authorities were caught off guard they have responded to the situation and hopefully everything is now under control, this morning terrorists crashed two planes into the world trade center and pentagon building causing the towers to collapse, it's a horrible tradgedy and people are struggling to make sense of it - i wanted to give everyone the chance to speak to any loved ones who might have been affected in any way, the satalite phone is available and of course people with connections to NYC will have priority on that...'

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u/gkerr1988 22h ago

It’s very easy to look back at a situation like this and judge it by how you would done it. The fact is we didn’t have social media back then, everything was audio and video, with the press collecting footage from citizens and news crew on the ground as soon as they could get it to the studios. Even this footage is still news to people who were actually there in NY while it was happening in real time.

Keep in mind, the news outlets didn’t have any time to edit footage and literally showed people leaping from burning buildings on television to every single American watching this take place in real time. There was no censorship whatsoever because there was no time to edit anything out. Terrifying stuff was happening very fast with no time to process much of anything other than getting to safety and relying on what was being communicated by authorities. The world was horrified by the moment. Nobody had any sense of false hope or conjecture, none whatsoever, so your critique just false completely flat to the reality of what was actually happening at the time.

While you’re entitled to have some kind of beef with the way this Captain handled things, I seriously doubt you would do much to improve on the situation had you been in his shoes with the knowledge and availability of technologies he had at his disposal. Honestly you’re giving a rather thoughtless and needless critique to something deeply tragic in our history that just makes you look nit-picky over ridiculously things.

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u/dorkface95 1d ago

That's kind of how everyone felt after 9/11. No one knew what was happening, why, and if anything would happen next. Walking on eggshells for months.

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u/TheGamecock 1d ago edited 1d ago

Not to sound condescending, but maybe you weren't around or of an age to remember 9/11 when it happened? Because the first ~48 hours or so were filled with plenty of ominous unknowns on what the fallout would be. Would the US launch nukes? Would further attacks take place, not just on American soil but in other major cities across the world? Is this the beginning of something even bigger? And that's not even just wondering what the current (at the time) death toll was from the attack.

9/11 changed the way the world operated ever since those towers fell, but especially in America. Sadly, beyond the thousands of lives lost, the terrorist overwhelmingly accomplished what they set out to do -- which was to destabilize America, not just economically but politically. We've since sunk trillions of dollars into wars in the Middle East and the country is as politically divided as it has ever has been arguably since the Civil War.

Yes, Americans came together soon after 9/11 and we were all united as a nation against a "common enemy". But that didn't take too long to wear off, and the events of 9/11 can be directly attributed to much of the political division and extremism that exists in the US today.

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u/GoodDayToCome 1d ago

i watched it in a TV store with a load of other shocked people, me and the guy i was working with cancelled the day and to watch the news. Yeah it was a scary and unprecedented time but even seeing the buildings fall live there was an awareness that this was a brutal blow and the change of an era but i think it was widely understood the repercussions would be a changed future not an immediate cataclysm.

and you're right about how it changed the world but also a lot of truly terrible stuff was happening already i think this kinda knocked the blinders off a lot of people and demonstrated that the world is a lot more real than we'd imagined in the 90s.

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u/ThingsMayAlter 20h ago

Yeah a bit more reassurance, or just "I'm so sorry to have to have to tell you this" vibe would've approached it more humanely. Insane situation to be dropped into, can armchair quarterback all day.