As the South Korean ferry sank, some crew members gave their lifejackets to passengers and one who refused to leave until she shepherded students off the ship was later found dead.
Others worked from rescue boats to break windows with hammers and pull people trapped in cabins to safety.
Nearly a week after the sinking of the ferry, with rising outrage over a death count that could eventually top 300, the public verdict against the crew of the Sewol has been savage and quick.
"Cowards!" social media users howled. "Unforgivable, murderous," President Park Geun-hye said on Monday of the captain and some crew.
Some fled the ferry, including the captain, but not all. At least seven of the 29 crew members are missing or dead, and several of those who survived stayed on or near the ship to help passengers.
"His last words were, 'I'm on my way to save the kids,"' Ahn So-hyun told reporters of what her husband, missing crew member Yang Dae-hong, told her by cellphone as the ship began to sink last Wednesday. He was referring to the 323 high school students on the ferry, which was carrying a total of 476 people.
More than 100 people are confirmed dead and nearly 200 more are still missing.
The captain and two crew members have been arrested, accused of negligence and abandoning people in need.
Captain Lee Joon-seok told passengers to stay in their cabins as the ferry listed and filled with water, then took at least half an hour to order an evacuation and apparently escaped on one of the first rescue boats.
But passengers recall moments of quiet bravery from the crew.
Passenger Koo Bon-hee, 36, told AP there were not enough life jackets for everyone in the area on the third floor where he and others waited. So crew members - two men and two women - didn't wear any so that all the passengers could have one.
One of the first bodies recovered after the ferry sank was 22-year-old crew member Park Ji-young, who helped students evacuate until the last minute, even though she wasn't wearing a life vest, South Korean media reported.
Witnesses told Yonhap news agency that she told students that crew members must stay on the ship until everyone else leaves, and that she would follow them after helping passengers.
Oh Yong-seok, a 57-year-old helmsman, said he and four crew members worked from nearby boats to smash windows on the sinking ferry, dragging six passengers stuck in cabins to safety.
"We did hard work, but no media are talking about that," Ohe said. "Instead, they say all crew members fled."
Some crew members said they feel they cannot discuss their efforts to help because the public is so enraged.
Crew members are also struggling to understand why the captain, who some called kind-hearted, didn't stay on the ship longer or help oversee rescue operations.
"The captain should have stayed there," Oh said, "even if it meant his death."
