I am going to reply even though I run a big risk of repeating what other's have written. I do think it is very plausible that with team work and clear thought processes people could have survived on makeshift rafts. I believe there would have been ample material around from the interior of the ship to collect objects that would allow you to create something... but in order to do such a thing you would have to overcome the human urge of pure terror and panic. I know people will laugh at this, but if you managed to tie say 20 life vests together would that possibly hold a man up?? Maybe 2 or 3??

The life vests worked quite well at holding up passengers -- if I recall, they were the reason so many bodies were recovered, identified, and buried. (The problem was the cold water. Most of the passengers died of hypothermia.) The problem would be collecting enough of them to fashion a raft.

In addition, if you've seen the recent film, Titanic did in fact take about two hours to sink, meaning that anything taking longer than two hours to assemble and not able to be assembled on a crowded deck is out of the question.

Of course, if I could fix one thing, I'd have had the Collapsibles launched properly -- if I recall, Collapsible B was launched upside-down, which made it difficult for the men to hang on to it. Collapsible A was nearly swamped shortly after its launching.

forgive me - but what exactly is the question ?

are you singular attempting to escape the titanic disater ?

or are you attempting to devise a credible escape plan for the entire ships company and passengers to be evacuated ?

if its the first - the simply be on the first lifeboat launched - capacity was IIC 68 - and AFAIK it was lowered with just 8 people on board

if its the second - then you need to convince the senior officers to accept that the ship is doomed with in 30 minuites of the collisionm - and take descisive action to evacuate the entire complement

titanic had ships carpenters , engineers etc - who if ordered - could have made many extra makeshift rafts and incresead the capacity of existing boats / radts with extra boutancy aids etc

would they have made enough , and would they all have worked - who knows - but it would have been a better effort than the shambles that ensued