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The Old Fox's Library · Episode 3
Titanic had more lifeboats than the law required
The Titanic carried more lifeboats than the law demanded. That was the problem.
Seats for about 1,178 people with around 2,200 aboard, rules last updated in 1894 that counted tonnage not people, the band that played on, the Carpathia's rescue, and how the wreck was found in 1985.
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What the fox said
Pull up a chair. Tonight's page: the Titanic.
April, 1912. The grandest liner of her day steams west across the cold North Atlantic, on her very first voyage.
Late on the 14th of April, around 11:40 pm, she strikes an iceberg.
About 2 hours and 40 minutes later, she slips beneath the sea.
Around 2,200 people are aboard. The lifeboats? 20 of them, with seats for about 1,178.
Yet that was more than the law demanded. The rules dated from 1894, and counted tonnage, not people.
The story goes the band played on to calm the passengers. Which tune came last is still argued over.
The liner Carpathia raced through the night, arriving after she sank. She picked up about 705 survivors.
More than 1,500 people were lost, though the exact figures still vary.
Afterwards came lifeboats for everyone aboard, and an ice patrol watching for bergs.
She lay lost for 73 years, until an American and French team found her in 1985.
Here's one to keep: they followed her trail of debris, and the first big piece they recognised was one of her boilers, over 2 miles down.
Close the book. Keep your nose to the wind.
Sources
- Titanic struck an iceberg at about 11:40 pm on 14 April 1912, on her maiden voyage, and sank at about 2:20 am on 15 April (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Carpathia').
- About 2,200 people were aboard (2,224 by most counts), and she carried 20 boats, 16 wooden lifeboats and 4 collapsibles, with seats for about 1,178 (Royal Museums Greenwich).
- British Board of Trade rules, last updated in 1894, set the number of lifeboats by a ship's tonnage, not the number of people carried; the top category, ships over 10,000 tons, needed 16, so Titanic carried more than the legal minimum (Library of Congress Law Library, 'Failure to Update the Law: A Titanic Mistake').
- The band is widely reported to have played on as the ship sank, but which tune came last is disputed, and some survivors disputed the story (University of Stirling Archives; History on the Net).
- Carpathia arrived after Titanic had sunk and took aboard 705 survivors from the lifeboats; more than 1,500 people died, though exact figures vary (Encyclopaedia Britannica; NOAA Mariners Weather Log; Library of Congress; Royal Museums Greenwich).
- In response, the first international Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) convention was signed in 1914, lifeboat places came to be based on the number of people aboard, and an ice patrol began watching for icebergs in the North Atlantic (Library of Congress; US Coast Guard Navigation Center; International Maritime Organization).
- The wreck was found on 1 September 1985, more than 73 years after the sinking, by a joint American–French expedition led by Robert Ballard and Jean-Louis Michel; it lies more than 12,400 ft (over two miles) down (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; History.com).
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