The Titanic: The True Meaning Of The Titanic

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“...the TItanic hit the iceberg at 11:40 pm and sank at 2:20 am” (Lord 173). April 12, 1912 marked the night the RMS Titanic vanished into the vast Atlantic Ocean. The Titanic only had enough lifeboats for ⅓ of the 2208 people on board. This survival rate is so meager because the appearance of the Titanic was more salient than its passengers’ safety. Captain Edward Smith figured all the necessary amount of lifeboats would look “cluttered” on deck. The Titanic also had the prominent title of “unsinkable ship” because of that, the captain thought lifeboats wouldn’t be needed but indeed they were. The impact of the lifeboat shortage on the Titanic forced the captain to call the BirkenHead drill, caused men to dress as women, and brought passengers to participate in bribery. …show more content…

It was currently 12:05 and Captain Smith became more aware of the disaster as it was becoming more progressive. The lifeboats were getting uncovered and he knew there were not enough lifeboats for all the passengers, so he called the “Birkenhead drill”. The Birkenhead drill meant that as people were boarding lifeboats, women and children would go first, then followed by men. This drill originated when the HMS Birkenhead troopship was sinking off the coast of Africa. However on the Titanic, because of this protocol, 73% of the survivors were women and 50% of them were children, compared to 20% of men survivors . This procedure showed how women and children were supposed to get to lifeboats first and then men would progress. Passengers on board, soon came to the understanding that there were not enough lifeboats for everyone. The men's anger increased rapidly because they were the crew’s second priority, and the shortage of lifeboats caused captain Smith to call the Birkenhead

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