Class & Society in Accounts of Titanic Survivors

When the Titanic sank on April 14, 1912, only approximately 700 of her more than 2,200 passengers were rescued. Out of those rescued, 203 were first class passengers (63% of the total 337 first class passengers), 118 were second class (42% of 285), and 178 were third class (26% of 721). The rest were crew (Geller 197-216). Subsequent survivor accounts would reveal that first and second class passengers were given more opportunities for rescue in several ways. But the increased likelihood of survival based on one's passenger class was merely a product of a society that valued the lives of the wealthy over those of the working class. Eloise Smith was a first class passenger who escaped in a lifeboat. Her account hints at the underlying view that largely determined who survived the sinking of Titanic: "The cries [of passengers in the sea] we heard I thought were seamen, or possibly steerage who had overslept, it not occurring to me for a moment that my husband and my friends were not saved" (Quinn 112).

On 10 April 1912, the American-owned British-operated White Star liner Titanic departed from the Irish port of Queenstown on her maiden voyage. She carried approximately 2,228 passengers and crew, including 1,697 men (12 years of age and older) and 528 women and children (Geller 8). Four days later, on April 14, 1912, the Titanic sank two hours and 40 minutes after striking an iceberg in the North Atlantic (Geller 8). Titanic wa

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l of women and children only. Police Magistrate Robert C. Cornell later stated his belief that his wife's boat contained only 23 people and could have held at least seventeen more (Mowbray). He continued: "In fact, all of the boats, my wife says, could have carried many more passengers with safety" (Mowbray). Furthermore, crew officials did not know the lifeboats had been tested just before the voyage and they reduced the maximum number of people in each boat to ensure they did not exceed the boat's capacity (Quinn 13). Consequently, two hours and twenty minutes after Titanic hit the iceberg only 600 people had evacuated the ship (Quinn 20). Archibald Gracie was a first class passenger who went down with Titanic but saved himself by climbing onto an overturned lifeboat. Gracie's account of the final hours of Titanic demonstrates the disturbing lack of a sense of urgency as the ship sank: Two young men of the crew, nice looking dressed in white, one tall and the other smaller, were coolly debating as to whether the compartments would hold the ship afloat. They were standing with their backs to the rail looking on at the rest of the crew, and I recall asking one of them why he did not assist (Quinn 58). But this lack of urgency
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Approximate Word count = 1742
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)