What You Would Have Done If You Were On The Titanic As It Was Sinking

On April 15, 1912, the ship hailed as "unsinkable" sank to the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean, taking the lives of 1,500 passengers and crew. Most people know the story of the RMS Titanic. It's one of history's most well-known tragedies told over and over again in movies, television, and books - and whose legacy has remained a part of the general zeitgeist.

Many mistakes were made leading up to the ship's ultimate demise: the ship's size was overambitious, there were engineering issues, and many people made incredibly poor choices when the Titanic was sinking. But it's easy to criticize the decisions individuals made during an event that happened more than a century ago. We have the luxury of time and distance from the tragedy that allows us to look at it rationally; information about the ship's structural deficiencies that allow us to evaluate the hazards; and the knowledge that the night would end in disaster. But, according to many firsthand accounts, many passengers had very little knowledge of how dire the situation was until it was too late. The ship's crew ordered evacuation in an orderly manner and passengers remained calm. But if we were one of the 2,229 people on board the ship on that fateful night, would we have acted any differently?

Every choice listed below is based upon actual decisions individuals made, possibilities based upon circumstances of the night, or choices people made in fictional representations. Furthermore, the choices available to any one person (and ultimately the chances of survival) were dependent on a person's circumstaces: Were they a man or woman? Were they a child or an adult? Were they part of the crew or a passenger? Did they have the money to be a member of first class or were they a part of the third class?

But that leaves one final question: Considering your own personal background and disposition, what would you have actually done if you were on the Titanic as it was sinking?