The Davits at the Wrecksite

[marina_irc]

I think the original order was more like, "swing out the boats." The AB's working the worm gears just turned them until the davit arms were all the way out, and then worked the falls to lower the boats to the level of deck for loading. Just speculating.

No, that actually makes sense. Given the order to swing out the boats, why wouldn't the AB's just swing them out all the way? Thinking about that for even a moment I agree completely.

 

[Ioannis Georgiou]

Also the crew did not know how the list would change during the sinking (after a 5° list to starboard a few minutes after the collision) so a fully swung out davit was the best to do. Later on there was no time to "play" with the angles. It would require time an ABS of which they were short of. We know they did not as we have reports from both sides how a boat was hanging away from the hull and how people have to step over or jump especially with boats Nos. D, 10, 12 & 14.

 

[Samuel Halpern]

We know they did not as we have reports from both sides how a boat was hanging away from the hull and how people have to step over or jump especially with boats Nos. D, 10, 12 & 14.

Or how some boats came up against the hull as they were being lowered. E.g., boats 6, 15 and C. In the case of C and D, the davits were screwed back inboard to attach the collapsibles after boats 1 and 2 were lowered. Since D was loaded from the boat deck, they could have swung it back out enough to minimize the gap, but the gap would have been increasing as loading continued. In the case of C, it was up against the hull despite the davits being fully swung out when it was lowered.

 

[Samuel Halpern]

One such report about jumping came from George Harder early on, during the loading of boat No. 5 whie the ship was still carrying a small list to starboard:

“I should say it [the gap between the boat and ship’s side] was about a foot and a half. Anyway, you had to jump.”

A gap of about 1½ feet could very well be expected with the ship still carrying a list of 3° to 4° as noted in Table B-1 of Appendix-B of my article: Lifeboats, Launch Times, List and Trim: Part 2 .