10. Remember Those Who Perished and Their Lives and Dreams
Harvard University professor Steven Biel points out that being poorer significantly lowered your chances of getting a place on one of the 16 lifeboats. On 25 percent of those in steerage or third-class survived, vs. 42 percent of the second-class passengers and 60 percent of the first-class passengers. Captain Edward John Smith, an experienced sailor, went down with his ship. While four of the officers survived (and never received command of a ship of their own), none of the 34 engineering officers (whose efforts kept the lights burning until just two minutes before the Titanic went down) survived. None of the eight members of the band, who played music until the end, did either.
Records of the Titanic’s passengers and crew are now available online: One hundreds years after the ship’s sinking, let us remember their stories and those lives cut tragically short.
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