The ship was built to hold up to 64 lifeboats! They quickly vetoed that idea of having 64 lifeboats on board because it would clutter up the decks and use up valuable room and cramp the passengers. The Titanic had 20 lifeboats on it in the end, which ironically was more then required by law. That is because in 1912 the amount of lifeboats required by the Board of Trade was set depending on the ship's weight. Since Titanic was one of the heaviest boats of it's time the weight class Titanic fit into was 10,000 tons and over though Titanic was 46,328 tons, way over 10,000 tons. The class she was in only required her to have enough lifeboats to carry 1,060 people. Titanic held more then this with 1,178 people over the amount required by law. It didn't really help that the lifeboats were not filled to capacity only 705 of the 1,178 seats were filled. A lot of people think this was all the officers fault for launching the boats half full but it actually was not all their fault. Some passengers refused to get in boats because they could not possible imagine the ship sinking but most passengers did not even know the extent of the situation. Most of the officers did not know the extent of the situation either until it was too late. It reality the number of lifeboats that Titanic should have had was around that 64, but out of this horrible ship wreck we now have the law that you need enough life boats to hold all your passengers no matter what. Even though this was a horrible disaster we all learned a lesson.
I love you and miss you dad, Antun Perdija 27-06-41 - 28-12-00
RIP Daniel Colvin 5 June 1974 - 7 June 2011, Best Friend, lover, fiancee
RIP David Edgar, 2 Dec 1953 - 10 June 2011, Uncle
RIP Agnes Steele Edgar, 17 May 1926 - 4 July 2011, Grandmother