100 Years, What Have We Learned?

Not much, evidently. I'm not the first and I certainly won't be the last to compare the current cruise ship tragedy to the Titanic tragedy that happened just shy of a century earlier.
I have a special place in my history-loving heart for the Titanic disaster. In third grade, there was a unit in my education that centered on the Titanic and it was the first historic event that ever struck my interest. I thought the Titanic was cool before the movie and while I was still thinking my favorite subject was Science. Anyway, I've been doing a lot of observing of the media and public in light of this accident, and I can't help but imagine it must be incredibly similar to what people were saying and reporting in 1912.

Let's compare and contrast, shall we?

Date of Disaster
Costa Concordia: January 13, 2012
Titanic: April 15, 1912

Time from Impact to Help Arriving
Cost Concordia: 9:30 p.m.-10:20 p.m.
Titanic: 11:40 p.m.-4:10 a.m.

Number of Passengers
Costa Concordia: approx. 3,200
Titanic: approx. 1,300

Number of Crew
Costa Concordia: approx 1,000
Titanic: approx. 900

Number of Casualties
Costa Concordia: >100
Titanic: <710

Number of Lifeboats
Costa Concordia: oddly, I can't find a number, but I counted 13 on one side, assuming I can double it for the other side of the ship, approx: 26
Titanic: approx 20

I hate to come off as callous, but the Titanic wins in the tragedy competition. What makes the incident with the Costa Concordia so tragic is the fact that it happened at all.  When all is said and done, the only similarities here are: both Titanic and the Costa Concordia were fancy ships that sank and cost people their lives.