Outdated Lifeboat regulations

The provision of enough lifeboats would turn out to be one of the most contentious issues in the wake of the Titanic disaster. The hopelessly outdated regulations of the British Board of Trade had not been emended since 1894, when the largest vessel afloat was the 12,950 ton Campania from Cunard. So no allowance had been made for the massive increase in ship size in recent years. Under the regulations, all British vessels of more than 10,000 tons had to carry 16 lifeboats with a capacity of 5,500 cubic feet, plus sufficient rafts and floats for 75 per cent of the capacity of the lifeboats. Consequently, a ship of 46,000 tons such as the Titanic was not required by law to carry any more than one of 10,000 tons, even though it would undoubtedly be carrying many more passengers and crew. These regulations meant the Titanic had to carry boats for only 962 people when she had a capacity for 3,547. Clearly it was ridiculous.

It is significant that at the planning stage, between four and five hours were devoted to discussing decor and fittings, but no more than 10 minutes was given over to lifeboat capacity. To his credit, Alexander Carlisle apparently had misgivings about the regulations. German and American rules already required a greater proportion of lifeboats than Britain, and Carlisle's original plan incorporated 64 boats, sufficient for everyone. But as discussions proceeded between builders and owners, Carlisle was obliged to modify the number first to 40 , and then 32 and finally to `6 30ft-long boats, plus four Engleheardt collapsible boats. It seemed that the money men preferred to utilize the deck space, which boats would take up, for larger promenades. In a tragic case of mistaken priorities, this was all part of the mission to provide the ultimate in luxury shipping.

The rules stipulated that Titanic had to carry boats for 962 people and her 16 lifeboats comfortably met the requirements with a seating capacity of 980. And White Star was proud that its designers had added the four collapsible, with seating for 196 people to raise the seating capacity to 1,176, well in excess of official needs. Even so, this represented only 53 per cent of the 2,207 people on board at the time of the disaster and only 30 per cent of the ship's total capacity.

Each pair of manually operated Welin davits was capable of lowering three boats in succession and could have been adapted to increase this number to four. Eight pairs of davits were fitted on either side being permanently swungout and carrying an emergency cutter that doubled as a lifeboat. A and B collapsible were stowed on either side of the roof of the officers' house; C and D were placed one each side at the forward end of the officers' promenade on the boat deck. To make them easy to stow, the collapsible had shallow wooden bottoms and canvas sides. Ironically, the Welin and Davit and Engineering Co Ltd of London made of lot of the fact that they had supplied the Titanic and took out advertisements in the run-up to the launch.

 

Chronology

The Making of History
| Owners | A Grand Design | Construction | Sister Ships - Olympic and Britannic |
| Strict Segregation | Outdated Lifeboat regulations | The Aura of Invincibility |

| Launch | Specifications |

Leaving for the New World
| Southampton | Southampton - The New York and a Near Miss | Cherbourg | Queenstown | Provisions |

Passenger Lists
| First Class | Second Class | Third Class | Alphabtical list
| Crew | The Band |

Lifeboat Lists
| Lifeboats 1- 3 | Lifeboats 4 - 6 | Lifeboats 7-9 | Lifeboats 10-12 | Lifeboats 13 -16 | Collapsibles |

Aftermath
| American Inquiry |
| Causes - An extract from February 1995 Edition of Popular Mechanic |

Remembrance

Facts and Figures
| Harland and Wolff's 101 Answers to the most asked questions about the RMS Titanic |