Why did they not provide more lifeboats for the Titanic?

Answer 1

The problem was that there ware far too few of them. There were twenty aboard, although Titanic had the capacity to carry 48. The twenty lifeboats could only have carried 52% of Titanic's passengers, although when launched during the disaster many were woefully underfilled.

Answer 2

The lifeboats collected rainwater so they were designed with holes that could be plugged or unplugged. Unfortunately, some boats, like #7, Dorothy Gibson's boat, were not plugged in so nobody knew that until they set down on the water.

Dorothy used her dress to plug the leak and the plug was actually never found.

Answer 3

The British Board of Trade regulators determined that any ship over 10,000 tons need carry only enough lifeboats to seat 990 people. The White Star Line actually fitted out the Titanicwith more lifeboats than required, but still only enough for about 1,200 people, roughly half the number on board. The Titanic's boat davits could accommodate 36 lifeboats as opposed to 16. This would have been enough for 4,000 people, well over the ship's maximum capacity of 3,300. No one envisioned ever needing all the boats at once. The worst case scenario was to use them to ferry passengers to another ship and then to send them back to pick up more.

Answer 4

The people of the White Star Line thought that the sufficient amount of lifeboats would have cluttered the deck. They were more concerned about appearance than about safety