Shiipingg Query.....

[Pete Cooper]

I know many of you on here know lots about commercial vessels so I hope you can answer my query.
The other day we went to the new(ish) Riverside museum in Glasgow and whilst viewing the many superb exhibits I noticed that on one of the model ships, The Athenia, the lifeboats were arranged so that on most of them they had a lifeboat on deck, and then inside that another slightly smaller lifeboat. This seemed clever to me as it must nearly double the capacity without doubling the footprint on the deck.
Is this a common set up, and if not why not?
I suppose it must make them harder to launch - I guess you'd have to launch the inner lifeboats first?

[marisca]

They certainly got the chance to use them. The SS Athenia was the first ship sunk by a U-boat in 1939.