<P> Holms made his comments six years after the sinking of Titanic, an indication of the persistence of the view that "every ship should be her own lifeboat". Sailors and shipbuilders of the time had a low opinion of the usefulness of lifeboats in an emergency and considered it more important to make a ship "unsinkable". Admiral Lord Charles Beresford, who served simultaneously as a high - ranking Royal Navy officer and Member of Parliament, told the House of Commons a month after the disaster: </P> <P> Remember that on not more than one day in twelve all the year round can you lower a boat . With the roll of the ship the boats swing and will be smashed to smithereens against the side of the ship . The boats then should not be overdone...It might be fairly supposed that had the Titanic floated for twelve hours all might have been saved . </P> <P> The White Star Line never envisaged that all of the crew and passengers would have to be evacuated at once, as Titanic was considered almost unsinkable . The lifeboats were instead intended to be used to transfer passengers off the ship and onto a nearby vessel providing assistance . While Titanic was under construction, an incident involving the White Star liner RMS Republic appeared to confirm this approach . Republic was involved in a collision with the Lloyd Italiano liner SS Florida in January 1909 and sank . Even though she did not have enough lifeboats for all passengers, they were all saved because the ship was able to stay afloat long enough for them to be ferried to ships coming to assist . This fact is what led to the harsh condemnation of Captain Stanley Lord of Californian, who both American and British inquiries into the disaster felt could have saved many if not all of the passengers and crew had she heeded the Titanic's distress calls . In this scenario, Titanic's lifeboats would have been adequate to ferry the passengers to safety as planned . However, it is worth noting that the ferrying of passengers between two ships would have been a long, arduous process even under the best conditions . It took Carpathia well over four hours to pick up and account for all of Titanic's lifeboats in the morning after the disaster . During the sinking of the aforementioned Republic in 1909, it took nearly half a day to ferry all of her passengers to rescue ships, and during the sinking of the Italian liner Andrea Doria in 1956 it took nearly eight hours to ferry all her passengers to safety . Both liners sank at a much slower rate, roughly half a day, in contrast to Titanic, which sank slightly shy of three hours after her collision with the iceberg . </P> <P> While Titanic's supply of lifeboats was plainly inadequate, so too was the training that her crew had received in their use . Only one lifeboat drill had been carried out while the ship was docked . It was a cursory effort, consisting of two boats being lowered, each manned by one officer and four men who merely rowed around the dock for a few minutes before returning to the ship . The boats were supposed to be stocked with emergency supplies, but Titanic's passengers later found that they had only been partially provisioned . No lifeboat or fire drills had been carried out since Titanic left Southampton . A lifeboat drill had been scheduled for the morning before the ship sank, but was cancelled, allegedly because the ship's captain, Edward Smith, wanted to deliver one last Sunday service before he went into full retirement . </P>

Who didn't put enough lifeboats on the titanic