Oleg Zabluda's blog
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
 
There is a persistent talk about how Titanic didn't have enough lifeboats, which is a bit misguided.
There is a persistent talk about how Titanic didn't have enough lifeboats, which is a bit misguided.

From: http://lewrockwell.com/orig5/cox-s6.1.1.html
"""
Titanic had lifeboat spaces for only about 1200 of its 2200 passengers and crew. The Costa Concordia was known to have lifeboats for all [1]. Yet the presence or absence of these life-saving devices wasn’t the end of the tale, for either the Titanic or the Costa Concordia.

The Titanic didn’t have lifeboats for all, but it turned out to have lifeboats to spare. Only 700 of its lifeboat spaces were used. Some boats were over-filled; more were under-filled.

Generations of pseudo-Titanic propaganda have led people to believe that all risks to life can be averted – if only government regulations are followed and sufficient lifeboats appear on deck. The mere fact that such provisions have been made may lull both passengers and crew into thinking that it is the boats themselves, rather than human intelligence, good order, calm, and courage that are necessary to save human lives.

When Costa Concordia’s lifeboats proved not to be readily available [OZ: due to the listing] , the passengers panicked, as they believed that the Titanic’s passengers had panicked. That wasn’t true either; there was remarkably little panic on the night of April 14-15, 1912. But when people think that panic is called for, that is what they will probably get – panic. If they don’t get something worse.
"""

Or compare it to the "The Eastland Disaster" in 1915.
"""
In 1915, the new federal Seaman's Act had been passed and signed by President Woodrow Wilson because of the RMS Titanic disaster. This required retrofitting of a complete set of lifeboats on the Eastland as on many other passenger vessels. This additional weight, ironically, probably made the Eastland more dangerous and it worsened the already severe problem of being top heavy. On 24 July 1915 the ship rolled over while tied to a dock in the Chicago River. A total of 844 passengers and crew were killed.
"""
[1] Costa Concordia, had lifeboats for 125% of max capacity of 5000 people, while having only 4252 on board.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costa_Concordia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costa_Concordia_disaster
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Eastland#The_Eastland_Disaster
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/1/15/1326652779749/Costa-Concordia-runs-agro-007.jpg

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