Who was to blame?

Last week the children in upper school held a vote on who they thought was most to blame for the Titanic disaster in 1912. Jack Phillips, the radio operator on the Titanic, received the most votes because:

• He ignored ice warnings and wasted time sending out Easter messages.
• The wrong distress signal was sent by Jack Phillips - CQD instead of SOS!
• Disastrously, Jack sent out the wrong coordinates for the Titanic to another ship. 

Things changed after a debate on Thursday, during which the children had the difficult task of defending one of the people/groups of people, that could have been to blame for the disaster. The debate was very professional and managed effectively by the chairpeople. The children came up with very persuasive defences and convincing arguments as to why other people were more to blame than them! 

Class six then took another vote on who was most to blame and the person who received the most votes was Captain Edward J Smith because:

• The captain was in bed when the iceberg hit, after ignoring several iceberg warnings.
• He did not ensure binoculars were available for the lookouts. 
• Carelessly, he advised Jack Phillips to ignore the ice warnings. 
• Recklessly, the captain did not carry out lifeboat training with all of the crew.