With the loss of the RMS Titanic in 1912, and World War I losses of ships to submarine-launched torpedoes, the need for inflatable boats was plain.
One cause of the loss of life on the Titanic was the lack of lifeboats. Even if every lifeboat had been completely filled with passengers and crew, there would have been no way to rescue more than half of all the people on board. The first SOLAS treaty was designed to avoid such a disaster happening again. One of its provisions was to ensure that vessels had enough lifeboats to provide every person aboard the vessel with a place. Putting this rule into effect was not difficult with cargo ships: they had small crews and plenty of deck space. Passenger ships had to stack lifeboats on top of each other to able to carry enough to accommodate the large number of passengers and crew. Warships also had large crews and little deck space.
Between the two World Wars, Goodyear found a way to join rubber to other materials. They made life rafts of square-shaped inflated rubber tubes with a rigid floor. Such rafts were to be stacked vertically aboard warships, usually standing on deck and leaning against deck-houses. But conservative thinking from navies held back this new idea.
Pierre Debroutelle’s 1937 design was the first known to have its inflatable tube in a U-shape. It was the first boat of its kind to be certified by the French Navy. Its added wooden transom was patented on 10 August 1943. This version was the predecessor of today’s inflatable sports and pleasure boats.
World War II changed everything. Submarine warfare in the Battle of the Atlantic led to casualties among warships and merchant ships.
US warships began using rubber life rafts. Since the rubber was much higher quality than 35 years before, the inflatable returned, but this time it was boat-shaped.
In military use inflatable boats were used to transport torpedoes and other cargo. They also allowed troops to make landings in shallow water, and their compact size and storability made overland transport possible.
The Marine Raiders were originally trained to carry out raids and landings from inflatable boats carried by high speed transports.
In August 1942 the submarines USS Argonaut and USS Nautilus carried elements of the 2nd Raider Battalion who carried out the Makin Island raid from LCR-L inflatable boats. Invasions of the Battle of Arawe by the 112th Cavalry Regiment and parts of the Battle of Tarawa involved amphibious landings in inflatable boats against heavy enemy resistance.
One of the models, the Zodiac brand inflatable boat, grew to be popular with the military and contributed significantly to the rise of the civilian inflatable boat industry, both in Europe and in the United States. After World War II, surplus inflatable boats were sold to the public. A version of this boat has been adapted by the Marine Mammal Center for use in rescuing injured marine mammals at sea.