Pushy Yanks saved themselves on Titanic

[RamboLiberal]

British passengers on board the sinking Titanic died while politely queuing to get their place on a lifeboat, while Americans pushed their way on, according to new analysis of passenger data.

The Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic on April 14, 1912, and sank off the Newfoundland Coast within hours. Most did not survive the disaster — 1,517 perished while only 706 survived.

David Savage, a behavioral economist at Queensland University of Technology, Australia, and Bruno Frey, of the University of Zurich, Switzerland, spent more than a year studying survival rates from one of the worst maritime disasters in history.

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They found that British passengers, who queued for a place in one of only 20 lifeboats provided for the 2,223 on board, had 10 percent lower chance of survival than any other nationality.

In contrast, Americans, who reportedly elbowed their way to the front of lines, had a 12 percent higher probability of survival than British subjects.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28857579/

What also amazed me about this disaster was how most of the lifeboats were launched with only a 1/3 to a 1/2 of their capacity even though it was known by the officers that Titanic didn't carry enough lifeboats for all the passengers. And at least the top officers knew the ship was doomed. One lifeboat went away with only 12. It did help to be first class and especially female though a number of first class males made it off as well.

http://www.titanic-titanic.com/lifeboat_lowering_times.shtml

[Lex]

1. "elbowed their way to the front of the lines?"

Kind of a leap there by the author.

[sarge43]

2. What was the ratio of American to British passengers?

That too would have a bearing, particularly among first class.

Waiting for documented statements from the survivors, especially non-Americans, that the Yanks were pushy.

[happyslug]

3. And that it was a BRITISH MANED SHIP, also brings the numbers DOWN

Except for the crew-members put in the life boats to operate the life boats, most of the crew did NOT get off. Thus you had a high rate of deaths of the Crew, who were almost all British.

Please note NO ONE POINTED THIS OUT AT THE TIME, thus may be just a statistical quark. Now the reason for this may be the ship's owners wanted to over up the people killed in steerage when the iceberg hit the ship (The steerage were locked in place, with no place to escape the water, do to the locked gates, kept locked to keep them in steerage).

[Thothmes]

10. Also most of the steerage passengers were Irish (ie British Citizens)

How many of them got of the ship?

[sarge43]

17. Not many

According to the Wiki article on the Titanic, percentage of survivors

1st Class: 60.5%

2nd Class: 41.7%

3rd Class: 24.5%

Crew: 23.8%

[Matariki]

4. One could interpret that as the value of politeness - and what it gets you.

[JenniferJuniper]

5. This isn't new. Way back in 1983, I took a course called

something like "The Use Of Computer Applications in Sociology". It was memorable primarily because it was the fist time I ever used a computer. Anyway, our final exam was an analysis of survivor rates on the Titanic. And I do recall coming up with similar statistics. Question is, however, are the figures statistically meaningful? How were they weighted? Maybe there were just more American kids or women on the boat. And given the sampling, is a 12% variance really indicative of anything either way?

The first several lifeboats were launched 1/2 full or less because people simply could not believe in the early going that the ship was in danger and the officers had trouble convincing people the threat was real. Although I'm not sure all of them even fully realized it. By the time people realized what was happening, the first boats had launched and did not return.

[RamboLiberal]

6. But the officers loading the boats knew the ship was doomed

I still think they could've done a better job of loading the boats and putting more emphasis on getting passengers on. Even letting men on instead of sending the boats away 2/3rds to half empty.

[JenniferJuniper]

7. Keep in mind they did not have a lot of time.

They didn't even have time to fully launch all of the boats they did have. Two of the collapsibles were never even launched. So when people would not get on the boats early on, they opted to launch them rather than start a panic.

A far bigger crime, IMO, was the 1/2 empty boats not returning to help those in the water after the ship went down. That and of course the fact that they didn't have enough boats in the first place.

[WolverineDG]

14. According to the regs in place at the time, they did

Ain't that a scary thought? :scared:

dg

[JenniferJuniper]

16. Actually, they had more than they were required to. Very scary. NT

[sarge43]

9. Problem with that is those officers were trained, hell brain washed,

to be deferent to their 'betters', ie upper class. If Lord or Lady Ramsbottom refused, PO Jones wasn't about to insist. The class system, pre WWI, was rigid.

Many of those aristos couldn't conceive their lives were in any danger. They had been protected from all of life's unpleasantness from the day they're born. Shit just didn't happen to them.

[MrSlayer]

8. Every man for himself in that situation.

You can bet your ass I'd be fighting my way onto one of those boats.

[JenniferJuniper]

11. The world has changed.

There were many stories of men who stepped aside because they fully believed they were doing the right thing by allowing women and children go first. That probably would not happen today.

[WolverineDG]

15. Me too

Ship hit an iceberg & is taking on water? Get me on one of those boats! If the ship is still afloat in the morning, haul me back up. kthanxbai.

dg

[MichaelHarris]

12. that water is cold man!

I would have eaten my way through the women and children to get to a lifeboat.




p.s. In real life I'm a gentleman, on the internets I'm a turd. :)

[WolverineDG]

13. Maybe it shows that the Yanks were smarter

& headed for the lifeboats sooner than the Brits. :think: It wasn't the Yanks fault the crew decided to send out the life boats when they weren't full.

dg