Ship’s notice
The twenty boats
The official capacity is solid. The numbers in each boat, as witnesses remembered them, are not.
Titanic was provided with 20 boats, the inquiry says, with total accommodation for 1,178 persons: fourteen lifeboats designed to carry 65 people each, two emergency cutters for 40 each, and four Engelhardt collapsible boats for 47 each.1 The fourteen wood lifeboats were each 30 feet long, and the four collapsibles were Engelhardt boats, 27 feet 5 inches long.1 Royal Museums Greenwich says she was equipped with 20 lifeboats, designed to hold around 1,178 people, and that her own capacity was 3,320 people.2
Ship’s notice
The twenty boats
Capacity is from the Board of Trade figures in the British inquiry and is solid. The “left in boat” column and the leaving times are from the same report’s testimony table, which the court itself called “quite unreliable.”
| Boat | Side | Type | Capacity | Left in boat* | Left at* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | Starboard | Lifeboat | 65 | 27 | 12.46 a.m. |
| 5 | Starboard | Lifeboat | 65 | 41 | 12.55 a.m. |
| 3 | Starboard | Lifeboat | 65 | 50 | 1.00 a.m. |
| 1 | Starboard | Emergency cutter | 40 | 12 | 1.10 a.m. |
| 9 | Starboard | Lifeboat | 65 | 56 | 1.20 a.m. |
| 11 | Starboard | Lifeboat | 65 | 70 | 1.25 a.m. |
| 13 | Starboard | Lifeboat | 65 | 64 | 1.35 a.m. |
| 15 | Starboard | Lifeboat | 65 | 70 | 1.35 a.m. |
| C | Starboard | Collapsible | 47 | 71 | 1.40 a.m. |
| A | Starboard | Collapsible | 47 | — | Floated off |
| 6 | Port | Lifeboat | 65 | 28 | 12.55 a.m. |
| 8 | Port | Lifeboat | 65 | 39 | 1.10 a.m. |
| 10 | Port | Lifeboat | 65 | 55 | 1.20 a.m. |
| 12 | Port | Lifeboat | 65 | 42 | 1.25 a.m. |
| 14 | Port | Lifeboat | 65 | 63 | 1.30 a.m. |
| 16 | Port | Lifeboat | 65 | 56 | 1.35 a.m. |
| 2 | Port | Emergency cutter | 40 | 26 | 1.45 a.m. |
| 4 | Port | Lifeboat | 65 | 40 | 1.56 a.m. |
| D | Port | Collapsible | 47 | 44 | 2.05 a.m. |
| B | Port | Collapsible | 47 | — | Floated off |
Official capacity of all twenty boats: 1,178 people. Official total saved: 711. Several of the “left in boat” figures already exceed the boat’s official capacity, which is one reason the court rejected the table as a head-count.
* Testimony figures, not a reliable head-count.
At about 12.45 First Officer Murdoch gave the order to lower No. 7 boat, on the starboard side, to the water. The inquiry’s own table of leaving times puts No. 7 at 12.46 a.m., and it immediately warns that all times after the collision, as given by witnesses, are unreliable.1 The last boat lowered from the davits, on that same table, was collapsible D at 2.05 a.m. Collapsibles A and B, stowed on the roof of the officers’ house, were left until the last and seem to have floated from the deck as rafts.1 A table of who left in each boat, compiled from testimony, added up to 914 people. The court called those figures “quite unreliable”, because only 712 were in fact saved by Carpathia, and all the boats were accounted for.1
He picked up 13 lifeboats, two emergency boats and two collapsible boats, all taken on board Carpathia; the other boats were abandoned as damaged or useless.1
The British inquiry warns that all times after the collision, as given by witnesses, are unreliable. We still give the court’s own timetable, because it is the official record, and we keep that warning in view.
Women and children were ordered into the boats at about 12.30, and the first boat, No. 7, was lowered at about 12.45. Many boats left with empty seats. That is why a capacity of 1,178 still ended as an official total of 711 saved.