Had you been aboard the ill fated Titanic, do you imagine you'd have observed the evacuation etiquette?

If I were on the ill fated Titanic I would try and I were married I would force my husband to break the rules and come with us. I would make him dress in my clothes and have him pretend to be a women there to take care of the kids. I wouldn’t want to loose any of my family if that were the case. It was so sad how many who died.

I might look for a non-lifeboat solution. The thing took forever to go down.

Worst-case scenario, I think that I would be content to freeze to death clinging to a bit of flotsam. There are, after all, worse ways to go. Like drowning.

Those who stayed behind, especially the orchestra, were, in the language of my generation, elegantly badass.

Yes, however, I wouldn’t have sat idly by and gone down with the ship either.

I have no doubt that with the materials available and at hand I could have constructed a serviceable life boat for myself (thus leaving the inadequate number of official life boats for the women and children).

I would have “observed” everyone else follow the rules as I broke them.

I’d like to think that knowing the ratio of people to life boat space being as bad off as it was and my general knowledge of how things work, I could construct some sort of flotation device to keep myself alive. I don’t do panic or squished spaces well so with all the people panicking and heading to the boats, I’d likely look for an alternative solution anyway. Now, if I had family/friends with me…. They would be put on a boat no matter what I had to do.

Hmm.. this sounds like an excellent game for some enterprising young geek to produce:

I can see two types of implementation:

A MMORPG with everyone aboard a ship with access to the same materials and the same abilities to interact/cut deals, etc… as everyone else when the ship starts sinking.

or

A single player simulator where you the passenger have to find your way off the ship.

It occurs to me that even with the materials at hand there are other practical considerations. For example, those enormous sleigh beds in one of the luxury suites would make an excellent base for a life boat. However, how the heck do you move it out on deck where you need it?

If I was with family I’d try and get them off the ship, if I couldn’t… I’d build a raft to jettison before the ship finally sank.
If I was alone, think I would have wondered the halls thinking of a way to live or die gracefully, peacefully.
I would probably either have fashioned a jetsam raft for myself and others to use (pre-water) or went to the bar drank the expensive whiskey & listened to the orchestra. Or both.

Thanks for those “on topic” & helpful answers, don’t often ask in general. Interesting outcome I must say.

@everephebe Hey, yeah. Death by alcohol poisoning. Never thought of that.
@erichw1504 If you’re not alive, and you’re not at rest, then the only other option is that you’re undead.

I would have let kids and the elderly go before me.

Yay, I feel right at home again :¬)

Self preservation. Maaaaaybe if I were killing someone else to save myself, I would give them my spot… But I would do everything in my power to get into a lifeboat.

Probably not. Chances are I wouldn’t have been a 1st class traveler and so the “women & children first” wouldn’t have applied to me. I’d hope to have enough notice to trudge through the slop and jump into the open ocean, hoping for something to cling to.

Falling under the “woman” category, I would probably have observed the etiquette. Alas, I don’t think I would have been noble enough to do something like this.

Well since I’m a woman I guess I might have been pretty safe, maybe, if I got first in line or wtv. But if that movie with that dude there, the hell’s his name, DiCaprio or something. If that movie was reflective of the real life Titanic story and that financial hierarchy decided who was to be saved first, I probably wouldn’t have been saved, since I’d be with all the poor people. That is, if I am to transfer my current social status to that particular scenario. I’m pretty sure that, either way, I’d be like, fuck rules, and do whatever I can to save my hide.

@Neizvestnaya do you know somet5hing I don’t. Didn’t women and children first apply to first class passengers as well?

@anartist Neizvestnaya’s response is about not being a first class passenger and the chances of getting a seat in a lifeboat. FYI…here is the breakdown of passengers by class and the survival statistics.

Category:.....# aboard…..# of survivors…% survived…...# lost…....% lost
First class…....329…..........199….................60.6 %...........130….....39.5 %
Second class..285…..........119….................41.8 %...........166….....58.1 %
Third class…...710…..........174….................24.5 %............536…....75.7 %
Crew…............899…..........214….................23.8 %............685….....76.3 %
Total…..........2,223…..........706….................31.8 %.........1,517….....58 %

Source If you want to learn more, there is a sad, but interesting section on those attempting to board lifeboats.

@Pied_Pfeffer Total 31.8+58=100? I’m getting 89.8 myself. So what happened to 10.2 of them? Ah wait it’s supposed to be 68% of them. Wow I didn’t realize they lost just under 70% of all on board. Ok… But still, something is odd about these numbers, no? It’s like that are missing one person. Perhaps a stowaway?

Oh and I like this from your source: “Another disparity is that a greater percentage of British passengers died than Americans; some sources suggest it was because Britons of the time were polite and queued, rather than forcing their way onto the lifeboats. The captain Edward John Smith was shouting: “Be British, boys, be British!” as the liner went down.” British: Stiff upper lip… Americans: “F**k forming a queue, I don’t want to die!”

@everephebe Thank you…yes, it’s my mistake when formatting the data. And I had to laugh at your comment about the possible reason why more British citizens didn’t survive. I don’t know about back then, but it is certainly applicable today.

Wow, a belated stat attack on my question….nice. Just for the record, being English as I am…..(no really) there’s no way in hell i’m going to queue, then or now. Stiff upper lip? My arse!

@ucme Point taken. My response was purely based upon experiences in both the US and UK. from today’s standards. Have you visited the US? If so, to what degree?