Sr. Gopher wrote:
Colorful boats for a last ditch option. I still don't see why they weren't stored in places where they couldn't be shot up by gunfire. Especially on the DDs/DEs. The ships are small targets, and gunfire, if aimed accurately, could shred up the life rafts. Not really the best for something that was meant to save lives.
They were stored out in the open so for speedy deployment. If the ship is going down, especially after a battle, you don't want to be screwing around with trying to get life rafts out of storage. You want to be able to grab them and throw them in the water before the ship's gone! The one's that are rigged on an angle on the edges of the deck were meant to slide off into the water after cutting a line/throwing a switch if the ship was lost.
I'm not entirely sure but weren't some of them rigged in such a way that if the ship did go down they'd release and float off? I know current ones have hydrostatic fuses but don't know when those came about.