Definition of a ‘stacked deck’ : to arrange things against someone or something.
Not enough lifeboats meant the lives of 1,500 men, teenage boys, and women and children traveling steerage, were downgraded to the bottom of a list – a pecking order stacked against their chances for survival, consigned to the bottom of the sea.
But there were 600 deckchairs on Titanic to do double-duty as rafts.
“Years ago, I sat in the replica Titanic deckchair in the Maritime Museum in Halifax. Later, when I wrote ‘The Unthinkable Shoes’ it was easy to slip into a fantasy where one of my characters drinks tea, sheltered from a brisk crosswind on one of the promenade decks – a woman also sheltered from the event that will soon devastate her life. Tea in a deckchair would never be the same, for her or for me.” – author V Knox
‘THE UNTHINKABLE SHOES’ –– a TITANIC-inspired novel by V. KNOX
EVERY GHOST was once a child; EVERY GHOST has a love story
– a novel of Literary Fiction /Magical Realism to be released on or before April 15th 2016, the 104th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.
Veronica Knox 
I sailed twice across the Atlantic back in the ‘fifties. The Empress of France rode high in the water, and it was a force nine gale from Newfoundland to the Irish Sea. LOVED it. On the way home almost three years later it was the Empress of Britain, a much milder voyage.
Anyway, on the first voyage we had a passenger list of 1100, and on the way back I believe it was 1300 (round figures) plus a crew of 400 (I think).
It blows my mind that the Titanic carried 1600 *IN STEERAGE* !
My word, that ship was overloaded from the get-go!
Titanic didn’t have 1,600 passengers in steerage. The 1,500 victims included the first class male passengers and most of the crew, other than the men designated to rowing the lifeboats, the exception being Bruce Ismay, the managing director of the White Star Line, and the highest-ranking White Star official to survive disaster. He suffered from the slings and arrows of shame the rest of his life and died of a stroke many years later.
I take it seasickness was not a concern for you, otherwise a stormy sea would hardly appear on a list of beloved experiences. It’s a great pleasure talking with you, here.
Oops. Did I misread? You said (above)
***Not enough lifeboats meant the lives of 1,500 men, teenage boys, and women and children traveling steerage, ***
I thought from this that 1500 passenger were traveling steerage.(1600 was a slip of the finger )
😦
Strange about seasickness. On the voyage home in quiet waters I was aware of a slow swell in the ocean, and I felt vaguely – just vaguely – nauseous the whole way, and was glad to disembark at Quebec.
You should have a good response to your novel, this being the centenary of the sinking. It seems to be in the news in some form almost every day.