HMCS Rainbow meets Titanic

Navy uniforms + pistols would probably be quite sufficient. Until the very last stages, just Navy uniforms + a confident air would probably be enough.
There were several military officers onboard Titanic, do we see them helping or hindering?

Major Butt, US Army https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-victim/archibald-butt.html
Colonel Astor, US Volunteers https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-victim/john-jacob-astor.html

Major Butt was very influential. If the rescue is done well, his report to Washington and in the press will be good reading.
 
There were several military officers onboard Titanic, do we see them helping or hindering?

Major Butt, US Army https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-victim/archibald-butt.html
Colonel Astor, US Volunteers https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-victim/john-jacob-astor.html

Major Butt was very influential. If the rescue is done well, his report to Washington and in the press will be good reading.

Irrelevant, of course.

The difference between two soldiers, traveling individually and (being on a ship) outside their zone of competence, and organized parties of sailors operating with a common mission under competent direction, is pretty large.
 
Here's a time-lapse of Titanic's sinking, showing how remarkably level she stayed through to the end.

HMCS Rainbow arrives a few minutes after 0:27:15 in the video.


With this is mind, let's build a likely time-lapse for Rainbow's arrival, assessment of the situation and plan of action, with gangways lashed to Titanic's lower doors, etc. and at what point gangways must be cut, and recovery of people swimming must occur. Even at 2:36:19 passengers could still be recovered into boats from the upper decks.

At 2:39:36 when Titanic's lights are out the recovery would be tricky, with Rainbow depending on her three spotlights and starlight.
 
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I suppose the best thing would be for Rainbow's crew to direct the handling of Titanic's boats (and of course her own). Then loading, launching, ferrying, unloading and return are probably done pretty efficiently.
How easy would it be to return the boats to Titanic for reloading? Were the davits, falls and boats designed for return and multiple trips?

Titanic's davits were hand cranked https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davit#Lifeboat_davit_types That would make the return upward an ordeal.
 
Lifeboats can be recovered and relaunched, but it is a PITA to say the least. I'll have to check and see what type davits Titanic was equipped with. Also, even a slight list may make it impossible to recover or launch lifeboats. Depending on which side the boats are on, and which way Titanic lists, they may not have clearance to freely launch. Best solution is to get passengers as close to the water and have them board the lifeboats that way. If an accommodation ladder is rigged, they can walk down it to the boats. I don't know where Titanic's would have been located though. If no other way is possible, having lifejacketed passengers jump into the sea to be recovered by the lifeboats is what will have to happen. Most should survive.

EDIT: Ok, just checked the link, which helpfully gave the information. Radials. New ship, they should all be in working order.
 
Lifeboats can be recovered and relaunched, but it is a PITA to say the least. I'll have to check and see what type davits Titanic was equipped with. Also, even a slight list may make it impossible to recover or launch lifeboats. Depending on which side the boats are on, and which way Titanic lists, they may not have clearance to freely launch. Best solution is to get passengers as close to the water and have them board the lifeboats that way. If an accommodation ladder is rigged, they can walk down it to the boats. I don't know where Titanic's would have been located though. If no other way is possible, having lifejacketed passengers jump into the sea to be recovered by the lifeboats is what will have to happen. Most should survive.

EDIT: Ok, just checked the link, which helpfully gave the information. Radials. New ship, they should all be in working order.

Reloading lifeboats is the biggest problem. Bringing them back up on the davits takes too much time and will be complicated by the ship's list; putting people in the water risks death from hypothermia. Ladders rigged down the side of the ship either off the boat deck or out of the gangways would be one possible solution. Another would be to take the boats to the bow of the ship and load from there as the bow goes submerged. If you watch that video, you could have taken boats right up to Titanic and loaded up where the forward part of the boat deck meets the water. Either this or loading with ladders seems preferable to reusing the davits which would be a time consuming and laborious chore.
 
An excellent video, it really does highlight that she stayed remarkably upright as well as kept the lights on for as long as she did. You'd think that with the designs of the time that she'd have capsized due to the flooding, but instead each section flooded one at a time and this helped keep her upright.

Also a testament to her black gang who shut down all her boilers, there was always a huge risk of quenching an active boiler and then that exploding, but that didn't happen.

If the Rainbow arrives at 0.26 - 0.28 minutes then she could probably come along side. The Titanic's list was never really that bad and whilst there might be some hull plate bumping and banging, I'm sure both Captains would be willing to accept door dings.
 
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