The Titanic may have been swallowed by the vast seas that fateful night, but the story forever lives on for the survivors and the spectators. We take lessons from that forever tale and still look to the events of the day for guidance and support. One of the areas worth admiring, despite the disaster and the havoc aboard the giant, was the ratio of women and children who managed to walk away from the wreckage. Research shows that 20% of the men while 75 percent of the women were the survivors of the incident. Of the total 109 children onboard, 56 had survived the incident which puts the rate of survival of children at approximately 50%.
We may have taken lessons from the mistakes that had been made by the crew of the ‘Titanic’ but amongst that mistakes, this was a very positive trend which should have set precedence for all of us to follow for the years to come. ‘Women and children first’ was a phrase which had been coined prior to the destruction of the Titanic, but the trend that defined the term seemed to have sunk to the bottom of the ocean right alongside the Titanic. Sadly, the practice no longer carries weight with the captains of the present day ships, and most of the women and children are left behind while the men take the front seats to the lifeboats available. In this case, Titanic should have set a shining example, but we refused to grab on to that lesson.
What happened on the Titanic that night may have been the result of miscommunication in between the captain and the crew that was responsible for launching the lifeboats into the water. The captain’s orders were to “put the women and children in and lower away” which was a phrase that was meant to imply ‘women and children first.' The crew of the ship, however, had different ideas while interpreting that order and the words were taken literally, and no man was allowed on the lifeboat despite there being room for more survivors. Despite the mistakes that transpired at the lifeboats, approximately 3 of every 4 women lived, and that is a ratio which reflects optimistically on the trends of survival in case of any disaster.
In the shipwrecks of today, the women and children have lower chances of survival compared to the men and the crewmembers. The same was proven through an analysis of a database of 18 shipwrecks that transpired in between the years 1852 and 2011. The people onboard in these total 18 shipwrecks were 15,000 including men, women and children and they accounted for about 30 of the world nationalities. The analysis was able to conclude that more women and children make it to the list of causalities compared to men and also that the chance of survival is largest for the crew of the ship and the captain. Only two of the ships gave a survival advantage to women in all of the shipwrecks of the era which were the Titanic in 1912 and the Birkenhead in 1852.
Originally, the idea of ‘women and children first’ was a notion which had picked up popularity in the aftermath of the sinking of the Birkenhead in 1852. History, however, shows us that these two incidents were only the exceptions rather than the setting of the trend for the future generations. Aboard the Birkenhead too, the commanding officer passed orders to help get the women and children into the three lifeboats and because of the same orders, not even a single woman or a child lost their lives as the ship went under in shark infested waters. This was a story of heroism and courage which inspired the captain of the Titanic to make the same move some 60 years later.
The analysis of these 18 incidents also revealed that the women and children were at a disadvantage when it came to the chances of their survival in 11 out of 18 incidents. Shockingly, the chances for the children were even worse than they were for the women. The research also investigated the factors which determined the likelihood of survival for any particular group of the passengers and in the same analysis, different factors were looked into which included the pace at which the ship went down, whether the incident took place before or after the First World War, and the priority of the captain at the time of giving orders for evacuation.
The same analysis revealed that the time that it took for the ship to sink had no bearings on the percentage of women and children who were saved. Also, the chances were higher for women compared to men in incidents that had followed the First World War. These researchers also concluded that the stance that the captain took on the evacuation of the passengers also made a significant difference in the ratio of survival of the two sexes. If the captain issues orders for the women and children to be rescued first and foremost, their chances of success were seen to improve considerably.
‘Women and children first’ had been made a success at the sinking of the Titanic by the crew itself because the order of saving and women and children was implemented brutally. This is because the men who had actually disobeyed orders and tried to get on were shot down for putting themselves ahead of the women and children. The same was the story of three men in the steerage who happened to be Italian aboard the Titanic.Another shocking trend which came to light in these analyses was that the chances of survival for women were worse off on ships which were sailing under the British command, even though the original rule of women before children was first implemented on a ship which was under British command.
There is also at least one case which suggests that if the ship sinks in less time, the likelihood of survival trips in favor of the men. We could prove the same from the story of ‘Lusitania’, a ship which had been under water for just 17 minutes following the first blow. In this situation, the passengers’ instinct was to rush to the lifeboats and some who knew how to swim even jumped aboard and were rescued. Just for the reason that the time available to maximize survivors was negligible, more men were accounted for after the incident in comparison to the women.
