I've just re-listened to "A Night To Remember", Walter Lord's engrossing account of the sinking of the Titanic. More than just a 'keep you on the edge of your seat' action story, it is also a study in sociology and psychology. One aspect of the story I just can't resolve.

Most of us know the basic story about the supposed unsinkable state-of-the-art ship that went to the bottom on her maiden voyage. How there were insufficient lifeboats for passengers and crew. How reluctant passengers were to enter lifeboats in freezing temperatures despite the captain's call of, "Women and children first." As a result, some of the 44 seat lifeboats were lowered with only five or six passengers.

To make a long story short, over 1500 men, women and children wound up in the 28 degree Atlantic screaming for help. Some of the women in the lifeboats wanted to turn around and try to rescue some of the drowning but, in the end, only one of 20 boats returned to attempt rescue, but apparently waited too long in deciding; each person the boat approached had frozen to death.

Obviously, rowing a partially filled lifeboat in the area of drowning people would create more of a panic with the chance that the panic of those in the sea could capsize the lifeboat as they fought to climb aboard, injure or kill existing lifeboat passengers, etc.

It is intresting to note that several male crew members were found standing on the bottom of a capsized 'collapsible' lifeboat meant for crew use (it was not as stable as a normal lifeboat). Over twenty men stood on this slippery, unsteady surface until they were rescued after about four hours. They managed to take on additional crew and other male passengers as well as rejecting others using oars as weapons if they appeared too panicky to participate. I don't feel that women could have accomplished a similar situation mostly due to the clothing that they wore that hampered movement and the culture and mores of the time would have prevented women taking the initiative to perform 'manly' functions.

What would you do if you were in a lifeboat and heard screaming men, women and children begging for help, drowning, trying to survive and you counted 39 empty seats in your lifeboat?

I honestly don't know what I would do. Would my heart win out and force me to help as many as I could, realizing that it was almost sure to fail when hysterical victims tried to force their way into the lifeboat? Or would I look at the situation more objectively by realizing the inherent danger, rationalizing that many of the victims wouldn't be victims if they had followed the captain's orders to abandon ship. Would this 'scientific' decision haunt me the rest of my life?

What do you think you would do?

Based on my reaction to other crises, I'm of the 'act first, think later' variety. "Do the right thing" has been drilled into me so far, apparently, that that is what I instinctively do (whether or not it is truly the right thing in the circumstances).

I was thinking about this not too long ago. I recently had the chance to make a small ($1) profit on my shopping cart deposit. I was thinking "Hmm, if the opportunity arises, will I take it?" As I was thinking, a woman approached me and offered me the dollar. Even though I had been thinking it over just that moment, out of my mouth came the words "No, I got it for free, so I'll pass it on to you" apparently without any input whatsoever from my brain.

So, based on what I know about myself, I would try to rescue others, unthinkingly, and then bitterly regret it when they capsized me into the sea.

I'll go with agony, I think that I would try to help.

I am one of those people who will approach tourists who are looking at a map and appear to be lost, I will always ask if I can help. Once when I was a teenager this almost caught me out, it wasn't a tourist but a man sitting in front of me on the upper deck of a bus when it was at a terminus without a driver or conductor. He was shaking and I was just about to tap him on the shoulder to ask if I could help him when I glanced at his reflection in the window - whoops, he left the bus before it started and I later reported him to the police.

I would have to help. My conscience wouldn't let me do otherwise. I would hope the "gentlemen" of the time would have been more gracious to help those in dire need of rescue, but in the heat of the moment anything is possible and usually it always comes down to survival of the fittest.

That being said I would probably perish as I am definitely not the most fit.

I would have to help as well, or the guilt that I would feel for the rest of my life would destroy me.
I am the type of person who stops and offers the use of my cell phone to people on the side of the road (or a ride if I am not alone and not feeling threatened).
I too offer assistance to people who look lost, or can't find what they're looking for in the grocery store.

This would be quite a "pickle" for me - by the time I made up my mind I'd surely be drowned or frozen dead or both. The big thing would be my morbid fear of water - if I felt safe I'd likely be very firm about staying that way. But my nature would more likely kick in and I'd probably return to attempt rescues, death almost assured by doing so. Truly, that's poor management though. If that part of me emerged I would save the handful of people in my boat and not sacrifice them to the panicked lot thrashing in the icy sea (but I will say that how or why the 'thrashers' ended up in their dilemma wouldn't come into play). It would boil down to pure logic and a sensible plan. To return to a mostly certain doom (and removing the hope for the few who had a much better chance at survival in our vessel) would, I think, be murder. Letting people perish without even offering a "rope" would be murder, too, but their odds are pretty bad with or without my help. As was said, one really never knows what they'd do in the face of such a crisis. I can, I'm sure of it, say this though: were it just myself in the boat I'd return to those drowning without hesitation. Then there would be no "this amount of people" vs. "that amount of people" debate. I would, however, hope that those I attempt to rescue don't put me in a position where I'd be forced to face how much I can't swim...

Quote:

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What do you think you would do?

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Follow the commands of the person that the Titanic's master had placed in charge of the rowboat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Titanic