"Oh, it was sad. Oh, it was sad."

@Lila15 [c=800000]Sad, but true. [/c]

@ProfessorPlum77 From what I've read, J. Bruce Ismay, the Chairman of the White Star line, was the one who pushed Smith to go as fast as possible in the hope of arriving earlier than expected. Ismay ended up on a lifeboat (Smith, of course, went down with the ship), and was accused of taking the place of a woman or child. He was derided as "J. Brute Ismay" and spent the rest of his life in obscurity and guilt over the tragedy.

@Lila15 I think I have heard a similar story about Ismay and the lifeboat. Can you imagine the guilt and shame he had to live with?

@ProfessorPlum77 I'm sure it was pretty bad. Someone had to be blamed, and since Smith went down with the ship, that left him. According to Ismay and one witness, he assisted many women and children into the lifeboats, and only got into the last one because no women or children were around at the time. However, this was disputed by the other guy's wife.

@Lila15 It would be hard for me to determine who to believe.

@ProfessorPlum77 A ship sinking like that is an extreme situation, and without strict protocols in place, it's not surprising how chaotic the sinking was. The real blame should be on whoever decided not to include enough lifeboats. Of course, many factors led to the collision, not least of which, it was a moonless night with an absolutely calm sea. If there had been waves, the lookouts probably would have seen the iceberg earlier as they would have noticed the waves breaking against it.

My parents told me about a Titanic museum exhibit they saw many years ago. It had a video game simulator where the goal was to get around the iceberg, first by "hard a-port" then "hard a-starboard." They couldn't do it but said some kid was able to get around it without the ship hitting it.

@Lila15 I agree with you regarding the shortage of lifeboats.
That is interesting about the museum, especially the simulator.