From the Men’s Titanic Association, by Doug Phillips.

When asked during the Washington, D.C. Senate Titanic hearings whether the doctrine of “women and children first was the law of the sea?”, Second Office Charles Lightoller responded, “it is the law of human nature.” Of course, there were no formal laws, maritime or otherwise, which required the implementation of such a policy in times of danger. Lightoller’s comments suggest that he, and others like him, believed the doctrine of “women and children first” to be a widely-held and fundamental principle of conduct. Further evidence that this principle was deeply imbedded in Western thought comes from an incident that took place more than half a century before the demise of Titanic.

In 1852, the British troopship Birkenhead sunk off the coast of South Africa. She carried the 78th Highlanders, their families, and the ship’s crew. Once it became clear that the boat was going to sink, the orders were given to remove the women and children first by placing them into the Birkenhead’s few lifeboats. Twenty minutes later, the boat sank. Every one of the Highlanders and sailors aboard the Birkenhead died a grisly death in the shark-infested waters while their wives and children helplessly watched from the safety of the lifeboats. In the last minutes before the boat sank, these brave and self-sacrificing men lined up in military formation. Their band played the national air as the ship went down. Like the men of the Titanic, the British soldiers understood that in times of crisis, men must give their lives so that women and children may live. The Birkenhead incident inspired the poet Rudyard Kipling, one of the 20th centuries most accomplished defenders of bold manhood, to pen the following verse:

So they stood an’ was still to the Birken’ead drill
Soldier and sailor too.

Real men. Real women. The world today has no concept of them. This story is thrilling, not because we aspire to have to do that. But because we know that were we faced with the same situation, before God we could do no different.

Yet, today’s culture has been infiltrated with a lack of respect for our weaker counterparts. Does that law of human nature that Charles Lightoller was confident of still exist? I don’t mean to speak proudly, but were I faced with a situation like that, I could do no less. It would be painful to die, yet more painful to live and let a woman die. Am I a rare breed? I know there are many men who would, yes could do none else. But unfortunately polls indicate that the typical high school male laughs at the idea of giving up his seat on a lifeboat to help a woman or child.

No, you’re right, we don’t have any more ships sinking today in the same way we used to. But the loss of chivalry spreads wider, much wider than that. I don’t need a poll that tells me that the typical high-school male will laugh when challenged to protect the honor, the purity or the safety of a girl. This was integral to chivalry, in fact here are some of the commandments of chivalry, listen up.

• Thou shalt avoid avarice like the deadly pestilence and shalt embrace its opposite.


• Thou shalt keep thyself chaste for the sake of her whom thou lovest.


• Thou shalt not knowingly strive to break up a correct love affair that someone else is engaged in.


• Thou shalt not chose for thy love anyone whom a natural sense of shame forbids thee to marry.


• Be mindful completely to avoid falsehood.


• In giving and receiving love’s solaces let modesty be ever present.


• Thou shalt speak no evil.


• Thou shalt be in all things polite and courteous.


• Thou shalt respect all weaknesses, and shalt constitute thyself the defender of them.


• Thou shalt not recoil before thine enemy.


• Thou shalt perform scrupulously thy duties, if they be not contrary to the laws of God.


• Thou shalt never lie, and shall remain faithful to thy pledged word.


• Thou shalt be everywhere and always the champion of the Right and the Good against Injustice and Evil.

Every single one of these means as much today as it did 500 years ago. No we can’t go around with that shining sword and glittering armor, but that’s not what made the man. What made a man was his character and what still makes a man is his character.

In this modern culture or ours we can follow through with the era of chivalry. By God’s Grace we can continue something that He has engrained in us, but that, much of the world has rejected. Today we shall protect both our honor and their honor, we shall guard their safety, we shall defend their life, we shall honor them by putting them first.

This world has forgotten all about care, all about chastity and all about honor. As a generation of men, you and I shall keep that as our first priority. We shall protect the purity of our sisters; we shall protect their honor. We shall keep ourselves chaste for their sake and for God’s glory. We shall promote this as the most important way to show true and heartfelt respect for our sisters.

We shall guard their safety. We shall defend their life. We shall never be guilty of ‘standing back and doing nothing’ when a woman is in danger. We shall defend their life with our life.

And with that attitude, we find it much easier to do the little chivalrous things like opening doors. Most woman and girls know enough to appreciate it. But if they don’t, remember this story. There was a gentleman who held the door open for a woman. He got swiped for it and told in no uncertain terms that she could hold the door open herself. He replied calmly, “Woman, I didn’t hold the door open because you were a lady. I held the door open because I was a gentleman.”

Let us not be cowards in the face of a rapidly falling world of feminism. We shall not be cowards. Let us stand up and be real men for a real world.