One of the best known things about Titanic is “she only had lifeboats for half her passengers and crew, which is all she was required to at the time”. But that’s oversimplified.
Initially ships just didn’t have lifeboats. They had small boats for ferrying cargo and crew to shore, but not many. Most shipwrecks were near land, but if you went down far out you’d basically just die. Some sailors deliberately didn’t learn to swim, to avoid drawing it out.
At some point someone invented the first lifeboat (called an “unimmersible” or something), with cork and air pockets for bouyancy. But sailing ships didn’t have room for them, so they had to be launched from shore if there was a wreck.
Then steam ships were invented, and suddenly there’s room for the lifeboats. But they’re actually pretty shit. Hard to launch, few or no provisions, not great at surviving storms. Multiple occasions of lifeboats just disappearing, sometimes showing up years or decades later with their occupants dead. Once, the women and children were put on lifeboats from a sinking ship, all the boats were capsized or destroyed, and all the women or children died. The ship sank slowly, and the men were rescued the next day.
So the idea in ship design was that the ship would be her own best lifeboat. They’d be designed to sink slowly. And now shipping lanes were busier, and there was radio for distress signals reaching hundreds of miles. A half compliment of lifeboats would be plenty, between two ships, to ferry everyone across. Titanic actually had fewer passengers than she was allowed to have, and four extra collapsible lifeboats than required.
When she hit the iceberg, there was a bunch of bad luck. Hitting head on would have been mostly fine, but it would have probably killed a bunch of crew. Officer on duty said to kill the engines and try to turn, but that meant it scraped the side and opened 5 out of the 4 compartments that could have been opened without going down. It was at a bad height, below the waterline but above the dual layered hull.
The nearest ship was California. Her radio operator went to bed just before Titanic’s distress signal. Apparently no one had considered that no one might be listening?
When the lifeboats were launched, people were reluctant to get on. Initially it wasn’t clear the ship was sinking (because she was designed to sink slowly). And it was eight stories down to the water, which wasn’t appealing. And passengers had heard there was a distress signal, but not that no one had heard it. So early ones went down under capacity. Then the tilt became more obvious, more passengers arrived on deck from second and third class, and later lifeboats were overcrowded.
The story that took hold was that the lack of lifeboats was a scandal. But it was perfect conditions for them to seem useful. The sea was calm, so the boats were safe. And it was freezing, so they were necessary. Basically, if you were out of the water you survived and if not you died, and lifeboats were the best way not to be in the water. But yes, one person did survive on a door like in the film. (And later James Cameron tested and found that two people could have survived on that door.)
And more lifeboats probably wouldn’t have helped, because there wasn’t even time to get all the ones they had launched.
But “ships should have enough lifeboats for everyone” entered public consciousness, including crew on another White Star ship going on strike without it, even though ship designers didn’t think it was super helpful. Some international treaty agreed on that, and it’s still in force. And lifeboats today are better, so it’s probably a good idea now.
99% Invisible: The Titanic’s Best Lifeboat
One of the best known things about Titanic is “she only had lifeboats for half her passengers and crew, which is all she was required to at the time”. But that’s oversimplified.
Initially ships just didn’t have lifeboats. They had small boats for ferrying cargo and crew to shore, but not many. Most shipwrecks were near land, but if you went down far out you’d basically just die. Some sailors deliberately didn’t learn to swim, to avoid drawing it out.
At some point someone invented the first lifeboat (called an “unimmersible” or something), with cork and air pockets for bouyancy. But sailing ships didn’t have room for them, so they had to be launched from shore if there was a wreck.
Then steam ships were invented, and suddenly there’s room for the lifeboats. But they’re actually pretty shit. Hard to launch, few or no provisions, not great at surviving storms. Multiple occasions of lifeboats just disappearing, sometimes showing up years or decades later with their occupants dead. Once, the women and children were put on lifeboats from a sinking ship, all the boats were capsized or destroyed, and all the women or children died. The ship sank slowly, and the men were rescued the next day.
So the idea in ship design was that the ship would be her own best lifeboat. They’d be designed to sink slowly. And now shipping lanes were busier, and there was radio for distress signals reaching hundreds of miles. A half compliment of lifeboats would be plenty, between two ships, to ferry everyone across. Titanic actually had fewer passengers than she was allowed to have, and four extra collapsible lifeboats than required.
When she hit the iceberg, there was a bunch of bad luck. Hitting head on would have been mostly fine, but it would have probably killed a bunch of crew. Officer on duty said to kill the engines and try to turn, but that meant it scraped the side and opened 5 out of the 4 compartments that could have been opened without going down. It was at a bad height, below the waterline but above the dual layered hull.
The nearest ship was California. Her radio operator went to bed just before Titanic’s distress signal. Apparently no one had considered that no one might be listening?
When the lifeboats were launched, people were reluctant to get on. Initially it wasn’t clear the ship was sinking (because she was designed to sink slowly). And it was eight stories down to the water, which wasn’t appealing. And passengers had heard there was a distress signal, but not that no one had heard it. So early ones went down under capacity. Then the tilt became more obvious, more passengers arrived on deck from second and third class, and later lifeboats were overcrowded.
The story that took hold was that the lack of lifeboats was a scandal. But it was perfect conditions for them to seem useful. The sea was calm, so the boats were safe. And it was freezing, so they were necessary. Basically, if you were out of the water you survived and if not you died, and lifeboats were the best way not to be in the water. But yes, one person did survive on a door like in the film. (And later James Cameron tested and found that two people could have survived on that door.)
And more lifeboats probably wouldn’t have helped, because there wasn’t even time to get all the ones they had launched.
But “ships should have enough lifeboats for everyone” entered public consciousness, including crew on another White Star ship going on strike without it, even though ship designers didn’t think it was super helpful. Some international treaty agreed on that, and it’s still in force. And lifeboats today are better, so it’s probably a good idea now.
Related: SS Eastland capsized maybe in part because of extra weight from the new lifeboats.