White Ship Disaster - Out Of Control Office Party
It was a dark and stormy night. Two boats will set sail. One will sink. And it will bring a kingdom down with it.
On November 25, 1120, two ships left Normandy to cross the English Channel. All the nobility of England were onboard. One made it home; the other sank, leaving only one survivor.
To set the stage… The English had been campaigning against the French for the last four years and had finally won the war. They were heading home, so of course they had a big party to celebrate while they were still on land. Things were getting rowdy, and it was time to set sail.
The younger crowd all claimed one boat, hooting and hollering and carrying on. The old folks all jumped on the other boat and skedaddled to avoid the ruckus. Most of the passengers were bigshots of the realm, and the two most important were King Henry I, who rode with the oldsters, and his son and heir, the 17-year-old William the Atheling, who led the youngins.
“Ætheling” meant “next in line to the throne” in early medieval England, and William the Aetheling was next in line for karaoke too, partying down with all the other cool rich kids, eventually leaving for England many hours after his dad had departed. Dozens of young noblemen, knights, and ladies of high rank partied while waiting to make the crossing.
They all got hammered, and the crew also got drunk for good measure. A couple of monks tried to bless the ship with holy water to ensure the trip went smoothly, but the drunken party crowd gave the nerds wedgies and chased them away.
Anchors away! So they were off. The White Ship was late and sailing fast to catch up with the other boat under a dark, moonless canopy of stars in early winter. What could go wrong?
Everything went wrong. Almost immediately, the White Ship crashed on a big rock a mile off the coast of France. No one could swim. There was only one lifeboat, and it also sank once too many suddenly-sober partiers piled in from the frigid water.
The flower of youth of the Norman English nobility all drowned. There was only one survivor, a butcher who accidentally joined the party when trying to collect payment from the revelers before they left.
The shipwreck wrecked the kingdom. King Henry I lost his only legitimate son so he designated his daughter, Matilda, as his heir. He had the leading bishops and barons in both England and Normandy swear to recognize her as queen.
But after King Henry I died, those same bishops and barons got cold feet about the idea of having a woman in charge, and her cousin Stephen of Blois usurped the throne.
Half the barons supported Matilda and the other half backed Stephen, which meant nearly two decades of civil war called “the Anarchy.” For nearly 20 years, there was no clear ruler, only endless conflict.
England became a fractured battleground, with barons picking sides and alliances constantly shifting. Castles were besieged, towns burned, and ordinary people bore the brunt of the violence.
The doomed White Ship was the medieval Titanic, but its legacy was far worse. Its sinking not only claimed lives but also shattered a kingdom, leaving England to spiral into chaos for decades. And it all started with a shipwreck.
When you host a big social company event like your annual holiday party, you’ll probably serve alcohol. You want people to come to the party, have a good time, and then make it home safely.
Yes, you will tell everyone “Don’t drink and drive.” That’s necessary, but not sufficient. As the host, you need to make it easy for people to get home afterwards safely. So pay for their cabs.
Don’t cheap out on this detail. If budget is an issue, then substitute homemade ice cream instead of the hand-carved ice sculpture and use the savings to pay for safe transportation. Going the extra mile in this situation is not something you’ll ever regret. Skimping on it might be something you regret for the rest of your days.
And for the younger corporate warriors who are attending the office holiday party, not hosting it, this is not like parties you enjoyed so much in college. You do not need to pre-game before the party. In fact, don’t.
Of course you can have a beer or two with your boss and maybe rub elbows with other executives. It will help you see each other as real people, not just an aloof, out of touch exec vs an easily replaceable FTE widget. (FTE = full-time equivalent = headcount = expensive. Execs always want this number to go down. Don’t give them a reason to decide they don’t need you.)
So enjoy the party. But don’t go crazy. Anyone who has made more than 30 trips around the sun does not need to do a shot, or worse: shots. Shots! SHOTS!!!! These are your work friends, not your party friends.
Spend an hour or two schmoozing with the bosses, then sneak out with the others in your young, cool, hip category and have your own unofficial afterparty that no one from HR needs to know about. Just take a cab home, alright?
