Lisa Wilkinson

So people aren't really being told what's going on.

People know they've hit an iceberg.

And initially, a lot of them go up to the boat deck because they're going to see an iceberg for the first time.

People were kicking bits of the broken off iceberg around on the deck.

So women and children are told, you're first, but it's actually very hairy getting into one of these lifeboats.

What would be the process?

Well, they've got to swing the boat out from the davits, and one of the first lifeboats they try to get, lifeboat four, they can't get out because there's a key that will release that boat, and they've lost that key as well.

And Captain Smith, prior to all of this...

has decided not to do any of the lifeboat drills that should have been mandatory from the very first day that the ship sails.

So none of the lifeboat drills have been done.

A lot of the ropes are frozen in place.

And the crew as a team have not experienced what it is to bring these lifeboats down.

So when they start getting the lifeboats in position...

There aren't that many people up on deck.

And getting up and over the gunwales and into the lifeboats when you're nine, ten storeys above the freezing cold North Atlantic and you're being told...

see that ship's light in the distance?

That ship's coming to save us.

So you can either stay on board where it's nice and warm... With your husband.

With your husband, or you can get into this lifeboat with your children and kiss your husband goodbye, not knowing what comes next.

So a lot of those early lifeboats left half empty.