At the time of its launch, the Titanic met all British maritime regulations for number of lifeboats. However, those regulations were based on number of lifeboats per ton (weight of ship), not number of lifeboats (seats) per person on board.

The British Board of Navigation was considering changing the regulation to correspond to the number of people on board, but ship owners were protesting the proposed new regulation as being too expensive.

In anticipation of a regulation change, the designer Thomas Andrews had specified that the Titanic be built to accommodate the additional lifeboats. However, they were not installed for the maiden voyage.

The decision to not provide enough lifeboats to allow one seat per person was made by the Titanic's owner, Bruce Ismay. Along with others of his day, he assumed that the Titanic was unsinkable. Also, extra life boats would have crowded the promenade deck for first class passengers.