Instead of investigating the cause of the noise and movements of the ship, the passengers and workers try to connect it with something familiar and convince themselves that they are in no immediate danger. For example, Mrs. Walter B. Stephenson compared the jolts to an earthquake and convinced herself that the earthquake was worse. This leads me to believe that the central idea of the story is that people often try to downplay and underestimate dangerous situations when they have no clue what is actually going on.
