The liferafts might have headed in the wrong directions. Though if the captain of the California hadn't been sleeping or people decided to wake him after the flares were spotted they might have been able to tell some of the people to hold on or convince the lifeboats to go back. I believe that the lifeboats were only half loaded for a few reasons. The first was because some of the immigrant women they tried to get into the lifeboats early on jumped out of them to go back inside. Two, they didn't know that the liferafts could be lowered at full capacity. Three, the lifeboats all rowed away when they were supposed to stay as people lowered other passengers down. Apparently there was a fear of suction pulling the boats down (think of the movie and how people where dragged throw broken window), which doesn't really excuse the early people. Also, my own two cents. I agree with a suggestion once heard that it would be better if the Titanic ONLY had the liferafts legally required. They might have filled them up that way.