Kip, I bet you have the answer for this. The A&E documentary said that Carpathia placed 13 lifeboats in the White Star Lines berth in NYC. There were 20 boats (16 plus 4 collapsible) on the Titanic. Why the discrepancy? I realize that one or two collapsibles were overturned and thus probably left in the sea, but what about all the others? Did Carpathia not have room for all the boats and simply leave them at sea?

-- Bob Gregorio (rgregori@pacbell.net), February 16, 1998

Answers

Bob again. Forgot to add that it must have been an extremely emotional/sad moment when all those boats were put in the berth, quite a difference with what was originally expected - a huge, beautiful ship.

-- Bob Gregorio (rgregori@pacbell.net), February 16, 1998.

Bob,

Your last sentence in correct. Carpathia didn't have room for all twenty lifeboats, so Captain Rostrom simply cut loose the ones he couldn't take on. The addition of 700 extra people on board created a serious space problem on Carpathia, and clearly these people took priority over any considerations of getting all the lifeboats back to White Star.

-- Thomas Shoebotham (cathytom@ix.netcom.com), February 16, 1998.

Thomas, that leads me to another question. Where did those 5-6 other boats end up? Surely they washed ashore somewhere? Like Brock, I am suddenly best friends with the new owners.

-- Bob G (rgregori@pacbell.net), February 16, 1998.

Bob, Tom is correct; Carpathia simply didn't have room for all the lifeboats from Titanic.

There is a photograph of a crew from one of the body-recovery ships chartered by White Star, in a lifeboat trying to recover an overturned collapsible (presumably collapsible B, which Col. Gracie, Charles Lightoller, Jack Thayer, Harold Bride, and others balanced on after the sinking). Don't know if they recovered it, though. Collapsible A was badly damaged in the sinking (one of the canvas sides was torn, and the gear to raise the sides was broken), and so was probably not worth salvaging. That leaves us with collapsibles C and D, and three regular boats. They may have been picked up by one of the other ships that came to the wreck site, or by one of the body recovery ships. We may never know the answer to that one, either.

Cheers!

-- Kip Henry (kip-henry@ouhsc.edu), February 16, 1998.

Note to self: Proofread, proofread, proofread!!!

Captain Rostron, not Rostrom of the Cunard liner Carpathia!

-- Thomas Shoebotham (cathytom@ix.netcom.com), February 16, 1998.