The Titanic's Best Lifeboat

This episode of 99% Invisible explores the history and misconceptions surrounding lifeboats, particularly in relation to the Titanic disaster. It challenges the common narrative that the lack of lifeboats was solely due to hubris, arguing that the "ship as its own lifeboat" philosophy, focusing on building safer and more resilient ships, was the prevailing strategy at the time. The podcast details how various factors, including the Titanic's design flaws, the failure of the radio communication with the Californian, and the unexpected sea conditions, contributed to the tragedy. It concludes that while the Titanic disaster led to the mandate of lifeboats for all, the circumstances of that night created a misleading impression of their effectiveness, and modern lifeboat technology has since improved to meet those expectations.