tytanic3.txt

NAME:  titanic3

TYPE:  Census

SIZE:  1309 Passengers, 14 Variables



DESCRIPTIVE ABSTRACT: The titanic3 data frame describes the survival

status of individual passengers on the Titanic.  The titanic3 data

frame does not contain information for the crew, but it does contain

actual and estimated ages for almost 80% of the passengers.



SOURCES: Hind, Philip.  "Encyclopedia Titanica."  Online.  Internet.

n.p.  02 Aug 1999.  Avaliable http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/phind



VARIABLE DESCRIPTIONS:

pclass          Passenger Class

                (1 = 1st; 2 = 2nd; 3 = 3rd)

survival        Survival

                (0 = No; 1 = Yes)

name            Name

sex             Sex

age             Age

sibsp           Number of Siblings/Spouses Aboard

parch           Number of Parents/Children Aboard

ticket          Ticket Number

fare            Passenger Fare

cabin           Cabin

embarked        Port of Embarkation

                (C = Cherbourg; Q = Queenstown; S = Southampton)

boat            Lifeboat

body            Body Identification Number

home.dest       Home/Destination



SPECIAL NOTES:

Pclass is a proxy for socio-economic status (SES)

 1st ~ Upper; 2nd ~ Middle; 3rd ~ Lower



Age is in Years; Fractional if Age less than One (1)

 If the Age is Estimated, it is in the form xx.5



Fare is in Pre-1970 British Pounds (£)

 Conversion Factors:  1£ = 12s = 240d and 1s = 20d



With respect to the family relation variables (i.e. sibsp and parch)

some relations were ignored.  The following are the definitions used

for sibsp and parch.



Sibling:  Brother, Sister, Stepbrother, or Stepsister of Passenger Aboard Titanic

Spouse:   Husband or Wife of Passenger Aboard Titanic (Mistresses and Fiancées Ignored)

Parent:   Mother or Father of Passenger Aboard Titanic

Child:    Son, Daughter, Stepson, or Stepdaughter of Passenger Aboard Titanic



Other family relatives excluded from this study include cousins,

nephews/nieces, aunts/uncles, and in-laws.  Some children travelled

only with a nanny, therefore parch=0 for them.  As well, some

travelled with very close friends or neighbors in a village, however,

the definitions do not support such relations.



STORY BEHIND THE DATA: 

This dataset is based on the Titanic Passenger List edited by Michael

A. Findlay, originally published in Eaton & Haas (1994) Titanic:

Triumph and Tragedy, Patrick Stephens Ltd, and expanded with the help

of the internet community.  The original HTML files were obtained by

Philip Hind (1999).



PEDAGOGICAL NOTES:

This dataset is ideal for teaching basic functions in S-PLUS in the

realm of Statistical Computing and Graphics.  It can also prove useful

in teaching binary logistic regression and methods of imputation, both

single and multiple.  The dataset is also useful for demonstrating

many of the functions available in Frank Harrell's Hmisc library as

well as demonstrating binary logistic regression analysis using the

Design library.



An interesting result may be obtained using functions from the Hmisc

library in S-PLUS



attach(titanic3)

plsmo(age, survived, group=sex, datadensity=T)         # OR group=pclass

plot(naclus(titanic3))                                 # study patterns of missing values

summary(survived ~ age + sex + pclass, data=titanic3)



REFERENCES:

Harrell FE.  "Predicting Outcomes: Applied Survival Analysis and

Logistic Regression."  Book manuscript available from the University

of Virginia Bookstore, 1999.



SUBMITTED BY:

Thomas E. Cason, Undergraduate Research Assistant

Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology

Department of Health Evaluation Sciences

University of Virginia School of Medicine

Box 600, Charlottesville, VA 22908 USA

Electronic Mail:  tcason@virginia.edu



----------------------------------------------------------------------

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE DATASET



1. For those over age 25 the mean # spouses/siblings is about .34 -

   seems a little low



The only explanation I can offer (without a deep search) is the

overwhelming "Third Class Bias" as I call it.  Many third class

passengers travelled alone... or some with friends... which is

not under the umbrella of the sibsp definition.  Also, many 3rd

classers were immigrating to the US... they were married... but

were sent off alone to establish a "foothole" and then later sent

for their spouses... if they survived... most did not.



2. For those under age 14 the mean # parents/children is 1.37 -

   seems a bit low



Again... not all children travelled with their parents...

especially in 3rd class.  Some children travelled with older

siblings... nannies... aunts/uncles... etc.  Actually, more often

than not... children travelled with only one parent.



-TEC





After further investigation... I found my initial instincts regarding

the low means to be correct.  There's not much else to say about it...

but I'll cite some unusual passenger cases that may come up in the

future regarding this issue.



Case #1:  Emanuel, Miss. Virginia Ethel... 3d Class... Age 5...

sibsp/parch=0/0

Boarded with her nurse Miss. Elizabeth Dowdell... escorted her to

grandparents' home in New York, NY.



Case #2:  Hassan, Mr. Houssein G N... 3d Class... Age 11...

s/p=0/0

Traveled with family friend Mr. Nassef Cassem Albimona... going

to visit his parents in American from Lebanon.  (Interesting

Note:  Albimona was from Fredericksburg, VA)



Case #3:  Ayoub, Miss. Banoura... 3d Class... Age 13... s/p=0/0

Boarded with 5 cousins... travelling to Detroit, MI to be

reunited with family.



Case #4:  Nasser, Mrs. Nicholas Nasser... 2d Class... Age 14...

s/p=1/0

Married to a 32 year old man... sibsp stands for spouse rather

than sibling... unusual at such a young age.  She lied when she

boarded the Titanic and claimed she was 18... however, her birth

certificate proves that on April 15, 1912 she was 14... not 18!



I hope this provides some insight to a few uncommon instances

where the definitions do not encompass the actual travel status

of a passenger.



There were only one or two instances of family members

"crossing pclass lines"... and they were included and counted for

in sibsp and parch.



-TEC