The Wreck of the William Brown : A True Tale … (Hardcover)
by Tom Koch
In 1841--seventy-one years before the luxury liner Titanic collided with an iceberg in the same waters off Newfoundland--the William Brown was carrying emigrants from Britain to America when the ship struck an iceberg and sank. Both ships were traveling at maximum speed in waters known to be filled with icebergs. In both cases, half the passengers drowned because the ship owners had not provided sufficient lifeboats for all. But the survivors of the William Brown faced further horrors when the mate on the overcrowded lifeboat announced, "We cannot all live--some of us must die, the boat is so leaky." Fourteen passengers were thrown overboard by sailors.
So how does one decide who stays and who goes? By what values? Age? Strength? Family ties? Usefulness? Intelligence?
When those decisions get made what do they say about the society at the time on a Macro level?
We can also view this situation on a micro-sociological level and look at the conversations that took place between passengers. For example, did one passenger stay quiet and therefore get ignored? Did someone take charge and therefore get saved?
Here's what happened:
First Mate Francis Rhodes, Alexander William Holmes, and another seaman commanded the large lifeboat. The passengers were still dressed in their night clothes and suffered terribly in the cold Atlantic weather, which was made worse by a pelting rain. The two lifeboats stayed together through the night but separated the morning of the 20th because the captain, George L. Harris, thought there was a better chance of rescue if the two boats took different directions. Rhodes said that his boat was overcrowded and that some people would have to be thrown overboard to keep it from capsizing. Captain Harris said, "I know what you'll have to do. Don't speak of that now. Let it be the last resort." Throughout the day of the 20th and into the night, the rain and the waves worsened. The boat began to leak and fill with water, despite constant bailing. Around ten o'clock that night, Rhodes cried out in despair, "This work won't do. Help me, God. Men, go to work." Holmes and the other seaman began throwing people overboard. They threw 14 men and two women into the freezing water. They chose single men only, spared the married men on board, and threw the two women overboard only because they were sisters of a man already thus ejected and had demanded to be sacrificed with their kin. None of the crew was thrown out."
The trial gave rise to the concept of "lifeboat ethics": how to decide who gets saved when resources are scarce?
First Mate Francis Rhodes, Alexander William Holmes, and another seaman commanded the large lifeboat. The passengers were still dressed in their night clothes and suffered terribly in the cold Atlantic weather, which was made worse by a pelting rain. The two lifeboats stayed together through the night but separated the morning of the 20th because the captain, George L. Harris, thought there was a better chance of rescue if the two boats took different directions. Rhodes said that his boat was overcrowded and that some people would have to be thrown overboard to keep it from capsizing. Captain Harris said, "I know what you'll have to do. Don't speak of that now. Let it be the last resort." Throughout the day of the 20th and into the night, the rain and the waves worsened. The boat began to leak and fill with water, despite constant bailing. Around ten o'clock that night, Rhodes cried out in despair, "This work won't do. Help me, God. Men, go to work." Holmes and the other seaman began throwing people overboard. They threw 14 men and two women into the freezing water. They chose single men only, spared the married men on board, and threw the two women overboard only because they were sisters of a man already thus ejected and had demanded to be sacrificed with their kin. None of the crew was thrown out."
The trial gave rise to the concept of "lifeboat ethics": how to decide who gets saved when resources are scarce?
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