In 31 years at sea, I never saw a lifeboat put in the water for a drill whilst the ship was at sea. The passenger ships I sailed in were Class I passenger ships and I obtained my lifeboat certificate in 1965 aboard the RMS TRANSVAAL CASTLE. I was 4th radio officer at the time and others taking the certificate at the same time included stwwards, stewardesses and cooks.
At the weekly boat drills, all the boats were lowerd to the embarkation deck, but no further. On the one occasion that I was involved in a serious fire at sea aboard the RMS ST, HELENA on Halloween Night, 1984, off the West African Coast, We were on the points of abandoning. I had sent the dsitress message and the tabker OVERSEAS ARGONAUT was on its way (25 miles off). The boats were lowered to the embrakation deck and all the passengers and most of the crew embarked in them, but it was still not considered wise to actually put them down until absoluetly necessary. By the time the OVERSEAS ARGONAUT arrived in the early hours of the morning, the fire had been sudued by flooding the engine-room with CO2 gas. Fortunately, it was never necessary to actually put the boats in the water. We drifted for 3 days with the tanker standing by. Then when the fire was declared completly extinguished, we released the tanker, but drifted for another week until the German salvage tug FAIRPLAY 9 arrived and towed us to Dakar for a one-month refit.
Boats were always put down in Southampton and Cape Town on the mail ships. On the REINA DEL MAR, they were put down in Southampton and various cruise ports.
Bob