When the Titanic sank on April 14, 1912, only approximately 700 of her more than 2,200 passengers were rescued. Out of those only 26 percent were in the third class, even though Titanic carried more third class passengers than first and second combined (Geller 197-216). Subsequent survivor accounts would reveal that first and second class passengers were given more opportunities for rescue in several ways. 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 was built in a period of history called the Edwardian Era in Britain, La Belle Epoque in France and the Gilded Age in America (Geller 13). The period was characterized by the Industrial Revolution, which helped fuel a change in the traditional society.
Walter Lord notes that passenger accommodation aboard Titanic was a microcosm of the Edwardian world because it illustrated the then-prevailing class distinctions (Lord 17). The accommodations were spread among the top seven decks and were strictly segregated according to class. The wealthy were housed on the upper levels, and Tibballs notes that, generally, a descent into the bowels of the liner equated with a descent on the social ladder (Tibballs 36).
First class carried more than...