Submitted by ChadExtra t3_10iuu73 in todayilearned
Reply to comment by gaz3028 in TIL that Titanic crewman Herbert Pitman made an attempt to row his lifeboat over to rescue people in the water, but was overruled by the other occupants of the boat, who were worried about people swarming them and duly complied. Pitman said that this haunted him throughout his life. by ChadExtra
Realistic response. Many of the lifeboats were only filled to half capacity and only 2 of the 18 lifeboats returned to rescue passengers in the water and I haven’t seen any report that either were swamped.
A googled figure puts the first class survival rate at 62%, the second class at 41% and third class at 25%. There is a obvious skew towards women and children however the survival rate of first class men is 2-3 times as high as second and third class men.
They weren’t going to risk their lives for poor people IMO.
It is worth mentioning that the highest mortality rate was for crewmembers. Only 24% of the crew survived.
I've often seen crew fatalities overlooked, apart from some particularly notable crewmembers. It's a shame, as if they don't count because they weren't passengers.
It's worth remembering most of the crew were hotel staff. It just so happened the hotel they worked at was on a ship.
If it was anything like the movie, when the lifeboats returned, almost everyone were dead and frozen.
if they went back 15 minutes earlier they would have been swamped by panicking people.
I’d caution you against taking anything from that movie as factual.
In this case it was pretty close, though. Harold Lowe, the only officer who went back for people, redistributed the already-rescued people into several boats and waited for the shouting to die down before he went back, be cause he was afraid of the boat being swamped. Later he said he realized he had waited too long, that the water was too cold for people to survive in it for more than a short while. I think about four people got pulled out of the water total.
Cameron wanted it to be as much 100% factual based on what they knew from the survivors stories, boat's layout and how it was found. The only thing fabricated was the story between Jack and Rose (and some other story beats)....but as far as the ship and the disaster....I'm pretty sure was spot on.
A filmmaker’s version of “100% accurate” lasts precisely as long as it takes them to run into an aesthetic, dramatic, or practical limitation. For instance, they sought to “exactly recreate” the interiors of the boat. But then Cameron decided the main staircase wasn’t big enough to fit his vision, so they enlarged it. It’s a minor thing, inconsequential on its own, but it’s not historically accurate. There’s also the case of the crewman who shoots people for trying to board the lifeboats, and then shoots himself. There are reports from survivors of shots being fired, but iirc, no one actually saw him execute anyone. They used the real person’s real name and portrayed him as a callous killer, based on speculation. Even Cameron has admitted he regrets that.
The fact is, Cameron’s film is based as much on A Night to Remember as it is on historical record.
Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments