Titanic Lifeboats. RMS Tititanic Lifeboats. Illustration of how the lifeboats were lowered down the steel wall of Titanic, compared with a city office building. Titanic carried a total of 20 lifeboats, not enough to hold all the passengers and crew and when the lifeboats were launched they were not filled to capacity. Of the 2,227 passengers and crew members who set sail, only 705 Titanic passengers survived. Titanic was built by Harland & Wolff in Belfast Ireland during 1910 - 1911 and later sank on April 15th, 1912 after striking an iceberg off the coast of New Foundland during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York, USA with the loss of 1,522 passengers and crew.