Itis universally understood when a boat sinks, the Captain issues the ‘Women and Children First’ command, and the lifeboats are duly lowered in a calm stoic manner by grim-faced crew. The misty-eyed women are loaded into the boats, brush half-formed tears from their wide eyes and watch as their husbands adjust dinner suits, tidy up pocket squares and go down with the ship.
Wallace Hartley plays Mambo Number Five on the viola
You see, all of that is true. Apart from the bit about Wallace Hartley playing Mambo Number Five on the viola. Every half-decent Titanophile knows Hartley was a violin player.
But this week I was pointed towards a scientific paper shared by
in one of her usual stellar pieces about the patriarchy. It was a brief aside within her piece, an off-the-cuff throwaway proof maritime disasters do not generally unfold the way the Titanic did.
I was so taken aback that I nearly dropped my krill.