Lusitania and Empress vs. Titanic

[Charles Francis Dowling]

I know that titanic sank after midnight, many first and second class passengers lived higher than steerage, and that titanic broke apart and sank for the trapped victims aboard who froze from hypothermia or drowned. Lusitania sank in less than 18 minutes in the afternoon of 1915 during ww1, lifeboats swamped and broke due to port list, leaving many in the water to die. Then we have the Empress that like the Titanic, had collision at midnight, but like the Lusitania's, have many trapped aboard by capsize and only 3 lifeboats successful, and like both hypothermia or drowning. Which disaster would've been more scarier probably? (sorry I'm using this on phone so sorry for mistakes)

 

[Christophe Puttemans]

On the Titanic, there was a general feeling of safety which faded away for the course of 2 hours and 40 minutes. That 'feeling of safety' was mostly absent during the sinking of the Lusitania, because war was already underway and the people already feared an enemy attack. The Empress of Ireland sank before WWI started, so also here there must have been a sense of confusion turning into panic.
But, the Empress of Ireland sank much faster than Titanic, so I do think that the Empress wins this one.

 

[B-rad]

As far a scarier, I think all would be scary. But, tragedies during the night are probably far worse, for once the lights go out, the darkness would add to the heightened fear and confusion. Titanic would have sucked to be on, especially since I'm an adult male. (My chances would have been slim.) Though being that the ship sank rather calmly and slowly, at least up to the end, perhaps one could have had time to go through the 7 stages of grief. Seeing the ship break apart though must have been a scary, incomprehensible thing, like watching the twin towers collapse. (Not to draw comparisons mind you.)

The Lusitania would have been scary due to the explosions and the fact that the ship's propellers were still going. Seeing land so close but yet so far away would have been devastating. Don't know much about the Empress, but with the capsizing (if you were inside the ship, your whole world would quite literally have been turned around), and the much faster sinking rate (14 minutes!!!), you'd be dead before you knew what was going on. So I believe that the Empress would have been much scarier.