In the same era— the casualty rate for British officers in WW1 was notably higher than the rate among enlisted soldiers. Something like 20% of Eaton students who served in the war died, an even higher rate than officers as a whole and almost twice the rate of the regular troops. The idea that “elites” of the period were inferior to working class does smack just a tad of Bolshevism.
The people who kept the lights on on the Titanic did so because they were men, nothing to do with upper or lower class.
Well said. In Great Britain, at the time, men were expected to fufill their duties. It was the duty of the engineering staff to keep the Titanttic afloat as long as possible, just as it was the duty, a decade later, of infantry officers to lead their men in combat.