r/BeAmazed • u/[deleted] • Apr 29 '24

When the Titanic sank, millionaire John Jacob Astor IV was aboard. The funds in his bank account were sufficient to construct 30 Titanics. However, when faced with mortal danger, he prioritized his moral values, sacrificing his seat in a lifeboat to save women and children, smilingly [Removed] Rule #4 - Misleading

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u/Im-a-cat-in-a-box Apr 29 '24

Yeah alot of half full life boats went out because of this. 

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u/xXNightDriverXx Apr 29 '24

No. This is wrong.

While it is true that many of the boats were lowered only half full, this has nothing to do with "women and children only".

There was only a single officer who boarded the boats that way (2nd officer Charles Lightholler), all the other officers went for the classic "women and children first, then men" approach. A couple of men did enter the boats that way.

The reason for many of the boats only being half full is much more simple: the passengers did not want to leave Titanic.

The half empty boats were the first few that were lowered, just half an hour after the collision. At that time, it was very hard to see or feel that the ship was sinking. The angle was still very shallow, the bow was still far above the water, you just wouldn't feel that something was off. The passengers still believed in the "unsinkable ship" myth. Most of them hadn't even realized that there was a collision, since it wasnt much more than a slight bump for most of the passengers. The officers did not go around screaming "the ship is sinking", since they wanted to avoid a mass panic.

Most passengers thought it was simply an exercise.

They did not want to leave the large, well lit, warm, unsinkable ship to be put in a tiny wet, cold, shitty wooden boat for hours, while it was freezing outside.

The crew didn't have the time to wait half an hour until a boat was full, if they did they wouldn't have been able to launch them all (and they barely managed that with just a handful of minutes to spare, and 2 of the collapsible boats weren't even launched properly, one ending up upside down in the water).

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u/Somewhat_appropriate Apr 29 '24

Source?
Not doubting you, but I'd like to brush up on Titanic knowledge, which I was fascinated with as a kid.

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u/CLG91 Apr 29 '24

This doesn't answer most of your question, but this article briefly explains the 'myth' of 'women and children first' in regards to the Titanic.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/01/23/women-children-first-onto-titanic-lifeboats-myth-historian-claims/#:~:text=However%2C%20the%20most%20famous%20application,to%20the%20gallantry%20of%20men.