By everything I've read, the White Star Line felt that having enough lifeboats to accommodate everyone onboard made the deck look cluttered, and what were they needed for anyway? In their view, they had constructed a ship that was unsinkable, thereby obviating the need for lifeboats. Therefore, the decision was made to remove many of the lifeboats. In essence, the lifeboats that were left onboard were really only there for show: as it was thought that theye would never be used, none of the crewmen were experienced in getting them down and into the water, and the davits the lifeboats were on didn't work properly, so when it came time to actually lower them down, it was a real mess - in fact, some of the ropes had to actually be cut to release the boats into the water because the davits weren't lowering them.