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Piguarak t1_j5k4wz9 wrote

Reply to comment by SBRH33 in TIL that Titanic crewman Herbert Pitman made an attempt to row his lifeboat over to rescue people in the water, but was overruled by the other occupants of the boat, who were worried about people swarming them and duly complied. Pitman said that this haunted him throughout his life. by ChadExtra

The main lifeboats on the Titanic were 30 feet long and had a capacity of 65 people each. That is far too big a boat for a single person to capsize. It would probably take at least a dozen people grabbing onto a single side to flip a boat like that. Many survivors reported that the screams of the people in the water only lasted a couple of minutes, and then there was silence as most were incapacitated by the freezing water.

I think that by the time the lifeboats rowed back to get survivors, most would either be dead or too weak to swamp the boat.

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