Titanic: 100 Years Later, Still The World's Most Tragic Maritime Disaster

No one should underestimate Hollywood's power to form a popular culture attitude, but the movie industry's promotional and consciousness-raising power does not account for the Titanic's imprint: Fascination with the Titanic long predated Cameron's film -- grade-school kids in the United States from the 1930s to the 1950 to the 1970s grew up reading in school or watching documentary shows about the Titanic.

Rather, the incident has been remembered, and studied, and discussed, perhaps due to three event dimensions: 1) the injustice/avoidableness of the tragedy, 2) the grandeur of the ship, and 3) the implied arrogance of the ship's owners, and by extension, of humans, when they exhibit the preferred stance.

1) The Titanic Tragedy Should Not Have Occurred

The foremost reason the ship is remembered is the avoidableness of the event. Simply, the tragedy of the Titanic's sinking should not have occurred. A combination of mind-numbing mistakes -- from operating the ocean liner at too fast a speed for iceberg-laden waters, to an inadequate number of lifeboats -- the ship had enough life boats for only 1,178 people but an estimated 2,224 passengers and crew were on the maiden voyage -- to delays in deploying the lifeboats, to a totally inadequate and poorly managed evacuation system, among other errors and acts of irresponsibility -- caused a far greater loss of life. 

Historians and maritime experts have and will no doubt continue to debate how many lives would have been saved had one or several of the monumental errors not occurred, but one fact is certain: Even after striking an iceberg, many more of the 1,514 who perished would have been saved. More than 1,000 people were still on the ship when it broke up and sank bow-first.
In other words, those who perished on the Titanic were victims of a gross injustice and massive operational failures -- and the elimination of just one of the mistakes could have saved hundreds of lives. The combination of mind-numbing errors doomed 1,514.

2) The Titanic Was The Grandest Ship Of Its Era

Titanic was the world's largest luxury liner -- a veritable palace on the sea, for those with means, and the maiden voyage's passenger list included many with means.

Some the wealthiest people in the world took the ship's first trip and enjoyed the luxurious accommodations, which, in addition to plush cabins, included a gymnasium, libraries, upscale restaurants, numerous living rooms/social rooms, a barber shop, Turkish bath and a swimming pool. The VIP guest list included U.S. millionaire John Jacob Astor IV and wife Madeleine Force Astor, industrialist Benjamin Guggenheim, Macy's owner Isidor Straus and wife Ida Straus, millionairess Margaret "Molly" Brown, and businessman John Borland Thayer, among others. 

In other words, travelling via the Titanic was a status symbol -- a badge that, for first-class travelers, indicated wealth and prominence. A trip in this class was roughly equivalent to dining at New York's Four Seasons restaurant, booking a seat on a supersonic plane (such as the discontinued Concorde) and appearing at a National Football League Super Bowl party, all rolled into one. So superior were Titanic's furnishings and accommodations that second-class travel was roughly equivalent to first-class travel on other, typical ocean liners; third class was equal to second, etc. 

In short, the Titanic was the grandest ship of its age and a happening for those with the means to travel first class.

3) The Titanic Owner's Attitude Symbolized Humanity's Arrogance and Hubris