On an average inflatable liferaft what all equipment is going to be on board? I would assume:
water purification tablets
a device to turn salt water into drinkable water
cups for the water
first aid kit
two way radio
mirrors (for signaling)
flare gun with several flares
some kind of food
What else? Do inflatable liferafts come with any kind of propulsion device like an outboard motor or a sail or is it just an oar or two?
I don’t think they usually have water purification talets, nor cups, nor 2 way radios, not sure about the food or oar, pretty darn sure about the motor - no.
Solar stills, 1st aid kits, 1 way radios (broadcast only), mirrors, Flares, some kind of fishing kit, a raft repair kit (which usually requires that the surface be dry ?!?!).
The equipment carried aboard a liferaft will generally be either a SOLAS “A” pack (offshore; oceans route) or “B” pack (limited, nearshore). As an example of what you’ll find with each type, the following is a table from the U.S. lifesaving requirements for offshore supply vessels:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oceans Coastwise
-------------------------------------------
Item Rigid Rigid
No. Item liferaft Rescue liferaft Rescue
(SOLAS A boat (SOLAS B boat
Pack) Pack)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Bailer \1\.......... 1 1 1 1
3 Boathook............ ......... 1 ......... 1
4 Bucket \2\.......... ......... 1 ......... 1
5 Can opener.......... 3 ......... ......... .........
6 Compass............. ......... 1 ......... 1
8 Drinking cup........ 1 ......... ......... .........
9 Fire extinguisher... ......... 1 ......... 1
10 First-aid kit....... 1 1 1 1
11 Fishing kit......... 1 ......... ......... .........
12 Flashlight.......... 1 1 1 1
14 Heaving line........ 1 2 1 2
15 Instruction card.... 1 ......... 1 .........
17 Knife \1\ \3\....... 1 1 1 1
18 Ladder.............. ......... 1 ......... 1
19 Mirror, signalling.. 1 ......... 1 .........
20 Oars, units \4\..... ......... 1 ......... 1
Paddles............. 2 ......... 2 .........
21 Painter............. 1 1 1 1
22 Provisions (units 1 ......... ......... .........
per person)........
23 Pump \5\............ ......... 1 ......... 1
24 Radar reflector..... 1 1 1 1
26 Repair kit \5\...... ......... 1 ......... 1
27 Sea anchor.......... 2 1 2 1
28 Searchlight......... ......... 1 ......... 1
29 Seasickness kit 1 ......... 1 .........
(units per person).
30 Signal, smoke....... 2 ......... 1 .........
31 Signal, hand flare.. 6 ......... 6 .........
32 Signal, parachute 4 ......... 4 .........
flare..............
34 Sponge \5\.......... 2 2 2 2
35 Survival 1 ......... 1 .........
instructions.......
36 Table of lifesaving 1 ......... 1 .........
signals............
37 Thermal protective 10% 10% 10% 10%
aids (percent of
persons) \6\.......
39 Towline............. ......... 1 ......... 1
40 Water (liters per 1.5 ......... 1 .........
person)............
41 Whistle............. 1 1 1 1
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Notes:
\1\ Each liferaft equipped for 13 persons or more must carry two of
these items.
\2\ Not required for inflated or rigid-inflated rescue boats.
\3\ A hatchet counts towards this requirement in rigid rescue boats.
\4\ Oars are not required on a free-fall lifeboat; a unit of oars means
the number of oars specified by the boat manufacturer.
\5\ Not required for a rigid rescue boat.
\6\ Sufficient thermal protective aids are required for at least 10% of
the persons the survival craft is equipped to carry, but not less than
two.
I questioned “Ladder” thinking where are you going to climb to in a raft? Those who rescue you will have ladders for ascent into their craft. Then I saw “Painter”. Do I presume the painter will use the ladder? WTF are they painting while adrift at sea? 
There’s gotta be a logical explanation for these terms
Liferafts are available is everything from 1-man dinghys with no gear to the fancy rigid boats used on cruise ships and offshore oil platforms. The answer depends strongly on what sort of raft you’re talkng about.
Scruloose covered maritime rafts, so I’ll tackle aviation rafts. Here’s one example I’m familiar with:
The Boeing 767-300 carries 6 rafts, 4 with a nominal 46 passenger capacity & 2 with a nominal 24 pax capacity. Each raft will still float adequately in moderate sea conditions with 50% more people aboard.
