The Titanic

Why did so many passengers from 3rd Class perish?

 

 

Many of those who were travelling by third class were mainly immigrants from Ireland and Scandinavia trying to get a better life in the United states. Out of the total 706 only 178 people survived. There were many factors that contributed to their mass amounts, but most engage the fact that the third class were pushed aside and left to the dead to make more room for the upper classes.

 

For the lucky ones, they died without even knowing it by the surges of icy cold water into their rooms which eventually filled up leaving them at the mercy of the ocean. Geographically, they were doomed from the start, but societal norms didn’t help either. As the first class were closer to the lifeboats they were the ones who had the best chance of survival, it was quite literally right outside their doors. Even though the Titanic was equipped to carry 32 life boats, the designers reduced the number so it the decks would seem “cluttered” or the view obstructed. Sir Alfred Chalmers (Professional Member of the Marine Department, survey department) also stated that he felt that if there had been fewer lifeboats on Titanic then more people would have been saved. He believed that if there had been fewer lifeboats then more people would have rushed to the boats and they would have been filled to capacity thus saving more people.

 

Societal mainly consisted in giving the upper class a sense of importance and this was carried into the Titanic, even the very layout was set to give the upper class a better view. When it was time to evacuate the ship they had realised that there weren’t enough lifeboats to save everybody so somebody was going to be sacrificed and that ended up being the third class as well as the men as the “only women and children” policy was implemented. This created great havoc as many women and their children didn’t want to or refused to leave their husbands and the men who were lucky enough to get on a lifeboat weren’t always reunited with their families.

 

Quite ironically on the same day that the Titanic had an emergency drill sunday, April 14, 1912 was coming to an end on the Titanic when tragedy struck. That morning passengers attended church services with Captain Smith officiating the First Class sermon. In the evening some first and second class passengers had a hymn sing. A lifeboat drill had been planned for that Sunday morning, but was cancelled for [now] unknown reasons.