Titanic Tidbit: The Evacuation Examined

TIME...............LIFEBOAT..................# ABOARD

11:40 - Collision
12:40..................7............................28
12:43..................5............................36
12:55..................3............................32
1:00....................8...........................28
1:05....................1...........................12
1:10....................6............................28
1:13....................16..........................40
1:17....................14..........................58
1:20....................9...........................56
1:25....................11..........................70
1:25....................12..........................30
1:28....................13..........................65
1:32....................15..........................65
1:40....................10..........................35
1:45....................2............................25
1:50....................4............................32
2:00....................C...........................44
2:05....................D...........................24
2:20 - Titanic sinks

Above is a breakdown of when each lifeboat left the Titanic, also noting the number of people in each lifeboat. Starboard boats appear in blue, and Port boats appear in red.

The data above provokes many questions, a few of which I will attempt to answer here.

Q: Why did the boats start leaving the boat much fuller at about 1:15 a.m.?

A: The openings for the bow anchors went under at 1:15, letting in a massive amount of water. The ship lurched downward and began to sink much more rapidly at this point.

Q: Why were there noticeably fewer people in the port boats than there were in the starboard boats?

A: Most of the starboard boats were filled by Officer Murdoch and most of the port boats were filled by Officer Lightoller. While Murdoch was well aware of the capacity of each boat, Lightoller was reluctant to fill the boats more than halfway; he feared the weight would be too much.
Also, the two officers interpreted the captain's orders differently. Murdoch's policy was "women and children first." He first allowed women and children into the boats, and then if there was room, allowed men in. Lightoller's policy was "women and children only." If there were unoccupied seats in a boat and no more women in sight, Lightoller left the seats empty instead of letting men aboard.

Q: Why were boats "C" and "D" launched, but not "A" and "B"?

A: Lifeboats "A" and "B" were awkwardly located atop the officers' quarters, higher up than "C" and "D." As the crewmen tried to move boat "B," it fell onto the deck upside-down, and was subsequently washed away when the first funnel toppled. The crew simply ran out of time with boat "A." They had managed to secure it to the davits and had started loading it with third-class passengers when the ship started to take its final plunge. A couple of quick-thinking passengers managed to cut the ropes just in time, and it floated free, albeit full of water and mostly empty.
Several people were able to swim to "A" and "B" and float on top of them until picked up by other lifeboats.