Why were there not enough lifeboats for all of the people on board the ship?

Answer 1

Shipping laws at the time did not require that there be enough lifeboats for everyone on board. The laws were based on tonnage, not capacity, so every ship longer or shorter than a certain number of feet had to have a certain number of lifeboats. The plans originally called for around 32 lifeboats, but Bruce Ismay, among others, made the decision to cut the number down to 20, as the boat deck was becoming "too crowded." The original number of lifeboats would have held around 1,900 people. However, even after cutting the number of boats down to 20, the Titanic still exceeded the number of lifeboats required by law--16 would have been the minimum.

It is important to note that lifeboats were neither designed nor intended to sail on the open ocean. For past rescues, another ship would arrive in time and anchor across from the ship in distress, and the lifeboats would be used to ferry passengers over to the rescue ship. The empty lifeboats would then be taken back to the sinking vessel, and the process would be repeated. This would have made extra lifeboats unnecessary. Had there been any available ships nearby, this is the way the Titanic rescue would have proceeded. Unfortunately, since no one was around to hear the calls for help (and the ones that could have did not have their radios turned on), the lifeboats had to become independently sailing vessels.

Answer 2

Simply because the titanic was one of the first major boats to set sail and many lifeboats had never been needed on boats before. Something as drastic as the titanic sinking had never been experienced before. They were simply unprepared, thankfully the titanic changed that.