Current Events > Actually there was a reason Titanic didn't have enough lifeboats.

(+) Yeah! (+)

When ships sink they tend to list (that is, they tilt to one side). So there wouldve been a need for enough lifeboats on both sides of the ship. An impossible amount of required deck space. Furthermore ships tended to sink very quickly, and there wouldve been no time to launch all the boats. Titanic was also sailing through very well traveled waters and it was assumed that any one of those could come to her rescue in time. Thus the decision was made that only enough boats were needed to transport passengers from the sinking ship to the rescue ship.

And in addition to that, several years before the sinking of Titanic, there was a ship called the RMS Republic that sank, where everything went exactly like the thought at the time said it was supposed to.

Republic collided with another ship, then took an entire day to sink, so there was plenty of time to shuttle everyone on board over to the rescue ships that arrived. It reinforced the idea of lifeboats as ferries.

It was probably just a cost-cutting measure. After all, the ship was supposed to be unsinkable.If you have to ask why something wasn't done that should have been done, the answer is always money.

I also think it's a symptom of the times. Titanic sailed in 1912, was ordered in 1908, so even in those years would have probably been designed using concepts from the late 1800s.

In the grand scheme of things, I know 100 years isn't really a long time but technology has moved on a lot. Nowadays you'd probably find out about a ship sinking via social media before the BBC or Sky News has a chance to prepare an article on it. Back in the early 1900s, when you could only use morse code to transmit and were very much stuck to survivourship bias, it makes sense that lifeboats were used as ferries because the only people who survived were rescued via this method. Titanic was probably one of the earliest disasters where industries realised that lifeboats needed to improve.

I've read up about this a little bit and whilst I'm not an expert in the slightest, I'd like to point to the cultural shift. Back in the early 1900s, lifeboats were kept away from promenade decks/first class because they'd get in the way. If you get on a cruise ship now and there's a lifeboat tucked under your balcony, you'd be pretty happy because you can just dive out of the window and land in a boat that'll generally sort itself out.

IIRC Titanic was one of the first ships with sealable bulkheads. It was also pretty thin-skinned compared to the hulls that modern cruise ships have these days. Tech moves on and so does public expectations. Whilst Titanic was a flagship (pun not intended) during its time, I think it's not quite fair to say it didn't have enough lifeboats for its time. I agree, of course, but applying modern standards to a ship that was laid down 115 years ago is a little unfair.

Two other things:

1) Lifeboats were meant to ferry survivors to safety and then come back for more, they weren't intended to just hold the entire population of the ship floating out on the ocean surface for hours at a time, they wouldn't be able to survive like that for very long.

2) The ship sank so fast that it would be impossible to launch enough life boats to hold everyone even if there were enough. Collapsible A and B were the last two lifeboats to leave the ship barely 15 minutes before the ship began to split in half, and they weren't so much launched as they were tossed off the deck due to the chaotic situation. Collapsible B famously ended up upside-down and was commanded by Lightoller (the guy who bluffed the panicked crowd with an empty pistol in the movie!), the senior-most officer aboard the ship to survive the sinking.

Luigi_and_Tails posted...

I also think it's a symptom of the times. Titanic sailed in 1912, was ordered in 1908, so even in those years would have probably been designed using concepts from the late 1800s.

In the grand scheme of things, I know 100 years isn't really a long time but technology has moved on a lot. Nowadays you'd probably find out about a ship sinking via social media before the BBC or Sky News has a chance to prepare an article on it. Back in the early 1900s, when you could only use morse code to transmit and were very much stuck to survivourship bias, it makes sense that lifeboats were used as ferries because the only people who survived were rescued via this method. Titanic was probably one of the earliest disasters where industries realised that lifeboats needed to improve.

I've read up about this a little bit and whilst I'm not an expert in the slightest, I'd like to point to the cultural shift. Back in the early 1900s, lifeboats were kept away from promenade decks/first class because they'd get in the way. If you get on a cruise ship now and there's a lifeboat tucked under your balcony, you'd be pretty happy because you can just dive out of the window and land in a boat that'll generally sort itself out.

