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1912 was a different time. Women in the United States could not vote yet. Women were seen as the weaker gender.

Therefore, many men back then, especially the 1st class men, saw it as their duty to protect the women and let them get safely into the boats first.

Men thought that if they were to survive and get into boats, when women and children were left on board to die, that they would be looked upon as cowards. So from that, many men thought it was better to die that to be looked upon as a coward. And indeed, this happened with White Star owner J. B. Ismay. He was harrassed for the rest of his life because he got into a boat when so many other people, including women and children, died on the ship.

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No, I have not read that book. But to compare the sinking in this story to Titanic's is not realistic.

First of all, believe it or not, you must remember that many people up to the very end did not know that Titanic was actually sinking. There was no intercom system that said that the ship was in trouble, the stewards just told everyone to get up top with their lifebelts. What does this mean to someone when they are on an "unsinkable ship"? I mean, it took about an hour to get the first lifeboat into the water. So, if people started to get ideas about making rafts by strapping deck chairs together, it may have been too late to really start on the project.