DBWI What if Titanic didnt have enough lifeboats

Some ship buffs might remember the Titantic it sank. What was memorable was not that it sank but that it was the first major ship to have lifeboats for all the passengers.

What would have happened if the Titantic's designers decided to only keep the lifeboats mandated by the law?
 
Let's see, 1,390 passengers survived, while 834 passengers were lost (presumably dead) in the tragedy. Without the lifeboats, perhaps only some 600 or 700 passengers would be saved, depending on how many ships are nearby. However, lifeboats didn't do much to prevent sea disasters, but could only reduce the number of deaths. Due to the death of 834 passengers, giant ships would no longer have just a few compartments, but many more. Without the lifeboats, both the British and US governments may probably impose even harsher restrictions on the designs and safety regulations of cruise liners.
 
id imagine it might prevent large scale cursie shipping for a while, as many people would be terrified about it...plus you might see stricter regulations concering procedure and much more emphasis on safty for the few ships that would be put out for a while...course its hard to say really, cos it would largly depend on the death toll and wheather the carpathia even arrived (did in ours but might be late or even never show up)
 

sharlin

Banned
If it had been a bigger disaster than it was perhaps it would have been better remembered in history and hollywood and it would have saved us from the Lusitania movie, yeah it was a technical and visual treat but seriously..Kevin Costner as the Captain....not one of Camerons best ideas.
 
Many more people die, remember the 800 or so who did die, died of exposure. Imagine if almost everyone was in the water
 
Some ship buffs might remember the Titantic it sank. What was memorable was not that it sank but that it was the first major ship to have lifeboats for all the passengers.

What would have happened if the Titantic's designers decided to only keep the lifeboats mandated by the law?
Well probably all the lifeboats would have got off rather then the 22 that got off in OTL.
(OCC: Keep in mind that in OTL the last two lifeboats were washed overboard when she sank.)
id imagine it might prevent large scale cursie shipping for a while, as many people would be terrified about it...plus you might see stricter regulations concering procedure and much more emphasis on safty for the few ships that would be put out for a while...course its hard to say really, cos it would largly depend on the death toll and wheather the carpathia even arrived (did in ours but might be late or even never show up)
Probably not. Keep in mind that at the time the only way to cross the Atlantic or any ocean at the time was with ships. There may be some problems with the Olympic and later the Britannic but ocean liners themselves? Nah.
 
Well I know even with the lifeboats, the crew hadn't been properly trained in their use. One could only imagine what would have happened if the Costa Corncordia crew hadn't done their semi-annual mandatory lifeboat drills, someone might have died on that ship instead of just being embarassment for the cruise line.
 
What if titanic don't have enough lifeboat.

One time would be that the Ship Pictures would look alot cleaner. Some the Photos of the Titanic have the upper deck look cluttered with all the lifeboats. Still I guess all the survivors were glad that the boats were there.
 
The Titanic did not have ENOUGH lifeboats for all persons on board - even as it was not booked to capacity...

a few boats more or lless would not have made a difference as the number of boats was not so crucial...

the peple onboard believed the unsinkable theory until it was too late (some boats left with less than capacity on board not because of panic, but because they did not realize the ship was sinking)
 
(ricter this is a DBWI that means looking at OTL from their perspective of an alternate history so your comment is kinda pointless)
 
(ricter this is a DBWI that means looking at OTL from their perspective of an alternate history so your comment is kinda pointless)

OCC:
Look again voss. Perhaps RvM is saying that even though the White Star Line bragged about the Titanic having lifeboats for all the passengers, it apparently did not in TTL, as 800+ people still died - many of them perhaps because of life boat related logistical, mechanical and maintenance errors/complications.
 
((what richter was saying is they didnt have enough lifeboats which is contrary to the DBWI premise, your saying even if they had enough lifeboats would still die which is not the same thing.))
 
Probably not. Keep in mind that at the time the only way to cross the Atlantic or any ocean at the time was with ships. There may be some problems with the Olympic and later the Britannic but ocean liners themselves? Nah.
Speaking of Britannic (Arguably the most famous sister, mostly because she still exists), if the Titanic hadn't sank and prompted the design modification could she have survived that torpedo hit she took in the winter of '43?
 
Speaking of Britannic (Arguably the most famous sister, mostly because she still exists), if the Titanic hadn't sank and prompted the design modification could she have survived that torpedo hit she took in the winter of '43?

Maybe. It depends whether she makes it through WWI and where the torpedo hits.
 
Speaking of Britannic (Arguably the most famous sister, mostly because she still exists), if the Titanic hadn't sank and prompted the design modification could she have survived that torpedo hit she took in the winter of '43?

Or the mine she hit in 1915? That was one lucky ship...

And speaking of the torpedo hit, seeing as an improved version of the compartmentalization and containment scheme used in the Britannic was the standard for British liners (and troopships) built after WWI, without it would we have seen more losses during WWII? They could usually take one or two and survive, and even four wasn't a guaranteed kill. The late-WWII Majestic-class aircraft carriers made use of a modified version of the system, specifically designed to protect against torpedoes. The Royal Navy itself was embarrassed by this in 1982 when the HMS Conqueror put a Spearfish (modern wire-guided homing torpedo) into the 25 de Mayo. (ex-HMS Magnificent) This only blew her bow off. (And prevented the carrier from launching an airstrike on the British fleet that was retaking the Falklands...) The Argentine Navy was able to tow their ship back to port. The Mayo returned to service (following a lengthy period in drydock) in 1991, and was finally scrapped in 1997.
 
Titanic carried a total of 20 lifeboats: 14 standard wooden Harland and Wolff lifeboats with a capacity of 65 people each and four Englehardt "collapsible" lifeboats (identified as A to D) with a capacity of 47 people each. In addition, she had two emergency cutters with a capacity of 40 people each.

Titanic had 16 sets of davits, each able to handle 4 lifeboats. This gave Titanic the ability to carry up to 64 wooden lifeboats which would have been enough for 4,000 people – considerably more than her actual capacity. However, the White Star Line decided that only 16 wooden lifeboats and four collapsibles would be carried, which could accommodate 1,178 people, only one-third of Titanic's total capacity. At the time, the Board of Trade's regulations required British vessels over 10,000 tons to carry 16 lifeboats with a capacity of 990 occupants. Therefore, the White Star Line actually provided more lifeboat accommodation than was legally required. At the time, lifeboats were intended to ferry survivors from a sinking ship to a rescuing ship – not keep afloat the whole population or power them to shore

As I am not a native English speaker I might have misunderstanding some of the posts here.

I thought you assume IOTL the Titanic had enough lifeboats for all on board - which it did not have.

Sorry if I had misread something...
 

oberdada

Gone Fishin'
As I am not a native English speaker I might have misunderstanding some of the posts here.

I thought you assume IOTL the Titanic had enough lifeboats for all on board - which it did not have.

Sorry if I had misread something...

You should look up the meaning of DBWI in the Wiki, then you should understand...
 
For this to have been the case, you would have to make the POD June 1911 and have the RMS Olympic make a safe and uneventful maiden voyage. If that voyage remains the bungling calamity it was then nobody is going to argue against having sufficient lifeboats. Of course, were both the Olympic and the Titanic to have survived then the White Star Line would undoubtedly have survived beyond 1913.
 
Or the mine she hit in 1915? That was one lucky ship...

She is lucky. I actually got the plesure of being on her last trans-Atlantic crossing in the late 80's before the the Britannic historical society went bankrupt and the ship went into storage. The fact that she was still able to cross the Atlantic at 18 knots at her age has never ceased to amaze me.
 
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