[JoeDetweiler]

I’m sort of fond of books about shipwrecks and the such, and based on those I would say that the only time the “women and children first” rule is followed in the real world is when the officers enforce it with weapons. There was one exception....I can’t quite remember...something about a company of British soldiers who stood in formation until the others were gone. I’ll see if I can find it.

[buwaya]

HMS Birkenhead -

See - “The Birkenhead Drill”

[JoeDetweiler]

That was easy....HMS Birkenhead....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Birkenhead_(1845)

[ArrogantBustard]

a company of British soldiers who stood in formation until the others were gone.

HMS Birkenhead. She was a troopship. She struck a rock off South Africa, and sank. Women and children were put aboard the utterly inadequate number of lifeboats; the men stood at attention, in ranks, and went down with the ship.

To take your chance in the thick of a rush, with firing all about,
Is nothing so bad when you've cover to 'and, an' leave an' likin' to shout;
But to stand an' be still to the Birken'ead drill is a damn tough bullet to chew,
An' they done it, the Jollies -- 'Er Majesty's Jollies -- soldier an' sailor too!

-Rudyard Kipling

[CrazyIvan]

On the Central America (see Ship of Gold) the male passengers wouldn’t even let the women bail at first.