On the most recent anniversary of the Titanic sinking I got into a Facebook discussion on how much blame must be apportioned to not having enough boats. A lot, but of course the reality is very complicated. Below are some thoughts I shared during that conversation.

But first, I want to add some background context. In 1886, the British Board of Trade updated the safety regulations. Among the changes were updates to lifeboat numbers and size. The new regulation was for vessels over 10,000 tons, and apportioned the lifeboats according to total cubic feet. In 1886, only a tiny number of ships were over 10,000 tons. A weird mathematical formula was used to compute it. Any ocean liner over 10,000 tons must carry 16 lifeboats with a capacity of 5,500 cubic feet, plus enough rafts and floats for 75% of the capacity of the lifeboats. In 1886, this was easy enough, as the regulation allowed 965 to be saved. Virtually no liner was large enough to have more people than 900 aboard. Of course, within a decade, ship sizes grew and the number of people aboard with it.

The Titanic was 46,000 tons and had 2200 souls aboard. When she was built, Harland & Wolff shipbuilders were originally going to put 64 lifeboats in her. They nixed that for many reasons, settling on 32. Before it was over, they had halved it again, to 16, the regulation number. There were at least three important reasons for these cuts. One was cosmetic. All those boats would have blocked the deck, giving little room for passengers to walk, and blocking the view of the ocean for anyone walking or sitting in deck chairs, a prime reason for sailing to begin with. Moreover, the deck in question was a first class deck, where people were paying too much money to not get a view. Another reason was financial. To have lifeboats stacked like that practically screamed to passengers that a ship can sink. This would affect all ships, as smaller ones would have to upgrade, at great cost to the shipping lines, and many people might choose to not sail at all, given what they might perceive as a greater danger. [The best equivalent I can think of is neighborhood Sky Cop cameras. When one sees a neighborhood or shopping center with them, some might see it as making us safe. Many others see them and believe the area must be really dangerous to need them, and avoid the area.] The third reason was practicality. To have 32 or 64 boats, they would have to stack davits, too. 32 boats would not just double the time to load people. It would more than double the time, as the next set of boats couldn’t launch until the first set did. And when people needed to disembark, time was definitely of the essence.

So sixteen boats it was. Only they added four collapsible boats, kept folded and stored, with the idea that in an emergency, they could be unfolded and put in the davits to load and launch. When the Titanic set sail, by regulation she needed only enough boats to save 44% of passengers and crew. With the extra lifeboats, she had capacity to save 52% of passengers. As we know, of course, only 32% were saved. Which brings me back to that conversation and my thoughts on the subject of the lifeboats, which is below:

Humans are never good at preparing for every contingency, especially if they believe there isn’t cause. And when we *do* have the preparations in place, we sometimes dislike, fear, or forget to use them. People get killed because they refuse to wear seatbelts. Or don’t take a million other precautions because it is too time-consuming, silly, or whatever reasons people rationalize with.

There were a lot of reasons that night:

1. Hundreds didn’t want to get in the lifeboats. The obvious appearance of the sinking took a while to show; the deck wasn’t horribly canted until the final half hour or so. This meant the giant ship looked a whole lot safer than the tiny lifeboats until it was almost too late. [Many survivors who went in early boats said they didn’t believe the ship was sinking until they rowed away. From a distance, it was far more obvious.]

2. The officers weren’t eager to fully load passengers. The builder had told them the ship probably had less than an hour before sinking. She remained afloat well after they believed she should have sunk. Thus, they were offloading quickly under the impression they had far less time than was true. Captain Smith was especially egregious about wanting the boats lowered soon. So when people didn’t want to get in, down they were lowered anyway.

3. The crew wasn’t well-trained in evacuation. The officers not much more so. Effects of the certainty of never needing to, I suspect. There had been no drill either for the staff, or at sea for the passengers, nor had the passengers been given a boat assignment based on what stateroom they were in. In other words, there was chaos, though for over two hours, it was calm chaos.

4. Keeping the immigrants back, partially from prejudice, partly from the -lack-of-training-belief that steerage had its own boats, they didn’t unlock the gates until too late. Those immigrants that got topside did so under their own initiative.

5. Most boats were told specifically to return and pick up passengers once they were lowered into the water. Not a single one did. The crews, who believed more easily than the passengers, refused. Only one boat ever went back, and that was nearly an hour after the sinking, when most in the water had frozen or drowned.

6. Two boats were all but taken out of use at the end.

7. The ridiculous women and children first policy. Some officers did allow male passengers in the boats, but most tore families apart, making the men stay aboard. This was as true of first class as was the case for second and steerage.

8. There are other reasons, but those cover the vast majority.

The result of all these were:

1. Of the fourteen boats with a capacity of 65, only ONE boat left the ship full, one of the last to go. Of the remaining thirteen 65-person boats, three had over fifty passengers, another three around forty passengers, and the remaining five had thirty or less. In other words, less than half full.

2. Of the two emergency cutters, capacity 40, one boat left with eighteen; the other boat left with twelve. TWELVE.

3. Of the four collapsible boats, capacity about 47 people, one left more or less full (forty-three), and one left with twenty-three (Less than half capacity). The other two saved people, but not in the traditional sense. One of them was overloaded and as the ship sank, slid off the ship into the water before its sides were pulled up and the boat was mostly filled with water. Most people fell out and died. Only fourteen were still alive to be picked up. The final collapsible, which they got loose as the ship was going underwater, capsized. A few dozen stood on her hull, swaying back and forth to keep her steady. Through the night, most of them fell off due to cold and exhaustion. Less than thirty were alive to be picked up.

It easier to see things in hindsight. And the White Star Line really believed they were going above and beyond by offering more boats than required. But the reality is, due to the reasons listed above, even had they had enough boats, I genuinely believe they would have saved only a fraction more people than they did.

It’s a shame they didn’t have the boats. And the drills, for the crew before leaving port, and for the passengers on the high seas. It wouldn’t have fixed all the reasons, but it would have save some more.

But to me, the real horror comes down to two things. First, whether rich or poor, too many women and children lost the man of the house that night. The poor lost their sole means of support. The rich lost their own share. It is moronic to not let families go together, then single people. And if the ones who are first don’t want to get in the boats, let someone else go. Second, far worse of course, was the treatment of the steerage passengers. They saw and experienced the water flooding the lower decks. Had they been able to get topside, they would have gotten in the boats. But the crew decided first and second class lives were more important. I don’t believe they thought that in any conscious sense — and remember, the crew were working class, too — attitudes were what they were. As a result, less than a quarter of the steerage passengers survived. Compared to nearly half of second class, and nearly two-thirds of first class.