According to research by David Savage, American passengers were 8.5 per cent more likely to survive the sinking of the RMS Titanic because, unlike the British, who politely filed into lines leading to the ship’s lifeboats, Americans jumped the queues in higher numbers.

Neatly-ordered line formations are a well-documented English custom which has been exploited by Americans before. In 1815, General Andrew Jackson prepared for the Battle of New Orleans by instructing his men to fire at the enemy while taking cover behind a hill. When a large marching band calling itself the British Army plodded across an open field toward the hill, they suffered over 2,000 casualties.