Over and above the fact that women have less chances of survival than men in times of calamity, another code of conduct which the marine etiquette supposedly enforces is that of the crew members manning their ships until each and every passenger has been taken to safety. Adding to the abysmal practices which are underway today, this etiquette is also no more of a reality than ‘women and children first’ is. The research says that these crew members, in reality, abandon their posts so that they can save themselves from the disaster and this is what gives them the highest prevalence of survival at 61 percent.
The concept which requires for the captain to go down along with the ship also no longer holds importance in real life situations. Today, the captain abandons ship even before the passengers could be evacuated, an incidence which we have in fact borne witness to after the destruction of the 2012’s Costa Concordia at the shores of Italy.
Many feminists want to see the implementation of ‘women and children first’ in a number of aspects of the society. It is also supposed to be an unwritten and an unspoken rule at sea especially in times of peril. Unfortunately, it seems like a practice which is no more than an exception, and there are not that many captains who have the courage to implement the rule for the benefit of the women and the children. There are also a few who even criticize the rule of women and children first because they say that the rule separates families from one another. There may be wives who have to leave their husbands behind in the event of a shipwreck and then live life as a widow. Some people deem it more acceptable to save entire families rather than a group of people or a class of passengers.
We want to see the honor that was displayed by the captain of the Titanic, who happened to go down with the ship from all the ones who are in charge of a voyage. We want to see more of the men who could sacrifice their place on the lifeboats so that the chances of survival for women and children could be made more favorable. Despite all the honor and sacrifice we want to see in men who spend their days and nights at sea, the practice has brought to the forefront a norm which shouldn’t even exist.
This particular norm follows the principle of every man for himself. Here, the crew members do not have the responsibility to make sure that most of the women and the children can be rescued from a disaster. This practice, however, gives us crew members who put their own lives above those of the less powerful and less skilled women and children who can do little to save themselves in the event of them going down with the sinking ship. In the light of all that has become common, the sacrifice made by the captain of the Titanic and the crew members who were manning the lifeboats seems like the ultimate act of heroism, one which we, unfortunately, did not find the courage to follow in the time afterward. It was because of the very same acts of heroism that one headline from The Evening World of April 17, 1912, read ‘Officers sank with the Titanic, saving women till the end.’
Despite all of the criticism against the practice of women and children first, the recent events aboard the Costa Concordia have convinced us of the necessity of this code in our lives. Because without the same code, it turns out that we are barely human for saving our own selves above all. The violation of this principle deprives us of the honor of the duties which are entrusted to us being the race above all others. We can easily prove in the absence of the philosophy that we are no superior to animals that run for their own lives on the first instinct of danger. There has to be some code of conduct which justifies why the human race is and should remain superior to all.
As per the accounts recited by the eye witness passengers when the Costa Concordia was going down, upon finding out that lifeboats were the only way to survive, the crew members pushed past a number of women and children with the intent of getting to safety first. Amongst the same crew members were also strong men who then chose to rank their own lives above all the rest. None of the people on board had the courage to acknowledge that the children should be given priority. There are even some who debate that since women insist on being treated as equals, there is no reason for them to be put first in matters of life and death.
In denying the ultimate principle of humanity, we have always suffered great loss at our own hands, a fact which we ourselves could vouch for when comparing the incident of Costa Concordia to that of Titanic. On the Italian ship, there was no order whatsoever and the greatest ratio of death was that of the children and the women. In contrast, a number of passenger reflections of the Titanic reveal to us how all the women and children were proceeding to the lifeboats in quite an orderly fashion. Even the musicians kept the mood relatively lighter until the very end of the ship’s life. On that occasion, the evacuation of the passengers was based on a humane rule of helping the weaker ones first and the system was noble enough to be trusted by many. There was no fight and no argument.
