| Although
many people remember the tradety that struck the titanic that cold
night many people don't realize that the people of the Titanic went
down in style.
FIRST CLASS TRAVEL ON
BOARD
The first
class public rooms included a dining room, reception
room, restaurant, lounge, reading and writing room, smoking room and
the
veranda cafes and palm courts. The first
class also enjoyed several Turkish and electric
baths, which although technically saunas, were decorated in an Arabian
style.
The portholes were covered with a carved Cairo
curtain so that when light shone through an Orient look was given to
the room.
The
first class grand staircase was over 60 feet from the lower
landing to the
glass skyline above. It had a seventeenth century William and Mary
style with
solid oak carved paneling running all the way around. At the foot of
the stairs
was a Cherub light with a very distinctive wood carving clock behind,
which although quite decayed in the wreck is still visible today.
First Class
Lounge
The
Lounge was situated on the Promenade Deck and again elaborately
fitted out. This room was dedicated to reading, conversation, playing
cards and
other social interactions of the day. It was
decorated in the French Louis XV style. The
craftsmanship was exquisite. The walls were covered with "bursaries"
(elaborate wooden carving) which gave the room a distinct symmetrical
appearance.
First
Class Dining Room
The first class passengers would
certainly dine in style.
Their dining room was 114 foot long and spanned the full width of the
ship.
Seating 532 passengers at once, it was the largest dining room ever
seen on a
ship. The room was decorated in attractive Jacobean style, and was
painted in
peanut white.
The decoration had been the result of
painstaking research.
The designs were based on Hatton Hall and some very fine houses in Hatfield,
England.
The furniture (chairs and tables) were oak and designed to add luxury
and
comfort at all times. In those days dinner was considered a very
important part
of a voyage.
First
Class Accommodation
Titanic provided 39 private suites: 30
on the Bridge Deck and
9 on the Shelter Deck. The suites included bedrooms with private
bathrooms. All
had up to five different rooms: 2 bedrooms, 2 closets and a
bathroom.
First class accommodation also held 350 cheaper standard
cabins with single beds.
The expensive and exclusive staterooms
boasted excellent
fittings. Each was decorated in different periodic styles including
Louis XVI,
Louis XV, Georgian and Queen Anne.
SECOND CLASS
TRAVEL
ON BOARD
Second
Class
Dining Room
The Dining Room
was 71 feet long and it could seat 2,394 people
at one sitting. The room had oak panels with pivoted sidelights which
provided
a great elegance dining room. There was a piano in the room to
entertain
diners. All the furniture was mahogany with crimson upholstery.
Second
Class
Accommodation
Second class accommodation was provided
in either two or four
beds per room. A maximum of 550 passengers could be
accommodated. The rooms were
fitted in enamel white with mahogany furniture.
The Staterooms of the second class were
very similar to the
standard cabins of the First Class.
The second class or middle class would
have been treated in
exactly the same way as the first class passengers would have been on
other contemporary
shipping lines.
THIRD CLASS TRAVEL
ON BOARD
Third class accommodation was much less
luxurious than second
class. Even so, third class or "steerage" passengers as they were
known still enjoyed levels of luxury compared to most liners of their
day.
Dining Room
The Dining Room, situated on the Middle
Deck, was 100 foot
long and extended the full width of the ship. It could seat
approximately seat
470 passengers in each of the three sittings. The pantries and galley
were
situated behind the Dining Room.
Third Class
Accommodation
There were over
1000 third class passengers on the Titanic.
Their accommodation was much less glamorous than the other two classes.
The
rooms comprised mainly of two to six beds per room. There were only 84
two-berth
cabins onboard.
The size of the rooms compared to first
and second class
reflected the class attitudes of the age. The first class Turkish Bath
was
larger than the third class galley. A thousand passengers would rely on
the
galley but only a handful would have used the Turkish Bath.
The designers wanted to change the
attitudes towards third
class travel. The third class cabins were not dormatory like rooms but
individual closed cabins, thus adding privacy to the passengers, but
they would
still have shared their experience with strangers.
CREW
ACCOMMODATION
The engine room staff were housed on the
starboard side at the
forward end of the ship on the Lower, Middle, Upper and Saloon Decks.
Two
spiral staircases connected their rooms to the boiler and engine rooms.
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