What happened to the the Titanic lifeboats?

Question

After all they did not sink. They would be worth a fortune today

Answer 1

Nobody knows for sure.  First of all, the Carpathia wouldn't have claimed them, as she had no claim to them.  In fact, the first thing she did on arriving in New York was steam over to the White Star pier and lower Titanic's lifeboats.  On April 20th, a group of White star workmen visited the boats, removing the remaining company flags and nameplates.  A photo does exist that was taken in Southampton after the disaster.  It shows the Olympic (Titanic's sister ship) with lifeboats in the foreground, suggesting they may have been brought home by the sister ship.

Answer 2

Many were taken to New York by the Carpathia and sold or re-deployed to other White Star ships, including the famous 'Lucky 13'.

Answer 3

I have read about 15 websites and there doesn't seem to be any public record of what happened to the lifeboats.  One page says that they floated at the docks in New York for some time but there are no notes about what happened after that.

My guess would be that the Carpathia took as many as they could fit and left the others floating the water after the survivors boarded.  

I posted 3 of the websites but if you type in the full question in a search you'll get a ton of great resources

Great question!

Answer 4

They hit an iceberg

Answer 5

i saw a documentary a few years back, and it showed the lifeboats in the part of the world where they landed. rotted away now i suppose.