Bad Choices

The sinking of the Titanic is a famous disaster. Versions of the story have appeared in songs and movies—some accurate, some highly fictionalized. Write a few sentences about what you know—or think you know—about this event. Comment on the choices that were made in the course of the disaster. What choices do you think led to so few people’s surviving the sinking of the Titanic?

I know so much as to that the Titanic struck an iceberg in the Atlantic and went down slowly. The passengers were not fully aware of the danger they were in, partially because many still thought the ship was unsinkable, and also because the ship's crew did a poor job of informing everyone, especially the lower class passengers. I also know that there were too few lifeboats for everyone on the ship, and when added to the fact that the individuals who got on these lifeboats usually took way too few people along with them, many more died than they should have. I also know that neighboring ships were called to the Titanic's aid, but they were still a distance away. The closest one was close enough to have conducted a rescue, but had an absent operator and hence did not receive the Titanic's SOS call.
I have also heard somewhere that the Titanic's captain had accelerated the ship in order to get to New York faster, and this aided to the inability to turn the Titanic before it hit the iceberg. I also heard that the ship's crew barred the lower-class passengers from escaping.

The bad choices in this event are evident. First off, the confidence of the ship's designers caused them to place too few lifeboats aboard, and the clear prejudice between the rich and the poor also caused the deaths of the many lives lost. The operator of the neighboring ship also made a bad decision to leave his post. In addition, some of the fault can be placed on the ship's captain; he ignored the iceberg warnings and by doing so was not cognizant of the potential dangers.