My gentle refutation of the "More lifeboats wouldn't matter" opinion.

It's often argued that more lifeboats wouldn't make a difference, given that they didn't properly launch all of the 20 they had available. This is certainly a fair point, but imagining that Titanic magically had 60 or so lifeboats, here's how I think things go:

The first half hour or so plays out more or less the same, with Andrews, Captain Smith, and others inspecting the damage to the ship. When Captain Smith gives the order to have the boats swung out, the fact that there's room for everyone means keeping the fact that the ship will sink secret isn't as critical. They'll still probably keep it quiet, but more of the sailors will be working on the assumption that whether people die or not tonight is up to how fast they work. Not to mention that Smith, Andrew, Ismay and others might be more forceful in getting the boats filled, I think Smith would be less in shock and would lead a larger role in filling the boats two. My guess is that they'd manage to get the full 20 plus one or two more in the time they have.

Then look at what happened to Lusitania. When her final plunge began several boats were simply cut loose and floated or slid off the ship, some of them were capsized still folded or swamped, but the fact that people clung to these still saved lives. You'll probably end up with the same on Titanic, and it'll lead to several more collapsible A and B situations.

So in short, would they save everyone? Hell no. Would they save more lives? Fuck yes.My guess is the death toll ends up being in the high three figures, so about 500 more lives saved.