What are some pre-1920s historical misconceptions that are commonly perpetuated in film and television?
>Titanic's third class passengers were deliberately locked below by Botswick gates (Pretty much any Titanic film or TV show does this)
There were only a few of these gates on the ship, and they were not used to block third class passengers from entering the second or first class areas. They were used to secure the food pantries and crew-only areas. The gates between the third class section and other classes were waist-high, and could be jumped over with some ease. There are isolated incidents of a crew member trying to keep people below gates, but it was not systematic and it was easily remedied by jumping over the gate or in one case breaking the lock which was on the third class side per legal requirements so that the women and children didn't have to jump. Third class did have a high mortality rate and many reports indicate most third class people didn't make it on deck until almost all the boats were gone, but it was for reasons other than being deliberately locked below.
>>873692
what were the reasons for the high mortality rate then
>>876684
Because they're at the bottom of the ship numbnuts
>>876684
Boats were on the highest decks and richfags were there too. Amazingly it's shorter trip for rich to the boats.
>>876684
The Irish are fucking savages who immediately started raping and killing each other, and things got even worse when they hit the iceberg.
>>876684
>>876684
A few reasons.
The crew had virtually no training on the procedures for evacuating the ship in case of a sinking. So things that were supposed to happen--stewards taking their charges to the loading decks, the lifeboats stopping at each deck to retrieve passengers, boats not being launched until they were filled to capacity--didn't happen by and large.
Third class passengers would have not been familiar with the necessary route to get from their quarters to the boat deck. Even crew members stated it took them a few days to understand the basic layout of the ship. So you have hundreds of people in various states of panic and confusing trying to run around a ship, with very little crew helping them out.
There was no massive order to the crew to get to the third class section and warn people to get on deck, unlike the first class section, so many people in third class didn't really know what was going on because there was conflicting information and no crew came down to make sure they knew the seriousness of the situation. Some people didn't speak English, which added to the confusion.
Only one third class steward did his duty and retrieved the passengers he was in charge of from the third class area, and in fact he originally took them to the lower deck where the White Star Line manual says they were supposed to wait for the lifeboats to be lowered, but the crew manning the lifeboats weren't following procedure so they didn't stop, and he then had to take them to to the boat deck.
So for most of the sinking, you third class passengers making it to the deck bit by bit. One survivor recalled seeing a "mass of humanity," all steerage passengers, making it on deck only when all the regular lifeboats had been launched and there were only the collapsible boats left.
>>877072
Also, the first 6 boats were launched from the first class deck with ONLY first class passengers, with the exception of a male third class passenger who had volunteered to row the boat. Of the boats, none were launched at the third class area, nor stopped at the third class deck, which they were technically supposed to. They were launched from the first class loading deck, second class loading deck, and the officers deck, which were not ordinarily accessible by third class.
All First Class rooms had immediate or very easy access to the first class boat deck. Some second class passengers would have had very easy access through a stairway that led to the second class boat deck, which held about half the boats, but the other half of second class would note. Third class had no immediate or easy access to any of the boats.
Class may not have kept steerage passengers locked below, but it still affected their fate. Lawrence Beesley, for example, noted that some women from second class were turned away by the crew when they tried to get to the First Class boat deck. Yet First Class passengers were never denied entry to the second class or officer deck boats.
>>876718
Kek. Giggled for quite a while desu
