Many of the lifeboats could not be lowered because of poor maintenance and a thick layer of paint that kept the mechanisms from working. The soldiers famously stood aside and allowed the women and children to get into the working lifeboats safely. Only 193 of the 643 people on board survived. The chivalry shown by the soldiers gave rise to the "women and children first" protocol when abandoning ship. The "Birkenhead drill" is memorialized in Rudyard Kipling's poem "Soldier an' Sailor too":