Lifeboats of the RMS Titanic 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. Lists had been posted on the ship allocating crew members to particular lifeboat stations, but few appeared to have read them or to have known what they
Sinking of the RMS Titanic 1912, "Titanic"s radio operators received six messages from other ships warning of drifting ice, which passengers on "Titanic" had begun to notice during the afternoon. The ice conditions in the North Atlantic were the worst for any April in the previous 50 years (which was the reason why the lookouts were unaware that they were about to steam into a line of drifting ice several miles wide and many miles long). Not all of these messages were relayed by the radio operators. At the time, all wireless operators on ocean liners were employees of the Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company and