James Cameron’s Titanic tells the story of the real-life tragic shipwreck, but many viewers don’t know how many people actually died in the Titanic crash. The fate of the RMS Titanic is still well-known to this day, with it hitting an iceberg and sinking in the North Atlantic Ocean in April 1912. Tragically, the sinking of the Titanic took many lives, and here’s how many people actually died when the ship sank.
The Titanic was meant to be the unsinkable ship, with it embarking on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England on April 10, 1912. With a ship full of passengers, the Titanic left England en route for New York, United States, with it scheduled to arrive at the port on April 17, 1912. However, four days into the trip, the Titanic struck an iceberg. The ship began sinking in the late hours of April 14 before becoming fully submerged early on April 15, 1912. Although parts of the Titanic have been recovered, most of it still sits on the sea floor, with it having brought down tons of lives alongside it.
1517 People Were Estimated To Have Died On The Titanic
Although it is impossible to know the exact number of fatalities in the RMS Titanic shipwreck, most historians agree that it is over 1,500, with a U.S. investigative committee estimating 1,517 (via Britannica). While it is estimated that the Titanic had 2,240 passengers, very few survived, with the ship famously not bringing enough lifeboats. Because of this mistake, over 1,500 lives were lost (via History).
1,517 is only an estimate of how many lives were lost due to the poor record keeping of the RMS Titanic. While around 2,240 passengers were listed, the ship’s logs didn’t list everyone on board. Some contract workers, such as the musicians, weren’t counted as passengers or crew members. The record also doesn’t account for misspellings, aliases, and potential stowaways. Because of this, it is impossible to know the exact number of deaths in the Titanic crash.
The Statistics Of The Titanic’s Real Fatalities Explained
Sadly, there were some pretty big disparities in who lived and died on the Titanic. The lifeboats were mostly used to save first-class passengers, with the crew and lower-class passengers being left to die. Around 700 crew members died, and around 536 third-class passengers died. This is reflected in James Cameron’s Titanic movie, with the fictional character Jack Dawson realizing that he and his fellow members of the third class were being left behind to perish.
According to Medium, the Titanic truly stuck to the “women and children first” rule seen in the movie. Despite making up only 22% of the ship’s inhabitants, around 50% of the survivors were women. On top of that, there were around 23 women crew members on the ship, and around 20 of them survived. Only 352 men survived the sinking of the Titanic, showing that third-class men and crew members were the groups most likely to be left behind.
