Life rafts are provided as a life-saving appliance on every seagoing merchant or passenger ship, in addition to the lifeboats.

Life rafts are much easier to launch than lifeboats. In case of emergencies, evacuation from the ship can be done without manually launching any of them, as the life rafts are designed with an auto-inflatable system.

SOLAS Chapter III gives all the details for types and the number of life rafts to be carried as per the size and type of the ship.