The underlying assumption of the argument that the officers did not do enough to fill boats is that everyone aboard had full knowledge that Titanic sank with heavy loss of life; and, that in view of this death toll the officers should have put more people into the boats.
HUH?
How in blazes could anyone aboard Titanic that night have known the future? Do you know what will happen an hour from now? Have any members of this board ever been in an auto accident? If so, we can reprimand you for getting in your car that day because you should have known the outcome of that drive would be a smash-up.
It is audacious lunacy to argue "they should have known." They (Titanic's officers) had no more knowledge of the future than any of us when we get into our cars or board public transit.
Another audacious lunacy is to assume that Titanic was sinking from the instant steel met ice. There is a huge difference from a ship that has water ingress and one that is foundering. Until steel hulls, it was considered normal practice to pump the bilges at regular intervals because wooden hulls leaked constantly. Yet, those leaky tubs made millions of voyages over the last six or seven thousand years because the pumping exceeded the ingress.
People who have never kept a sinking vessel afloat may not realize that science gives bilge pumps a boost. Initially water enters at a rapid rate because of what can be called "head pressure." This is created by the exterior waterline being higher than the level of the water inside the hull. As water rises inside the ship, the ingress slows because the inside/outside differential is less. Ingress stops when the inside level matches the outside waterline.
Ship's pumps are seldom large enough to handle the initial ingress immediately after an accident. However, as the water level inside rises, the ingress slows. At some point the capacity of the pumps equals the ingress. As long as the hull retains sufficient buoyancy, it will "float on its pumps" indefinitely.
Which brings up the whole concept of Titanic's lifesaving system. It was a system, not one piece of equipment. Too many lubbers focus on lifeboats and refuse to go deeper into the subject. The system in Titanic consisted of: following standard shipping lanes; the multi-compartmented hull (44, not just 16); the 14 wooden lifeboats; the two wooden cutters; lifevests for everyone; and, finally, the Marconi wireless.
Nobody has mentioned that a major reason for published steamer lanes on the North Atlantic was part of the life saving system. The idea was that if all ships followed these tracks, a vessel in distress would be discovered in short order by other ships on the same track. (This brings up the Californian/mystery ship debate.)
The possibility that other ships would discover Titanic if it were in distress was increased by the installation of wireless. (It worked to call
Carpathia.)
The compartmentalization of Titanic was sufficient to prevent the ship from sinking rapidly in the most prevalent accident of the 1912 era -- one ship running into another. The total system of bulkheads and compartments would have protected Titanic against a disaster such as happened to Andrea Doria almost a half century later. (Note that Doria floated for hours after it was abandoned despite a lesser system of bulkheads.)
Finally, the ship was provided with lifeboats intended for the purpose of carrying people to rescue ships. The number of boats which could be used -- 16 -- was based on some simple math. The usual situation of a vessel in distress is that it takes a substantial list. This eliminates the use of boats on the "high" side, leaving 8 boats available on Titanic.
The number of trained seaman was 48. That allows 6 hands per boat. Captain Jim explained the difficulty of lowering boats in falls. For safety, it would require two men per tackle, one "surging" the line on the bitt and the other feeding line and standing ready to help stop a runaway situation. That leaves 2 hands to go with the boat to handle the critical task of releasing the bow and stern falls. More than one lifeboat has spilled its human cargo when a mistake was made releasing from the tackles. It was not a job for an untrained passenger or member of the victualing department.
Titanic actually threw a monkey wrench in this by sinking with almost no list. This meant all 16 boats could be launched. That meant officers had to maintain a reserve of two seamen per boat, or a total of 32 hands. This left only 16 hands on deck to handle the falls. Dividing 16 hands by 4 (two for each tackle) shows that a maximum of four boats could be launched simultaneously.
The boats and the bulkheads were expected to work in tandem. Titanic was not meant to be "unsinkable," but rather it was designed to take a long time to sink. The bulkheads were intended to buy enough time to use the lifeboats to ferry passengers and crew to rescue vessels.
As Captain Jim pointed out, launching lifeboats was dangerous business, especially if it were filled with passengers. It would take a fool to cram people into boats and lower them 60 feet to the sea unless the alternative -- staying on the ship -- was more life threatening.
The only way that staying aboard could have been more life threatening would be rapid foundering accompanied by the breakup of the hull. That happened, but when? It was not happening earlier in the evening when Captain Smith ordered the boats filled and launched. The officers and crew assigned the task apparently did not believe their ship was foundering. They knew it was taking on water, that's certain, but listen to Lightoller's words again. "I had no idea it was urgent."
He was not alone in believing that Titanic would float at least long enough to "act as its own lifeboat" and allow rescue ships to take passengers and crew to safety. It would seem that passengers held to the same belief.
"They called for the women and children to board the boats first. Both women and men, however, hesitated, and did not feel inclined to get into the small boats, thinking the larger boat was the safer." -- James R. McGough.
"I considered that the lifeboats were merely a precaution and upon my wife's suggestion...we then proceeded immediately upward, my wife being rather alarmed. ...but for her I should have remained in bed reading." -- Norman C. Chambers.
"We dressed fully and went up on deck, and there we saw quite a number of people talking; and nobody seemed to think anything serious had happened. There were such remarks as 'Oh, it will be only a few hours before we will be on the way again.'" -- George A. Harder.
"Oh, I don't know, you cannot sink this boat. No matter what we have struck she is good for eight or ten hours." -- Charles M. Hayes.
"My husband cautioned us all to keep together, and we went up to A deck, where we found quite a group of people we knew. Everyone had on a lifebelt and they were very quiet and self-possessed. We stood around there for quite a long time. My maid ran down to the cabin and got some of my clothes. Then we went to the boat deck." -- Emily Ryerson.
"I saw Mr. Ismay with one of the officers. He looked very self-contained. That gave encouragement to my thought that perhaps the disaster was not anything particularly serious." -- Col. Archibald Gracie.
And, this brings us back to that audacious lunacy of saying, "they should have known." No, they should not. None of the passengers were known to be carrying a crystal ball that works any better than the one on your desk or mine. The future is always clouded to mere mortals.
Perhaps we should be discussing why Captain E.J. Smith had the guts to begin launching lifeboats in the dead of night when his ship was still not foundering. Smith was taking a huge risk with the lives of passengers and crew by doing so. He might have been brought up on charges if the ship did not sink and someone died as a result of his rash decision.
-- David G. Brown
