When the S.S. Titanic, the pride of early twentieth century marine technology, rammed an iceberg and quickly sank on its maiden trip across the Atlantic, most of the first-class passengers, including men as well as women and children, got away in half-empty lifeboats, but 53 children of third-class passengers — not to mention their parents — went down with the ship. “I only realized that the situation was serious when I saw a working-class passenger on the first-class deck,” one of the survivors recounted later.
