In ye olden days (when these sorts of ships were worked) the crew whilst not expendable were consumables. and no doubt part of the logic to crew size was enough capacity to cope with a loss or 3 (spares?).
Obviously nowadays not considered an acceptable way to crew a vessel
......but probably accounts for the vessel being under
motor (would it really be mutiny in 2012 if any of the crew looked up at the
mast and said "f#ck off"
to climbing that - when a reasonable option was turning on the
engine instead of risking life and limb)......apart from having less crew than the original Bounty they were also less capable simply from
Captain not being able (nor willing) to make them take the same risks as in days of olde.
Whilst would likely be "normal" for a
boat of that type / construction to take in
water, seems a bit daft if that was the case to rely only on one source of
power for the pumps
. (one thing to bear in mind is that once water gets inside a
boat (of any size!) it becomes very destructive - a couple of tons (in this case likely even more) sloshing around will cause a lot of damage).
In regard to
Women first - to me it would primarily be based on the capabilities and circumstances of each person. In some scenarios it may make more sense to put the most physically (and mentally?) able into a raft / lifeboat first - and that may be a man or a woman, but more likely to be a man........plus circumstances may simply not allow folks to queue up in gender order and a case of evacuation first of those who are best placed to speedily evacuate (whether that be their physical location, what they are wearing (i.e. lifejacket actually on etc) or don't require any handholding / persuading). It's simply a numbers
game......and that may involve leaving the weakest until last
.