Question: Why were many of the lifeboats intentionally lowered down to the water without being filled to capacity?
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Chosen answer: This is what really happened - it was at first feared that the davits used to lower the boats would buckle under the weight, or that the boats themselves would break in the middle, and so many of the ones lowered first were not filled to capacity - one of them, with space for forty, had just twelve people on board. Later, as it was realised that there was not nearly enough life-boat space for all the passengers and crew, boats were filled to capacity, or even over-filled (one boat carried seventy).
STP ★