divebuddy - //Andy, You really are out of this world aren't you. Unnatural deaths may well be tragic but they are certainly not always futile. Lifeboats, for instance risk their own lives to try and save strangers. Sometimes they die themselves (e.g. the Penlee disaster). Nobody in their right mind would call their efforts futile- even when a rescue attempt ends in tragedy. //
A matter of semantics I feel.
I would not call the efforts you describe as futile, clearly they are not, but if a lifeboatman died and the victim was not saved, then his death would have been futile - wouldn't it?