Equipment includes:
sea anchor
mooring line
line knife
manual inflation pumps
heaving line
rain/spray/sun canopy
radio beacons
signal flares
signal smoke canisters
sea dye markers
signal mirrors
whistles
flashlights
first aid kit
bailing bucket & sponges
raft puncture/tear repair devices (FYI kanicbird, these are not based on glue & work fine on wet rafts)
survival manual
chem light sticks
small amount of packaged water
water desalination kit
In addition, there are medical and first aid kits aboard the aircraft that are supposed to be taken along in the rafts. We’d also hope to raid the galleys for all available packaged water.
At the other extreme …
In the USAF I had a 1-man self-inflating liferaft in the ejection seat kit. The raft itself had no supplies, but the seat-attached survival kit plus the vest vest we wore had quite an assortment of goodies for one man. No potable water, some water desalination / purification stuff, fish hooks & line, snare wire, walkie talkie & satellite beacon, pistol, ammo, knives, mirror, first aid, etc., etc., etc. Shoot, a feller could have a pretty good time in Vegas with all this stuff.
The difference I noticed between the USAF and the airline equipment was the USAF expected you’d have to live off the land for awhile and would probably be injured, while the airline stuff was simply oriented to keeping mostly uninjured folks from dying of exposure before being rescued 6-24 hours later.
It’s damn hard to climb into a raft from swimming in the water. A “ladder” in this context is probably a simple rope or web affair put overboard to help you climb aboard. In the rafts I’m familiar with they’re built in to two points around the periphery.
A “painter” is a mooring or tow line. That little rope on the bow of every rowboat you’ve ever seen is a painter.
Assuming you have more than one raft in the water, it’s desirable to tie them loosely together so they don’t drift apart. 3 or 4 rafts connected by 100 foot lines will be much easier to spot than 3 or 4 independent rafts several miles apart after 24 huors of drifting.
Thanks for the claification. 
(1) newspaper with photograph of the director
WAG The oars. The Oars. Don’t forget the OARS!
Where oh where are the freak’n OARS?
Nope, oars are not on board airliner rafts. IIRC there was nothing like an oar on USAF rafts either.
Given the windage of any of these rafts, you’re not going to row them anywhere. With a sea anchor you remain more or less fixed relative to the local surface current, and without one you move at the resultant of the current velocity & 30-50% of the wind velocity.
ISTR that there are also some liferafts which are basically sealed bright orange pods that you sit inside of while they bob around until someone rescues you. These presumably are harder to swamp and keep the occupants relatively dry and warm if they are in the type of weather you’d expect to sink a ship with.
Did you forget the $100 in gold and $100 in Rubles? I’ve heard that they also include a sponge for collecting water with. According to an Air Force colonel I had as a teacher a few years back, one of the only good things that Captain Scott O’Grady (the fellow who was shot down in an F-16 over Bosnia a few years back and was rescued by the Marines) ever did was to suggest that the Air Force replace the sponges (back then bright yellow sponges) with camoflage ones so the pilot might not draw so much attention to himself whilst covertly collecting water.
I’ve seen these on the back of some large ships. They are set up on rails at the back of the boat, apparantly you jump in and release them somehow and they slide into the water, looked like fun.
As LSLguy said, there are no oars on aircraft liferafts, though you could use the sea anchor to pull yourself towards a rain shower or something if you needed some water. Slow going.
And if it is a raft with more than one person in it, the absolute best things to have are,
willing hands
thinking brains
tolerance
Lots of good info here about life rafts, but one point needs to be made – you cannot use a life raft as a parachute a la Indiana Jones. That is, unless you want to die when you smack the ground.
However, floating down in an escape slide (assuming you can securely fasten yourself to the exact center of gravity) is apparently survivable.
I saw it on Mythbusters, so it must be true. 
Those aren’t liferafts; they are stern launched, free fall lifeboats. Merchant ships will (generally) have either davit launched lifeboats on the port and stbd sides, or one freefall lifeboat on the stern. These are in addition to liferafts the ship carries, which is usually 5 rafts total.
The stern launched boat is practically the same thing as the side mounted boat. It’s a fully enclosed boat with full propulsion and steering. The big difference is that it offers one hell of ride at the beginning. I’ve been in bunch for inspection purposes, but I’ve never gone for ride in one. The ship will test them every 6 months, and if they do it while in port, it’s not impossible for local port officials to go along for the ride. I’ve got about 5 months left at my current assignment to try and ride one off the ship, but it’s doubtful I’ll get my chance.