etiquette de naufrage
Please remember to have something pithy but brave prepared for when they haul you on board. Crying like a girl is no good unless you actually are a girl.
Tony Bullimore, the round-the-world sailor, set a pretty good benchmark in this respect. He really had been in trouble, miles from anywhere and freezing cold; he’d even started to eat himself. All absolutely excellent if he’d thought to flog his story. And then, when he’d been rescued by the Aussie navy and, of course, offered counselling, he said:
“What would I need that for ? I’ve just been saved.”