NAME:  Population at Risk and Death Rates for an Unusual Episode
TYPE:  Complete record for all of population at risk
SIZE:  2201 observations, 4 variables

DESCRIPTIVE ABSTRACT:
For each person on board the fatal maiden voyage of the ocean liner
Titanic, this dataset records sex, age [adult/child], economic status
[first/second/third class, or crew] and whether or not that person
survived.

SOURCE:
"Report on the Loss of the `Titanic' (S.S.)" (1990), _British Board of
Trade Inquiry Report_ (reprint), Gloucester, UK: Allan Sutton
Publishing.

VARIABLE DESCRIPTIONS:
Column
   1	 Class (0 = crew, 1 = first, 2 = second, 3 = third)
  10 	 Age   (1 = adult, 0 = child)
  19	 Sex   (1 = male, 0 = female)
  28	 Survived (1 = yes, 0 = no)

Values are aligned and delimited by blanks.  There are no missing
values.

SPECIAL NOTES:
There is not complete agreement among primary sources as to the exact
numbers on board, rescued, or lost.

STORY BEHIND THE DATA:
The sinking of the Titanic is a famous event, and new books are still
being published about it.  Many well-known facts--from the proportions
of first-class passengers to the "women and children first" policy, and
the fact that that policy was not entirely successful in saving the
women and children in the third class--are reflected in the survival
rates for various classes of passenger.  These data were originally
collected by the British Board of Trade in their investigation of the
sinking.

PEDAGOGICAL NOTES:
These data make an interesting exercise if given to a class without
their context, which the students must attempt to discover.  The
instructor will probably want to answer questions from the class,
"Twenty Questions" style.

There is a similar set of data circulating without any detailed
explanation or compiler's name attached, under the same title, which
omits the crew (and does not agree with any of the primary sources that
I was able to find.)  Credit for the original idea goes to the
originator of that exercise:  my version is merely an attempt to
provide a more complete context.

Additional information about these data can be found in the "Datasets
and Stories" article "The `Unusual Episode' Data Revisited" in the
_Journal of Statistics Education_ (Dawson 1995).  

SUBMITTED BY:
Robert J. MacG. Dawson
Department of Mathematics and Computing Science
Saint Mary's University
Halifax, Nova Scotia  B3H 3C3
CANADA
rdawson@husky1.stmarys.ca