Titanic - A Floating Palace - 1912

The Palatial Appointments of the Ocean Liner Titanic, Sunk After Collision with an Iceberg. The Illustrated London News (4 May 1912) p. 651, GGA Image ID # 1014778103

Top Row

1. The Captain of the Ill-Fated "Titanic”: Captain E. J. Smith (Commander. R.N.R.). Formerly of the "Olympic."
2. As in a Great Hotel: The Parisian Café of the "Titanic."
3. On the Worlds Biggest Ship: The Promenade Deck of the "Titanic."
4. Keeping Fit Aboard the Floating Palace: Cycling in the Liner’s Gymnasium.

Middle Row

5. Luxury Aboard the Great Liner: The Cooling - Room of the Vessels Turkish Bath.
6. In a Private Ocean-Trip Suite; The Four-Post Bedstead of One of the Two £670 Sets of Apartments.

Bottom Row

7. For Those Who like Exercise in the Water: A Swimming-Bath Aboard the "Titanic."
8. The Exercise - Room Aboard the Vessel: The Gymnasium. Showing Various Appliances.
9. A Part of One of the Two. £870 Suites: A Private Promenade Deck.
10. The Most Important Point Aboard the "Titanic": The Bridge.

Captain Edward John Smith Who Went Down with His Ship. The Literary Digest (27 April 1912) p. 865. GGA Image ID # 1084643a7b

The Titanic's Café Parisien Before Climbing Plants Were Added to Its Trellised Walls. Robert John Welch (1859-1936), official photographer for Harland & Wolff. Published 1 March 1912. GGA Image ID # 10ead481d4

The Spacious Promenade Deck of the Ill-Fated Titanic. © Underwood & Underwood, NY. The Independent (2 May 1912). p. 937. GGA Image ID # 10a19e36da

Keeping Fit Aboard the Floating Palace: Cycling in the Liner’s Gymnasium.The Illustrated London News (4 May 1912) p. 651-652, GGA Image ID # 10eb2b4eb2

Fig. 87: Cooling Room of the Turkish Baths. The Shipbuilder (Midsummer 1911) p. 82. GGA Image ID # 10c6693d96

First Class Swimming Pool on the Titanic For Those Who like Exercise in the Water: A Swimming-Bath Aboard the "Titanic." The Illustrated London News (4 May 1912) p. 651-652, GGA Image ID # 10eb38abb8

The First Class Gymnasium Located Just Aft of the Forward Grand Staircase Along the Starboard Side of the Boat Deck. Public Domain Image. GGA Image ID # 10ebeecdca

Entrance to a Private Promenade Deck from First Class Parlor Suite - A Part of One of the Two £870 Suites. The Illustrated London News (4 May 1912) p. 651-652, GGA Image ID # 10ebcccd33

View of the Bridge of an Ocean Liner. The Unsinkable Titanic (1912) p,. 47. GGA Image ID # 1075684a1d

The "Titanic" was designed to accommodate 3,500 passengers and crew, and to seat 550 first-class passengers, 400 second-class, and 500 third-class at dinner at the same time.

She was given a length overall of 882 ft. 6 in. a breadth overall of 92 ft. 6 in., a height from the bottom of the keel to top of captain's house of 105 ft. 7 in., eleven steel decks, and fifteen watertight bulkheads, while it was claimed for her that she was unsinkable.

Speaking of this to the “Evening News," a representative of Messrs. Harland and Wolff said that all the beams, girders, and stanchions "in the "Titanic’s" framework were specially forged and constructed, the deck and shell-plating were of the heaviest caliber, so as to make the hull a monument of strength."

The article continues: “The "Titanic’s" transverse bulkheads number fifteen ... The builders state that any two of these compartments might be flooded without in any way involving the safety of the ship. Relative to the closing of watertight doors, the official description issued by the White Star Line when the "Titanic" was launched states these are electrically controlled.

Those giving communication between the various boiler-rooms and engine-rooms are arranged on the drop system— Harland and Woltt's special design.

Each door is held in the open position by a friction clutch, which can be instantly released by means of a powerful electric magnet controlled from the captain's bridge, so that in the event of accident the captain can, by simply moving an electric switch, instantly close the doors throughout, practically making the vessel unsinkable.

Precaution floats are provided beneath the floor level which, in the event of water accidentally entering any of the compartments, automatically lift, and thereby close, the doors opening into that compartment if they have not already been dropped by those in charge of the vessel.

A ladder or escape is provided in each boiler-room, engine-room, and similar watertight compartments, in order that the closing of the doors at any time should not imprison the men, though the risk of this is lessened by electric bells placed in the vicinity of each door, which rings prior to their closing, and thus gives warning to those below."

The vessel cost about a million and a half at least, and according to some estimates, nearly a million and three quarters.

The “ Titanic," the biggest liner in the world, could only be described by that most hackneyed of expressions, "floating palace,“ for she was designed to be nothing less.

Those who built her gave her, amongst other things, a splendidly equipped gymnasium, swimming-baths, Turkish and electric baths, a squash-racquets court, restaurants and cafés, hundreds of radiators and real coal fires: suite-rooms of many styles and periods, including Queen Anne, old and modern Dutch, Georgian, Louis XV and Louis XVI; and further, facilities for what have been called "private ocean trips "—i.e.. two suites of rooms, each with a private fifty-foot-long promenade deck, let at £870 for the voyage. In addition, may be mentioned electric lifts.

The cost of the vessel has been estimated at £1,500,000 but it is probable that was nearer £1,750,000. As we note above, the "Titanic" was 682 ft. 6 in. long, as is the “Olympic."

Her gross tonnage was 46,382 tons; her displacement 60,000 tons.

"'S.O.S! S.O.S! S.O.S!' The Palatial Appointments of the Liner 'Titanic,' Sunk After Collision With an Iceberg," in The Illustrated London News, New York: The International News Company, Vol. 50, No. 1304, Saturday, 4 May 1912, p. 650-651. Photographs by Central Illustrations Bureau.