With hindsight, the decision that things like safety regulations and adequate safety equipment such as enough life boats onboard wasn't important due to it being unsinkable which is probably why so many of the passengers were so ill prepared when it did hit an iceberg.
After over 1000 miles of uneventful, very pleasurable cruising and in an area well known for icebergs, the Captain gave the order to increase speed to maximum to arrive in New York before time when there was a loud crunch and the ship listed to one side so the Stewards ran screaming up and down the corridors of the first class suite that the ship had hit an iceberg.
The initial passenger reaction was to say shut up you damn fool, the ships unsinkable, it said so right here in the brochure but when their feet began to get wet they ran to the deck and saw the lifeboats being lowered.
On a ship of 3320 people, having 20 lifeboats which would have held a capacity of 1178 people probably wasn't the wisest decision, especially as the ship now had more holes in it than a female Goths face.
Another not very wise decision was to hire a stoker named Arthur Priest who survived and apart from his cigarettes getting wet, he was well enough to go work on the merchant vessel Alcantara which also sunk.
From there he went to work on the HMHS Asturias which also found itself under the sea, then he was next on the HMHS Britannic which went down after hitting a German mine.
The next ship was the SS Donegal which also sunk so after wringing out yet another pair of trousers, he began to ponder on if he had chosen the right career path and decided to stay on land to much relief of every other sailor.
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