There is another event which warns us of the consequences of our choice when we settle on the evacuation of the people in an area struck by disaster. One circus fire which broke out in Hartford gives us points to ponder upon and learn from in our decision to abandon the principle of women and children first whether trapped in a calamity at sea to when facing the same challenges on land. The circus fire closed with 170 casualties of which, 92 percent were women and children under the age of 15 years. There were also more than a few family instances where two or more members of the same family had met their death prior to time which was fair to them. (Roy, P.15)
We have been good at criticizing how the attempts made by the captain of the Titanic have been futile since it left on our hands so many grieving widows who did not make it back alongside their husbands. The circus fire at Harford smears in the books of our history a story which is good for taking lessons from. Reading about the same incident makes us turn our sights away from the story of the Titanic and realize how we were better off there because the men who are supposed to be the protectors of their families had done their jobs for their families more often than not, had walked away from the disaster safe. Grieving widows may not be the best case scenario following an event, but it is still better than two of more members of any family perishing in disaster.
We also saw earlier how whether or not the rule of ‘women and children first’ is implemented amongst other things also depends on upon whether the event was a post or pre-world war. This means that the First World War changed the perceptions that had been linked to the gender and that the women generally came to the forefront in a number of aspects of the society. This is because, through the periods of war, these women went through significant transformations with regards to their perceptions of self, and the expectations that were transferred onto their shoulders by their states.
This means that following the First World War, the image of the women changed drastically and for the better too. Because of the responsibilities that these women had taken on after their men left to fight in the war, the society started seeing them as essential parts of the same community, and their safety and opinions were then better valued. This is the reason why both the shipwrecks which had implemented and promoted the law of women and children first had come to pass following this transformational era of war.
Despite these changes in perception, there continue to exist women in this world that could still be considered illiterate and somewhat helpless in the face of tragedy and who still present us with reasons to implement the rules of women and children first not only on water but also in several matters which are decided on the land. This is the reason why there are many feminists in the world who want to bring the same policy which the unspoken rules of the seas failed to implement the public policy. (Meagher, p.1)
The need for these policies could be proved through examples one of which highlights how there are so many black families living in poverty in the United States and also that they are headed by a single parent who is a woman. In these efforts, there are a number of employment programs which could be focused upon so that the policies can favor the women of the country rather than discourage them through the unfair gender wage gaps and rigid leave policies. (Meagher, p.1)
Efforts are also underway which aim at focusing on the survival of the women and children in times of natural disaster to equip them better to face these circumstances of a challenge. This effort on our parts could present us with considerable success when speaking about survivals after a disaster because we have failed to implement the unspoken policy altogether. In these policies of women and children first in times of natural disaster, these women are not only given charge and involved in activities which prepare for any possible disaster even before it strikes, rather they are also given training so that when a disaster does, in fact, strike any community, they could come forward first and foremost in help of the possible victims. (Joseph P. Stoltman, p.441)
These programs of disaster management ensure that these women have representation in times of need when making decisions which are technical and managerial in nature. Over and above the efforts of saving and representation, these outreach programs in natural disaster also commit to the practice of financial support reaching the women, children and the elderly of the community first and foremost. These are all groups within our society which when left on their own, would not have the power to save themselves and implement strategies that aim towards survival.(Joseph P. Stoltman, p.441)
Even with the application of women and children first, we still cannot do justice with the appliance of the principal at the same rate across all the races and people of class. In a tragedy which sank another remarkable automobile of the sea the Swallow, we saw the truth of the disparities in the application of the rule. All through the nineteenth century, the law did not apply very often to the women of color and even those who belonged to the lower class of the society. (Miskolcze, p.39) This is a problem that we should look to overcome when we fixate on implementing ‘women and children first’ any further.
We should stay even firmer onto our rule of women and children first when we think of all the bravery and sacrifice that the women on board commit for the sake of their husbands and their offsprings. The behavior of these women when at sea could be described as nothing short of selfless. A survivor of the ship commended upon the display of courage of the wives and mothers, saying how they had shown grace and strength which is worthy of the utmost praise. There was no screaming and no fainting for their own in the final moments of the Swallow. Some women chose to go down alongside their husbands for the fear of living without them. (Miskolcze, p.39)
For the reason of the same selfless love and devotion towards their own men, the same men who are supposed to be their protectors could at least extend them the courtesy of fulfilling their same duty in the wake of a challenge which calls for decisions of life and death. These selfless women extend their passion and loyalty for their men and they are the beings capable of making sure that their survival is repaid through the return that they may extend to the surviving family members. The decision of making a choice between a husband and a child requires utmost resilience and these women are capable of that. Their selfless attitude qualifies them to live on, a dignity which we should be extended to them more than willingly.
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