Ed Pawlowski wrote:

What he was guilty of was reducing the number of lifeboats.

"To accommodate the luxurious features Ismay ordered the number of
lifeboats reduced from 48 to 16, the latter being the minimum allowed
by the Board of Trade, based on the Titanic's projected tonnage."

May have been legal, but it certainly was not the right thing to do.
The laws and thought process were certainly different in 1912, not
just for ships, but for industry in all forms.

The Board of Trade required standard was "16 lifeboats for vessels of 10,000
tons or greater."

The Titantic was FIVE TIMES larger than the maximum on the list. The Board
of Trade SHOULD have specified EIGHTY lifeboats for a ship Titantic's size.