LIFEBOATS
There were 20 lifeboats on Titanic, enough for only 1178 people. There were 2208 people on board. The ship had a maximum capacity for 3327 passengers.
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| Titanic's Lifeboats |
Each lifeboat had a capacity of 64 people but that didn't happen, because when the lifeboats were finally put in use, they only put 28 people (or less) in each lifeboat.
It is unknown why, however, it could be that the crew was in a hurry to get as many people as possible off the ship. It is also possible that they didn't want to overload the lifeboats fearing that they would sink too.
There were enough life jackets for each of the 2208 passengers aboard the Titanic.
Chicago physician Dr. Frank Blackmarr, a passenger aboard Titanic's rescue ship, the RMS Carpathia, helped with Titanic's survivors who were suffering from hypothermia, exposure, and shock. He saved a Titanic cork-filled life vest (pictured above) as a souvenir.
Before 1900, life jackets were not only made from cork but some also contained balsa wood and kapok, a vegetable fiber found in tropical tree pods resembling milkweed used as fill material in life vests.
The waxy coating covering the kapok fiber provided the required buoyancy. However, Titanic's life jackets were covered only in white canvas that was used to make ship sails.
Even though cork life jackets were known to cause injuries like broken ribs or collarbones, cork was guideline-acceptable, a key reason why Titanic's life vests were not taken out of circulation after the disaster. However, builders of newer ships chose to not use them. For all the money spent on Titanic's luxuries, the designers skimped when it came to the life jackets.
In a book about the sinking of the RMS Empress of Ireland called "Fourteen Minutes," it was suggested that many of the recovered bodies had broken necks which they attributed to the life jackets riding up their bodies as they struck the water.
This same problem was experienced by the stuntmen who worked on the film "A Night to Remember," based on the sinking of the Titanic. After several injuries, the cork in the life vests was replaced with another material for the rest of the filming.
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It is unknown why, however, it could be that the crew was in a hurry to get as many people as possible off the ship. It is also possible that they didn't want to overload the lifeboats fearing that they would sink too.
LIFEJACKETS
There were enough life jackets for each of the 2208 passengers aboard the Titanic.
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| Cork-filled lifejacket |
Chicago physician Dr. Frank Blackmarr, a passenger aboard Titanic's rescue ship, the RMS Carpathia, helped with Titanic's survivors who were suffering from hypothermia, exposure, and shock. He saved a Titanic cork-filled life vest (pictured above) as a souvenir.
Before 1900, life jackets were not only made from cork but some also contained balsa wood and kapok, a vegetable fiber found in tropical tree pods resembling milkweed used as fill material in life vests.
The waxy coating covering the kapok fiber provided the required buoyancy. However, Titanic's life jackets were covered only in white canvas that was used to make ship sails.
Even though cork life jackets were known to cause injuries like broken ribs or collarbones, cork was guideline-acceptable, a key reason why Titanic's life vests were not taken out of circulation after the disaster. However, builders of newer ships chose to not use them. For all the money spent on Titanic's luxuries, the designers skimped when it came to the life jackets.
In a book about the sinking of the RMS Empress of Ireland called "Fourteen Minutes," it was suggested that many of the recovered bodies had broken necks which they attributed to the life jackets riding up their bodies as they struck the water.
This same problem was experienced by the stuntmen who worked on the film "A Night to Remember," based on the sinking of the Titanic. After several injuries, the cork in the life vests was replaced with another material for the rest of the filming.
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