On the morning of April 18th, 1912 the Cunard liner RMS Carpathia docked at Pier 39, New York. The Cunard vessel carried with her 713 of Titanic’s survivors. Many of them had been rescued from Titanic’s debris field and were picked up by the Carpathia from the Titanic’s remaining lifeboats. Only thirteen of Titanic’s lifeboats were recovered and taken to New York. However, since 1912 the whereabouts of Titanic’s lifeboats seem to have sunk to the bottom of the history books.
Construction and Design of the Olympic Class Lifeboats:
Titanic’s lifeboats were constructed at the Belfast shipyard Harland and Wolff. The yard had its own lifeboat workshop in which lifeboats were constructed, these boats are traditionally fitted together by blacksmiths and coppersmiths. The most common look for a standard lifeboat, that can be seen decorating many Ocean Liners in the early 1900s, is what is known as the ‘clinker method’ or ‘lapstrake’. This method consisted of layering the wood, often mahogany and oak, to construct the lifeboat layers on top of each other. This gave the boat a seamless and effortless sleek appearance.
Titanic’s lifeboats have often been a hot area of debate, many speculate that managing Director of the White Star Line; Joseph Bruce Ismay had endless arguments with Titanic’s two main designers: Thomas Andrews and Alexander Carlisle over the number of lifeboats that the Olympic class needed. Whilst, Andrews and Carlisle had opted that the number of lifeboats should doubled, which appears A sensible idea considering that Olympic, Titanic and the unborn Gigantic (Britannic) were double the length of any other Ocean liner on the planet. Ismay supported that the Olympic class did have enough lifeboats to meet the standards of the Board of Trade, which at that time was sixteen. A compromise was eventually reached that the Olympic class would still had sixteen lifeboats, but an additional four collapsible lifeboats would be fitted on the vessels. Collapsible A and B were located on either side of the Officer’s quarters on the boat deck. Whilst collapsible C and D were located at either side of the forward starboard deck.
The Parts That Went Missing:
Whilst docked up in New York the Titanic frenzied press desperately tried to track down any survivor of the Titanic. Admission for the press and public to access the dock that Carpathia was berthed in were subsequently denied. However, this didn’t stop the press or residents of the city trying to get their own piece of the famous Titanic. According to the book Titanic In Photographs multiple parts of Titanic’s lifeboats seemed to have disappeared. Between thirteen of Titanic’s recovered lifeboats 98 parts off the boats went missing this included, flags, Liverpool and Titanic name plates, draft plates and numbers. Some of these items since have been returned to museums for example Titanic’s name plate and two of the White Star Line flags off lifeboat 16 were re-homed in the Liverpool Merseyside Maritime Museum. Some pieces can be located in the Titanic Museum in Branson Missouri, which homes over 400 artifacts from Titanic’s wreckage.
Although it’s not too hard to locate pieces from the lifeboats it is increasingly difficult to find the actual bodies of the boats. One piece can be certain. Titanic’s collapsible A was found drifting upside down had been deemed to difficult to rescue was set a drift in the Atlantic. Not even a month later collapsible A was found by the CS Mackay Bennett alongside B which was found with the de-composing bodies of three of Titanic’s victims. Both collapsible A and B were put into storage with the other remaining thirteen.
As for the lifeboats that made it to New York, it was speculated that the boats had been put into storage between the White Star Line and Cunard pier in New York. However, after December of 1912 the boats simply seemed to have disappeared. Another visible point that was made by Mark Felton’s lecture The Strange Disappearance of Titanic’s Lifeboats had suggested that the thirteen lifeboats were fitted alongside Olympics’ sixteen other lifeboats, to avoid making new ones. It was confirmed by various newspapers that Olympic had picked up the remaining lifeboats. In the Alfred Hitchcock thriller Lifeboat (1944) it was speculated that boat did in fact once belong to the Titanic and Hitchcock had used one of Titanic’s lifeboats. When the prop was auctioned off 20th Century Fox had stated that the prop was indeed a genuine Titanic lifeboat. This could have potentially been the film companies’ way of inviting more bidders or did Hitchcock in fact own a Titanic boat of his own?
In 2013 a lifeboat was found abandoned in an overgrown garden in England. The boat was eventually sold off and the buyer immediately recognized the vessel as White Star boat, almost identical to Titanic’s. The boat’s origins were traced back to being originally bought in Liverpool. where many of the White Star Line vessels had been disposed of.
As always I’ll leave a few external links about Titanic’s lifeboats. Feel free to ask any questions and get in touch.
Have a Titanic week!
- Millie
Strange Disappearance of Titanic’s lifeboats: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_ek9z0Ljvc
The Titanic's last lifeboat: Amazing photos show vessel containing three rotting bodies : https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3547420/Pictured-Titanic-s-lifeboat-contained-three-rotting-bodies-month-later-passing-liner.html
Lifeboats of the RMS Titanic: https://titanicdatabase.fandom.com/wiki/Lifeboats_of_the_RMS_Titanic
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