How did shipbuilders perceive the purpose of lifeboats?
At that time, shipbuilders viewed lifeboats as a means of abandoning ship for a rescue vessel in the near distance. The ship itself was seen as its own lifeboat, the watertight bulkheads keeping the ship afloat while the small boats ferried all souls to a waiting rescue ship. It was not just blind faith in bulkhead design that fostered this attitude. The technology of the time didn’t provide for a reliable means for launching a large number of lifeboats in a short amount of time. The Titanic disaster provides a good example of this. The ship actually foundered under near-ideal conditions…in a calm sea, on an even keel, over a period exceeding two hours. Even then, the crew had barely enough time to launch the 16 of her 20 lifeboats that were positioned in the davits, and even those 16 were not fully loaded. Additional lifeboats may not have proved useful in Titanic’s case. The large “gantry” davits used in Britannic were an unsatisfying attempt to improve the ship’s ability to launch
