The Amazing Evolution of Lifeboats: From Titanic to Today!

Have you ever wondered how lifeboats work to save people in emergency situations at sea? Lifeboats are crucial for maritime safety, providing a means of evacuation and rescue for those on board a ship in distress. From their design to their operation, we will analyse the workings of these vital vessels and explore the lifesaving technology that goes into ensuring the safety of those at sea. Join us as we answer the question: How do lifeboats work?

00:00 INTRO
01:04 First use of a lifeboat
04:27 Lowering a lifeboat from deck
06:40 Lifeboats today
08:22 Buoyancy and stability
08:44 Enclosed structure
09:06 Safety and survival equipment
09:38 Capacity and seating
10:14 Launch and recovery systems
12:09 Freefall lifeboats
15:34 OUTRO

Oceanliner Designs explores the design, construction, engineering and operation of history’s greatest vessels | from Titanic to Queen Mary and from the Empress of Ireland to the Lusitania. Join maritime researcher and illustrator Michael Brady as he tells the stories behind some of history's most famous ocean liners and machines!

#ships #sinking #disaster #titanic #wrecks #exploration #history #adventure #design #engineering #mairitime #safety #vessels #sailing #documentary #story #oceanlinerdesigns

[philtkaswahl]

Some modern lifeboats are pretty much sci-fi escape pods minus the actually going into space part.

[orenalbertmeisel]

I like how you still manage to pump out interesting videos despite your channel being very niche to begin with

[williamcarter]

I'm a simple man:

I hear our friend Mike Brady.
I upvote and watch.

[LordMephistonk]

Old Lifeboat: like lowering a sleeping baby to bed
New Lifeboat:

[AFNacapella]

those early coast guards must've been a special kind of people, rowing out into the roughest seas with only oil gear and some cork strapped around them

[JamesCarmichael]

I remember watching the footage of the Costa Concordia sinking and what really stuck me was all the difficulties they had launching those modern lifeboats. Even with all the advances in technology they still hadn't solved the issue of launching boats out of a listing ship safely. This video is fascinating. In some respects the lifeboats of today are far more advanced than the ships of time past. At least in an abstract technical sense.

[Darth_Barnaby]

When your friend (non optional) Mike Brady uploads a new video, you always learn something new

[martinsmith]

I was chief electrical engineer at Welin Davit who had a tie up with Harding lifeboats. Many interesting design aspects - for clarity the decent is controlled by centrifugal brakes within the winch that limit the speed once a weighted lever is raised, no power required for launching just for recovery. Same applies to fast resuce craft with semi rigid boats. Enclosed lifeboats for offshore etc have an external sprinkler system plus air cylinders to provide a positive pressure air supply for the interior occupants and engine for a period of time at full throttle as governed by SOLAS regs. Hydrostatic release hook’s that automatically release the boat from wire ropes when entering the water. Dual independent engine starter systems required for emergencies such as twin electric (duplicating everything) and electric plus hydraulic backup using a compressed accumulator system and foot switch valve (a good workout to re-pressurise by hand) etc etc - an interesting micro world aimed at saving lives at sea

[jagerdergroe]

"Modern passenger ships only require fully enclosed lifeboats for 75% of the ships company...."

Hey I've seen this one before, this is a classic!

[GermanGreetings]

Colin Archer from Norway deserves it, to be mentioned here. The Constructor of the famous polar-explorer ''FRAM'', used by Fridtjof Nansen and Roald Amundsen. Colin Archer whitnessed the high numbers of casualties among coastas rescue men. So he developed his worldwide known, very seaworthy `Redningssköyte`... robust boats, born for heavy weather.
Thank you so much for your videos here on YT, Sir !

[sabrinastratton]

We were on a state ferry and i pointed to the boys where muster stations are and how they have life rafts rather than lifeboats. We go theough what to do in an emergency every single time we board, eyeing out where lifejackets are, where the evacuation points and what to listen for (horn blasts) to determine what kind of emergency.

They found it funny that ferries have rafts rather than boats, but each raft can hold up to 100 people

[iwantcrawfish]

I used to be a lifeboat technical engineer for Palfinger marine. got to go all over the place to countless ports, civilian ships, navel vessels, oil rigs, oil platforms, and yachts. work never ran out but it could be very very stressful because lives depend on you to do a perfect job when working and servicing lifeboats. my favorite part was testing the lifeboat launch systems though.

[BryanM]

The life raft piece reminds me of when we were doing survival at sea training in the Australian Navy. We were first taught in a classroom, and instructed in the launch procedure before going on to the deck of a moored ship for practical training. The raft is launched and then inflated by the pulling of a 15m+ painter line to initiate the inflation. However when launching from the deck we were to first pull 2-3m of the line out before pushing the raft overboard.
I was chosen out of the class of about 20 and given the honour to unclasp the raft and start pulling the line out. At this point and to the surprise of us all, especially me, even before the raft had left its cradle it burst out of it's shell as it started to prematurely inflate😮, much to the entertainment of my fellow recruits. We were then instructed to immediately push the still inflating raft over the side where it landed upside down in the freezing water. The groaning and laughter from the rest of the class I can still hear all these years later.😳
Later the instructor found that the painter line had been cut short, to not much more than a metre. I was off the hook 🙂

[danesorensen]

That's the difference between me and my friend Mike Brady: I would ONLY be willing to ride a freefall lifeboat for fun.

[robtnt]

Great to start the day with my friend Mike Brady!

[davidrudd]

Back in the late 70s I served on the USS Sacramento. AOE 1. We told to go in the lifeboat to update the survival gear to our surprise the 'gear' consisted of WW2 C rations cigarettes all from WW2 including all water cans (rusted through) The Sacramento was built in 1963. Never knew if these survival rations were the originals or not but they were all manufactured in 1943

[IntrepidMilo]

I have been in both free-fall and Davit-launched lifeboats. Both have their benefits and differences.

[Cuccos]

When I was working on Queen Victoria there was a manual for lifeboat operation in the crew mess. When I had time I thoroughfully studied that from the beginning to the end. I like that kind of technical manuals, so I just really enjoyed that what others would find boring.

[Walker_TR]

Ah, it's a great start to the day when my friend, Mike Brady from Oceanliner Designs uploads. Great video as always, Mike and crew!

[etxcwwq]

The modern lifeboats are certainly impressive Mike, and so is your channel .