Women and Children First

Intro-

Random Post. Thought.

Silly I, thought Women and Children First was interpreted as- help those most vulnerable. “Save women and children… first.” Where did I get such a notion, I wonder.

"Women and children first", known to a lesser extent as the Birkenhead drill, is an unofficial code of conduct whereby the lives of women and children were to be saved first in a life-threatening situation, typically abandoning ship, when survival resources such as lifeboats were limited. However, it has no basis in maritime law. Wiki

There are only two instances of chivalric maritime that I found. One was the Birkenhead boat evacuation in 1857, which was a “celebrated exception” to the women and children first motto. Meaning, the norm defied the motto. It possibly was publicized to get more passengers to board steamships that were not equipped with enough life saving boats. After the PS Normandy sank killing 31 people (12 of those were women) and was found negligible and “infringed on preventable disasters,” Articles.

In the opinion of the Board of Trade, it will not be possible to compel the passenger steamers running between England and France to have boats sufficient for the very numerous passengers they often carry. They would encumber the decks, and rather add to the danger than detract from it.

Although “noted with dissatisfaction” for the lack of life preserving equipment, the British Trade Board did not enforce further regulation in 1870.

The next publicized exception was the luxury liner, Titanic, 1912.

Titanic was equipped with 16 lifeboat davits, each capable of lowering three lifeboats, for a total capacity of 48 boats. Despite this capacity, the ship was scantly equipped with a total of only 20 lifeboats.

Hollywood’s 1997 version of Titanic events played out “a love story on steroids”. “Its most feverishly publicized demo were the swarms of girls in their teens and early twenties who went to the movie to swoon, and weep, and gawk at Leo (DiCaprio), who instantly became the biggest star on the planet.” EW.

Oh, women-children first, I guess. My misunderstanding.