JF Ptak Science Books LLC Post 208
The photographic editor of The Illustrated London News came up with this superb illustration of what the 1513 dead aboard the Titanic would look like. Oddly enough, the photo used for the visualization exercise is of Mr. Ben Tillett, a socialist reformer and speaker, and also the spokesman for the National Transport Workers’ Federation and also of the Dock Wharf and General Workers’ Union., who at the time was playing an enormous role in the coal handling (and etc.) slowdown, representing the underpaid workers against the shipping companies.
The use of Tillett's crowds to make a case for the shipping industry tells me that The News was oblivious to the attendant ironies. That Tillett was a tremendous thorn in the companies' paw(s) is beyond question. Almost immediately after the Titanic disaster he published a statement accusing the White Star Line of trying to save the first class passengers first at tremendous expense of the third class passengers. "We offer our strongest protest against the wanton and callous disregard of human life and the vicious class antagonism shown int he practical forbidding of the saving of the lives of the third-class passengers. The refusal to permit other than first-class passengers to be saved by the boats is a disgrace to our common civilization". Strong stuff with a huge dollop of truth to it--god only knows why The News would've used this picture and this quote as part of a way to concretize what the loss of 1500 lives looked like. The News did counter the Tillett statement, saying "It need not be said that there is no truth in the allegations thus made..."
Except, well, they've not got the truth under control. On the one hand it is true that the greater indicator of survivability on the Titanic was by sex and age variables; on the other, overall, hand Tillett's implied figures are closer to the truth that The News found so repugnant. Women and children did survive in much greater numbers across (voyage) class lines than anything else. Only 3% of first class women perished, followed by 14% of second class and 54% of third class. 67% of first class men died, followed by 92% of second class and 84% of third; 78% of the male crew also disappeared. So the men did generally go down with the ship, giving their places to women and children (and the other 33% of first class men). Well, not all of the children: while no first or second class children were lost, 66% of third class kids drowned. Overall, I'd have to side with Tillett rather than a company apologist: 67% of first class people survived, followed by 41% of second class and only 25% of third; least of all came the crew, with a survivability rate of 23%.
Tillett would make many observations on the disaster, though one of the most revealing was his observation on the newspapers' coverage of the heroism of only the first class passengers: ‘I feel glad that the motto “Women and children first” is the great call in the hour of danger at sea. Mr Astor’s heroic end was in keeping with the heroic end of the humble third class and the members of the crew". It was an excellent point, and true, and also very uncomfortable stuff to acknowledge in print.
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