Women and Children First?

I was reading a letter to the editor in the Globe and Mail yesterday and it was a response to an article about the sinking of the Titanic and the Lusitania. The letter writer said that the general order of entry into lifeboats was as follows:

1. Women and children;
2. First-class men, ship’s officers;
3. First-class passengers’ belongings and ship’s artwork;
4. Second-class men;
5. Liquor, cigars, snooker tables;
6. Potted plants, cuspidors;
7. Steerage-class men, ship’s crew.

Now, I haven't found anything to substantiate this list... especially the potted plants... but I found a list of the Titanic's passengers that outlined the percentage of people saved: men, women, children, broken down by 1st, 2nd and 3rd class (http://www.anesi.com/titanic.htm). It seems that women and children were most likely to survive, although this decreased with class as well. With men, it seems to have been rather erratic, with more third-class men surviving than 2nd class men... Go figure... Clearly the above list is a tongue in cheek look at what it might look like! Definitely a conversation starter that's for sure!