Titanic’s 20 lifeboats had seats for 1,178 people. How many people does the British inquiry estimate left the ship in them: about 450, about 650 or about 1,100?
About 650. The inquiry estimates 652. In its words, “only 652 could have left the ‘Titanic’ in boats, or an average of about 36 per boat.”
Now the first twist. The witnesses’ boat by boat counts, taking the lowest figure each time, added up to “a total of 854 in 18 boats.” The inquiry did not accept them: “It is obvious that these figures are quite unreliable.” So 652 is the inquiry’s own estimate, made “allowing for those subsequently picked up,” not a sum of what witnesses said.
Twenty boats, 1,178 seats
The British report lists 20 boats of three kinds.
- 14 wooden lifeboats, each “designed to carry 65 persons”: 910 seats.
- 2 emergency boats, each “designed to carry 40 persons”: 80 seats.
- 4 Engelhardt collapsible boats, each designed to carry 47: 188 seats.
Add them up and you get 1,178, the total the report prints: “Thus the total boat accommodation was 1,178 persons.” The report also measured the boats by volume, which is where the paperwork gets truly precise: “a total of 11327·9 cubic ft. for 1,178 persons.”
The same report puts 2,201 people on board. Seats for 1,178 is about 53.5% of that, or seats for about half the people aboard (our arithmetic: 1,178 / 2,201 = 0.535).
The rules asked for less
The second twist: Titanic was legal. Britain’s Board of Trade boat table dated from 1894, and it scaled with a ship’s gross tonnage only up to a point. Its top row read “10,000 and upwards.” For every ship in that row, whatever its size, the minimum was 16 boats under davits. Titanic’s gross tonnage was 46,328. The table had simply run out of rows.
For Titanic, the inquiry says the rules “exacted a provision of 9,625 cubic feet,” which at 10 cubic feet per person it converts to “a provision for 962 persons.” Titanic carried seats for 1,178, which the inquiry called “a number far in excess of the requirements of the Table and Rules.” That is 216 seats more than the rules required (our arithmetic: 1,178 minus 962 = 216).
About 80 minutes of launches
The collision came at 11:40 p.m., ship’s time. The order to uncover the boats followed at about 12:05 a.m., and the order to swing them out at 12:20 a.m. By the inquiry’s own, admittedly unreliable, times, the first boat, No. 7, was lowered at 12:45 a.m., and the last boat lowered from davits, collapsible D, went at 2:05 a.m. That is a window of about 80 minutes for 18 boats (our arithmetic).
The other two, collapsibles A and B, were stowed on the roof of the officers’ house and never lowered. The report’s table says each “Floated off when the ship sank and was utilised as a raft.”
Some boats left well short of full. The report is specific: “No. 1 certainly left with only 12; this was an emergency boat with a carrying capacity of 40.” That is 30% of its seats (our arithmetic: 12 / 40 = 0.30). “No. 7 left with only 27, and No. 6 with only 28; these were lifeboats with a carrying capacity of 65 each”.
Why? The report offers one reason in its own words: “Many explanations are forthcoming, one being that the passengers were unwilling to leave the ship.” We add no causes the report does not give. Neither inquiry report gives an exact count of who sat in each boat, and the British report warns of “a tendency in the evidence to exaggerate the numbers in each boat.”
Data note: two inquiries, slightly different counts
The US Senate inquiry counted the same 20 boats with different capacities: “Total lifeboat capacity, 1,176.” It also noted that the ship’s davits “were thus capable of handling 48 boats.” That is the US report’s statement of what the davits could handle, not a rule the ship broke. The US report’s table puts 2,223 people aboard, against the British 2,201. Either way, the boats had seats for about half the people aboard (our arithmetic: 1,176 / 2,223 = 0.529).
The same British report gives 711 saved in its Numbers Saved table and 712 in its account of the boats; the US Senate report says 706. We quote each as printed. No arithmetic on this page uses a saved total.
The short version
Titanic’s 20 boats had seats for 1,178 people, 216 more than the Board of Trade’s rules required. The inquiry estimates that only 652 people left the ship in them. That leaves 526 of the 1,178 seats without anyone the inquiry counts as leaving in a boat (our arithmetic: 1,178 minus 652 = 526). Of those, 94 were in collapsibles A and B, which floated off rather than being lowered. The 18 boats that were lowered had 1,084 seats, more than 400 above the inquiry’s 652 (our arithmetic: 1,084 minus 652 = 432; 652 / 18 = 36.2, the inquiry’s “about 36 per boat”). For who survived, by sex and class, see Who Survived the Titanic, by Sex and Class.
Last checked: 2026-10-19, against the British and US inquiry reports as transcribed by the Titanic Inquiry Project.
This article was machine-checked against the sources above and has not been expert-reviewed. Spotted an error or a newer public figure? Please tell us on our contact page with the article link and we will review it.
Sources
- British Wreck Commissioner’s Inquiry, Report, “Account of the Saving and Rescue of Those Who Survived: Boats,” transcribed by the Titanic Inquiry Project, https://www.titanicinquiry.org/BOTInq/BOTReport/BOTRepBoats.php (accessed Oct 19, 2026).
- British Wreck Commissioner’s Inquiry, Report, “Life-saving Appliances,” transcribed by the Titanic Inquiry Project, https://www.titanicinquiry.org/BOTInq/BOTReport/botRepLSApp.php (accessed Oct 19, 2026).
- British Wreck Commissioner’s Inquiry, Report, “Board of Trade’s Administration,” transcribed by the Titanic Inquiry Project, https://www.titanicinquiry.org/BOTInq/BOTReport/botRepBOT.php (accessed Oct 19, 2026).
- British Wreck Commissioner’s Inquiry, Report, “Numbers Saved,” transcribed by the Titanic Inquiry Project, https://www.titanicinquiry.org/BOTInq/BOTReport/botRepSaved.php (accessed Oct 19, 2026).
- United States Senate Inquiry, Report, “Boat Davits and Lifeboats of the Steamship Titanic,” transcribed by the Titanic Inquiry Project, https://www.titanicinquiry.org/USInq/USReport/AmInqRep03.php (accessed Oct 19, 2026).
- United States Senate Inquiry, Report, “Abandoning Ship,” transcribed by the Titanic Inquiry Project, https://www.titanicinquiry.org/USInq/USReport/AmInqRep07.php (accessed Oct 19, 2026).