One Chance Of Life: The Titanic’s Lifeboats: Lies, Lethargy, and the Law

This fascinating account seeks to explain why there were not enough lifeboats on the Titanic for most of the passengers and crew when she was lost that memorable night in April, 1912.

For years before the disaster, there were numerous accounts of the desperate struggles of passengers to escape sinking ships. The forlorn expectation that there were enough spaces on the few lifeboats carried were dashed as brutally as the pounding waves that threatened to swamp their last refuge before the deadly embrace of an unforgiving sea overwhelmed them.

This is the story of the unfettered political and corporate policies over many years to build bigger and bigger passenger ships and provide only the token number of lifeboats required by antiquated regulations.

Rich or poor, first class or third class, purchasing a ticket did not guarantee you a place on a lifeboat. To compound the issue, within the shipping industry, there was a widely held belief that lifeboats were an unnecessary impediment to passenger enjoyment and an unwelcome expense for the ship owners.

Shipbuilding, it seems, had progressed to the point that peddling the myth of the ‘unsinkable ship’ became acceptable. In the eyes of the shipowners, the need for lifeboats was going the way of masts and sails.

Extensively referencing historical data, this carefully researched book, explores the motives behind the failure to provide sufficient lifeboats for everyone on board the Titanic and the mistakes and miscalculations made which led to many of the lifeboats not being filled to their capacity leaving those hundreds remaining on the sloping decks left to look on helplessly as the inevitable clutch of the cold North Atlantic awaited.