IIRC Titanic was one of the first ships with sealable bulkheads. It was also pretty thin-skinned compared to the hulls that modern cruise ships have these days. Tech moves on and so does public expectations. Whilst Titanic was a flagship (pun not intended) during its time, I think it's not quite fair to say it didn't have enough lifeboats for its time. I agree, of course, but applying modern standards to a ship that was laid down 115 years ago is a little unfair.

It didnt have enough lifeboats for everybody onboard.

SaltyWet posted...

It didnt have enough lifeboats for everybody onboard.

Like I said on my post, it wouldn't have mattered if it did. They didn't have enough time to deploy all the life boats they had, let alone more.

EDIT: James Cameron and his team apparently tested launching a lifeboat with the same setup the Titanic had, and the whole procedure took them about half an hour.

VideoboysaysCube posted...

After all, the ship was supposed to be unsinkable.

If they really believed that, why did they have life boats at all.

When you turn on the invincibility cheat, do you still take cover?

VideoboysaysCube posted...

It was probably just a cost-cutting measure. After all, the ship was supposed to be unsinkable.If you have to ask why something wasn't done that should have been done, the answer is always money.

It was pressure to get the job done on time, rather than cost, that lead to some corners being cut (poor quality steel).

Apparently (and ironically), no one outright said the Titanic was 'unsinkable' until after it sunk.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legends_and_myths_regarding_the_Titanic

ai123 posted...

It was pressure to get the job done on time, rather than cost, that lead to some corners being cut (poor quality steel).

The steel being poor quality wasn't really the fault of the builders. We simply didn't know as much about metallurgy in the early 20th century as we do now. The effect that the sea temperature had on the brittleness of the steel and the impurities introduced by open hearth furnaces were poorly understood, and the steelmaking process wouldn't really move past this until after the Second World War.

VideoboysaysCube posted...

After all, the ship was supposed to be unsinkable.

That wasn't really a thing until after it sank

And the reason it didn't have enough lifeboats was that no ship really did, it wasn't a requirement at the time

For years people said the survivors were wrong in saying that it broke in half before sinking. Saying it was too well built to have done that.

Even though it...sunk....

bump

On topic of Titanic I browsed this a few years ago. Pretty fascinating. Not even sure how it was all logged to be viewable today though? Especially since (going off of memory when I watched in years ago) one of the ships I think German couldn't understand Titanic and kept asking stupid questions. Yet somewhere it was all logged perfectly? Either way its pretty wild as you can sense the despration from the operator the longer it goes on. Also pretty cool to see how many ships changed course to try and rescue them.

CARPATHIA TO TITANIC. All our boats are ready we are coming as fast as we can old man.

Kinda gives you chills...Titanic broke in half at 2:20 AM and sunk 2 minutes later. The last radio message from Titanic was 2:17am. The operator was in there until the final seconds...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxRN2nP_9dA

This event happened so long ago that only about 30 women and 1 man born before Titanic set sail (1912) are still alive today.

None of Titanics passengers, rescued or not, are still alive today.

Modern cruise ships (Carnival, Norwegian et al) all have over 100% capacity, with enough life rafts for all passengers plus backups.

iGenesis posted...

This event happened so long ago that only about 30 women and 1 man born before Titanic set sail (1912) are still alive today.

None of Titanics passengers, rescued or not, are still alive today.

Modern cruise ships (Carnival, Norwegian et al) all have over 100% capacity, with enough life rafts for all passengers plus backups.

This has nothing to do with the topic.

Of course there was a reason.

It's just not a very good reason.

SaltyWet posted...

It didnt have enough lifeboats for everybody onboard.

SaltyWet posted...

This has nothing to do with the topic.

SaltyWet posted...

bump

Probably a reason why people don't want to discuss when you offer such detailed replies like that. Fucking hell mate, try and be sociable and actually offer some meaningful conversation.

By the way CE, I went for a swim earlier. In the kiddy lanes one of the parents asked a lifeguard for an extra float, which he went to fetch and then hoyed over like a frisbee. The parent caught it, gave the lifeguard a thumbs up, and off they went. Remember those floaty (mcfloaty) things?