Social Science and Medicine 1986 22 (6): 687-690. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0277-9536(86)90041-9 SOCIAL CLASS AND SURVIVAL ON THE S.S. TITANIC WAYNE HALL Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Science, The University of Western Australia, Nedlands, W.A. 6009, Australia Abstract Passengers’ chances of surviving the sinking of the S.S. Titanic were related to their sex and their social class: females were more likely to survive than males, and the chances of survival declined with social class as measured by the class in which the passenger travelled. The probable reasons for these differences in rates of survival are discussed as are the reasons accepted by the Mersey Committee of Inquiry into the sinking. Key words mortality rates, social class At 2.20 a.m. on the morning of April 15th 1912 the ‘unsinkable’ S.S. Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean with the loss of nearly 1500 lives. The Titanic represented the state of the art in the shipping technology of its day. It was 852 ft long, displaced 52,310 tons, and was equipped with a system of sealed bulkheads which were believed to render the vessel unsinkable. While on its maiden voyage the Titanic struck an iceberg producing a 300 ft long gash in its side and flooding five bulkheads. In the three hours after the ship struck the iceberg, the Titanic’s bulkheads gradually filled with water and it sank before a rescue ship, the S.S. Carpathia, could reach it. Two-thirds of the Titanic’s complement of passengers and crew went to the bottom with it [1, 2]. It is well known that the chances of surviving the sinking were not equally distributed between passengers in the first, second and third classes (e.g. [3-5]). The details of sex and class differences in survival and the reasons for them are less well known. This paper has three purposes. First, to provide a complete account of class and sex differences in survival on the S.S. Titanic. Second, to submit these data to a formal statistical analysis. Third, to discuss the possible reasons for the social class differential in survival, including the explanations that were advanced at the time. This discussion makes no claim to be definitive; it is offered in the hope of inspiring the research in primary sources which will provide a more complete explanation of the social class differences in mortality on the Titanic. DATA SOURCES The data on sex and class differences in survival were obtained from the British inquiry into the sinking which was conducted by Lord Mersey in 1912 [1, p. 42]. They have been cross-checked with figures compiled from the White Star Line’s final list of lost and saved of 9 May 1912 [2, pp. 161-176] which provides a listing of all passengers classified by sex, point of embarkation, the class in which they travelled and whether or not they survived. The figures from the two sources are in general agreement but there are some minor inconsistencies. These are not sufficiently large to materially affect the conclusions