“Who Should We Rescue? The Morals of Maritime Emergency”
Podcast with Jonathan Stafford, Henning Trüper, and Burkhardt Wolf
Episode of The Mariner’s Mirror Podcast by Sam Willis, with Jonathan Stafford, Henning Trüper, and Burkhardt Wolf, 12 Aug 2025
This episode explores a subject of great contemporary interest and significance: the morals of behaviour at sea. What are the origins of the idea of a captain going down with his ship? When did it become expected to save anyone from shipwreck—regardless of their nationality, religion or status? Are we living in a world where the expected moral norms of seafaring are now changing?
In their edited volume Moral Seascapes. On the Ethics and Aesthetics of Maritime Emergency, Jonathan Stafford, Henning Trüper, and Burkhardt Wolf explore some of the great maritime artists, including Turner and Gericault; epoch-defining lifesaving technology; contemporary images of migration disaster, and raise questions about the nature of the sea and seafaring that are as relevant today as they were centuries ago.
Audio: © The Society for Nautical Research