I have also read from some reports that there was some kind of a drain hole or something of that order in the bottom of the lifeboat and water was coming into the lifeboat until someone found the drain plug and put it in the hole to stop the water.
Please be advised (paraphrasing the old Will Roger's quote about newspapers if the above is not correct) " All I know is what I read on these forums, the movies or the internet and that's my excuse for ignorance ! " ...LOL
Yes, there was a drain hole in the bottom of each boat. They were necessary to prevent rain from accumulating in the boats. Each boat was provided with two plugs for each hole:
"(
b) With two plugs for each plug hole, attached with lanyards or chains and one set and a half of thole pins or crutches, attached to the boat by sound lanyards." (British Inquiry 1718)
The plugs were mentioned by multiple witnesses at both inquiries. Several witnesses testified that their boat didn't have a plug, though, since more than one person could have mentioned a single boat, I don't know exactly how many were missing plugs.
All wooden lifeboats, Titanic's included, were fitted with airtight copper buoyancy tanks that would keep the boat afloat even if the plug was missing. These were required to have buoyancy equivalent to 10% of the boat's capacity. Each boat was provided with a baler (though it's not clear if any boats were missing them) for removing water.
While it doesn't apply to Titanic, the idea of boats being "in the chocks too long" reminds me of the General Slocum fire in 1904, where the lifeboats were fixed to the decks with metal wire and cemented to the chocks with heavy coats of paint.