Small boats kept on ships for emergencies, used to rescue people if the ship sinks or must be abandoned.
Lifeboat combines 'life' (safety, survival) and 'boat.' The compound word emerged in the 1700s as maritime safety became more formalized, with dedicated boats required to carry all passengers.
The Titanic tragedy in 1912 revealed that having lifeboats and actually having *enough* lifeboats are very different things—it led to international maritime laws requiring one lifeboat seat per person!
Historical maritime protocol: 'women and children first' encoded gendered assumptions of male expendability and female fragility (Titanic era); shaped survival hierarchies.
Use functionally: 'lifeboat capacity' or 'evacuation procedure' without gendered survival protocol language.
["evacuation vessels","emergency rescue craft"]
Women maritime workers (deck officers, engineers) have fought systematic exclusion from lifesaving protocols; maritime safety now emphasizes competence-based, not gender-based, deployment.
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