In hindsight, should the Longstreet family have traveled separately? Were they taking unnecessary risks? Did you ever blame Lamar Longstreet?

The Longstreet family (inspired by the true Gazaway Bugg Lamar family) boarded the ship all together. In hindsight, knowing the dangers of steamboat travel, should they have traveled separately? Were they taking unnecessary risks? Did you ever blame Lamar Longstreet (Gazaway Lamar)?

I'm actually changing my answer as I type this. I originally thought that heck, families travel together all the time and it's expected. But, given the fact that a steamship had recently exploded, yeah, it does seem like it was risky to all travel together. I didn't blame Longstreet. In fact, it seems like the confidence he placed in the ship was generally well-founded; it was just an inexperienced worker that caused the explosion, and I'm not sure that could have been foreseen.

Maybe - but how many families split up to travel now? (If you're not the royal family, and even they don't split up as much as they used to.)

In that day and age it was not uncommon for wealthy extended families to travel together to other homes for a season. I’m not sure splitting up to travel would have even been a consideration. Plus, it is not like there were a multitude of transportation options.

As for Lamar Longstreet, I was ambivalent. There was seemingly never any accountability on his part for the lives lost which was unfortunate. And true, while it was an accident, there appeared to be no thought given to safety in such foreseeable situations - negligent. Yet, at the same time, I felt sorry for Lamar given the personal loss of his loved ones.

I thought that it was natural for the family to travel together. My extended family and many friends(42 total) went together on an Alaskan cruise, and it was great being together.
I don’t think that Lamar should be blamed, since the explosion was due to the mistake of the engineer and nothing that was under his control.

No one expected the Pulaski to blow up and sink. It had traveled successfully on four previous voyages. It was the most convenient way to travel. I do not think it was a mistake for the Longstreet family to travel together. I did not blame Lamar for the casualty of the Pulaski.

Yes, particularly since there had been previous steamship accidents and explosions, but I don't blame Lamar for the incident.

It seemed normal to me, for the family to travel together on the steamboat. As I write that, I think of growing up when commercial flights were not taken casually (at least for some families). I knew of cases where parents who were flying to a family wedding would fly separately, so if the plane went down in an accident, they would not leave their children without any parents. Somehow if the whole family was going, it was thought to be okay. I don't feel like I blamed Lamar Longstreet for the incident, but I certainly blamed him (or someone) for the lack of usable lifeboats. It was an accident, but not having proper lifesaving equipment did seem a crime to me.

I don't blame Lamar for the incident. He truly felt this boat was safe. He loved his family and if he had any doubts I do not think he would have subjected them to the risk. It was natural for the families to travel together. And in most cases was probably safer.

In hindsight, it probably would make sense for the family to travel separately but who really thinks about that in reality? And who could have known that was going to happen? When my family travels, we always travel together. We have every confidence that our plane, or whatever, is going to get us there safely. Regarding Lamar, I dont blame him for the accident. He had confidence in the steamship and the crew. I do agree with ssh who commented above on the lack of lifeboats. But even 80 years later with the Titanic, that lesson had not been learned.

The ship had performed admirably on previous voyages; the trip was only overnight; Lamar was extremely proud of the ship and would not have brought any of his family aboard had he any concerns regarding its safety. In hindsight, there appeared to be no reason for the family to even consider splitting up and boarding different ships.

I don’t think Lamar was to blame for the accident and I don’t think the family should have necessarily traveled separately. Seems there were not many options for water travel anyway so I’m sure families thought nothing of packing up traveling together as a family unit. Who could have foreseen the disaster looming in their future?!

I do not think they should have split up. Sounds like overkill to me, even though it was not.

Lamar is not culpable for the disaster. Whoever hired the person who put cold water into a hot and empty boiler is to blame or at least the person who did not train the engineer correctly.

No, I don't think so - there had been successful trips before and this was the type of accident that no one could have foreseen - so I wouldn't blame Longstreet and I wonder if there was any sort of training of "engineers" at this time.

I don't think it would have been realistic for the Longstreet family to travel separately. As a mother of five, I have thought about that very questions when traveling with my entire family. I feel that blame would be a useless waste of time. Life has inherent risks and sometimes we must realize that if we constantly worry about it we will not live life fully.

I do not think the Longstreet family traveling separately was a feasible idea. They were leaving for a season on a mode of transportation that wasn't available on a regular schedule. Men were expected to travel with their families. The logistics of packing and leaving for a season probably would've been considered too much for a woman. And there was status in having your family, both immediate and extended, with you on long luxury journeys. If Mr. Longstreet had send half his family with his wife and half with him on a different vessel, the outcome would've been just a tragic.

Families Traveling together was and remains usual and customary unless one is heir to a throne. Longstreet believed the Pulaski was a state of the art vessel…just as those who built the Titanic believed it was unsinkable. The Pulaski exploded because a crew member did a really stupid thing. Today, families fly together, take cruises together, drive together. I do not blame Longstreet. The Pulaski sinking was truly the Titanic of its time. This was also an era where entire families were wiped out by disease.

I didn't find it unusual that they traveled together as a family. There weren't as many options to make the trip north so it made more sense to stick together. Hindsight is 20/20 though and it's easy to look back and say they should have split up. I think as an investor Lamar isn't really to blame. I'm not sure exactly how the chain of command works on a ship, isn't the captain responsible for hiring the crew and making sure they are trained for the job?

I think what happened was so beyond their imagination, they never thought of not traveling together.

I don't believe they should have traveled separately. Families travel together all the time. There was no reason to believe anything bad would happen. They weren't really spending that much time on the sea. The only other option for them would have been to travel overland and that wouldn't have been an easy journey either, especially with young children.