I read a report of a contest by a class of engineering students, asked to prepare their best Titanic solutions. The winner was using their existing lifeboats as makeshift catamarans. In the very calm water that night and the following day, lashing two boats together with scavenged timbers would have allowed the lifeboats to carry the entire number of passengers and crew. They would not have capsized, and the reduced freeboard would not have mattered in the flat sea.
20-20 hingsight.
If they could remain sure of the seams remaining air-tight, perhaps turning the lifeboats upside down and then lashing them together in pairs would have kept the people afloat even if the water did become a little choppy.
Lashed together, the upside-down boats would be stable, unlike the collapsible that entered the water upside down, but carried a number of survivors who, led by an officer (Lightolier?) constantly needed to shift their weight in unison to keep the upside down boat stable.
But then they would have no other choice--i.e., if it became necessary for the men to enter the water because of even rougher seas, it would be unlikely they could right the boats.
Also, it would probably be impossible to row the upside down boats away from the sinking ship, and thereby avoid being sucked down as the water entered ths ship through various openings in the hull, and also to avoid being swamped by those in the water trying to scramble aboard.
...asked to prepare their best Titanic solutions.My best Titanic solution would be that instead of trying to turn, they simply give up and ram the iceberg head on. The Titanic would suffer damage on the first compartment, but it would not have received a long gash through the majority of them, and would probably still have stayed afloat.