Titanic Bridge

Click HERE to explore the TITANIC's Bridge

This is the bridge of the Olympic but the TITANIC's was similar.

Wheelhouse Today


The wheelhouse was very nice with windows surrounding you and the sea air coming through the open doorway. There were telegraphs where you could contact the engine rooms and also, you could close the watertight doors when needed. There was also a room inside where there was windows to look out and another wheel so that you could drive the ship in cold weather. There was also a second bridge on the stern where the bridge in front would communicate and where the ship would be driven in case something went wrong in front. The officers took shifts to give one another a rest. One of the few telephones on board was there to communicate with the crow's nest when they spotted something dangerous. The wheelhouse was made of all pine wood and wires and was one of the most difficult rooms to build. During the sinking, the forward funnel collapsed crushing the bridge and whomever was in it. Today, there is a telemotor gleaming as if brand new where the wheel used to be on top of it. It is the place where the most commemorative plaques are.

Chief Officer Wilde

Henry Tingle was born on September 21, 1872 in Liverpool, Ireland. He became an apprentice on October 22, 1889 and ended in 1893. He left as 3rd officer on the Greystoke Castle and then Europa in 1896. He then became 2nd Officer on the Maranhan and went through 4 different companies before joining the White Star Line in 1908. He was 2nd officer on the Arabic, Celtic, Medic, and Cymric, and Olympic. He was going to stay on the the Olympic but mysteriously, he got on the TITANIC and got a promotion. He was not on the bridge when the iceberg was struck, but it may be that he was in his cabin at the time of the collision which doomed the Titanic. As all the officers were loading the lifeboats, they were interrupted and brought to Wilde's cabin where each
were given pistols and ammunition. Officer Wilde is believed to have committed suicide, but it is not known what happened to him. Quote: "I still don't like this ship . . . I have a queer feeling about it." (From a letter to his sister, posted at Queenstown, Ireland, April 11, 1912)

1st Officer Murdoch

William McMaster Murdoch was born on February 28, 1873 in Dalbeattie, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. He was one of 6 children whom survived infancy. His father and grandfather were sea captains. He went to school first at Dalbeattie Primary School and got his diploma in 1887. He was then made an apprentice for 5 years on the "William Joyce and Coy" but mastered his 2nd officer's test on the first try at his 4th year. He then went on the "Charles Cosworth" for his final year. He went from ship to ship surviving3 shipwrecks and a voyage from New York to Shanghai. This was
the experience that got him a job with the White Star Line where he met Charles Lightoller whom was with him his whole career. He was on the "Medic", "Runic", "Arabic", "Celtic", "Germanic", "Oceanic", "Cedric", "Adriatic", "Majestic", "Olympic", and "Titanic". On the "Arabic", He met Ada Florence Banks in 1903 and through letters, he married her on September 2, 1907 at St. Deny's Church. He was
going to be promoted to Chief officer on the TITANIC but Wilde got the position demoting him and Lightoller whom was going to be 1st officer a rank lower. Nothing is known for certain how Murdoch died. Some said he shot himself some said they saw him getting Collapsible A down from the roof when water washed him off. Harold Bride
said he was on Collapsible B but died and was thrown overboard. His body was never
recovered. In the 1997 movie, Murdoch shot himself. The producers later had to
go to Scotland and apologize to his family for that scene.

WARNING!

This summer, there will be a movie called TITANIC: Return two the surface. I completely am against it and urge all of you not to see it. It is a sequel of the 1997
James Cameron where they find this Jack character in ice at the bottom of the grand staircase in the wreck and bring him back to the surface. They melt the ice and find that he's still alive. He's kept prisoner until he escapes and finds that Rose dies and then meets her granddaughter. He later marries her but there's some inappropriate content. It's rated PG-13 and I especially do not recommend it for children of all ages.

1st class smoking room

Here is the only known remains of the Smoking Room.


This is the only known photograph of the room.

This is the Olympic's 1st class Smoking Room, but it's exactly like the Titanic except for the painting, which is of the entrance to New York. The one on the Titanic, is of the entrance to Plymouth Harbor.

The room was Georgian style and was situated for men only. It had mahogany wall paneling and had many stained glass windows which I think made it look like cathedral. It was towards the back and had a marble fireplace. It had a painting by Norman Wilkinson called, "Approaching the New World" which was of the entrance to Plymouth Harbor but the movies made it look like New York. During the sinking, Thomas Andrews and William T. Stead were last seen in that room. The smoking room is believed by some accounts of the sinking to have seen a light after the lights went out and it is believed to have been the fireplace in the smoking room. The TITANIC broke up above the surface and the smoking room fell out of the ship, broke apart, and sank. There is, however pieces of floor tile that was found.

Titanic Lounge

The lounge was the most elegant room on the ship and was used for both men and women. It had 4 gigantic bay windows and had beautiful oak paneling. It was designed by Lord Pirrie and was based off of King Louis V's Palace of Versailes. It had a marble fireplace and an ancient Greek statue of Hermes. During the sinking, men were seen playing cards (possibly poker) and collapsed in the "break up". However, a piece of it's paneling was found on the surface and a window (I've seen it at a exhibition!) and Hermes was found at the bottom.

Eva Hart

Eva Hart was born on Tuesday, January 31, 1905. Her father in one night decided to sell his business and go to Canada. They was going to Winnipeg, Mantobia on the R.M.S. Titanic. Eva Hart described what it was like on the ship for her in this interview:

"I was 7, I had never seen a ship before... it looked very big...everybody was very excited, we went down to the cabin and that's when my mother said to my father that she had made up her mind quite firmly that she would not go to bed in that ship, she would sit up at night... she decided that she wouldn't go to bed at night, and she didn't!"

Throughout the voyage Eva's mother was troubled by a fear that some kind of catastrophe would hit thew ship. To call a ship unsinkable was, to her mind, flying in the face of God.

"My father was so excited about it and my mother was so upset... The first time in my life I saw her crying... she was so desperately unhappy about the prospect of going, she had this premonition, a most unusual thing for her... "

It was on the night April 14, when her mother heard a commotion. She asked her husband to go up and see what was the matter. However, she knew pretty much what was happening. She woke Eva up. She told her to get up and get dressed. Eva just buried herself deeper under her covers and said, "No". Then her father returned and put a coat on her mother. He then wrapped her in a blanket and took her out of the cabin on E Deck. As they were leaving, Eva told her father that she wanted her teddy bear which was almost as big as she was. Her father just kept going. They reached the Boat Deck. He placed her down on the deck and told she and her mother to stay there while he went to find out what the matter was. He later returned saying that they had struck an iceberg, but then explained that the ship was unsinkable due to her compartments. He went away again, and said that they were to launch the lifeboats but that they would be back in time for breakfast. Her father took her and her mother to boat 14.

"I saw that ship sink," she said in a 1993 interview. "I never closed my eyes. I didn't sleep at all. I saw it, I heard it, and nobody could possibly forget it." "I can remember the colors, the sounds, everything," she said. "The worst thing I can remember are the screams." And then the silence that followed. "It seemed as if once everybody had gone, drowned, finished, the whole world was standing still. There was nothing, just this deathly, terrible silence in the dark night with the stars overhead."

She later became a magistrate in England and a singer in Australia. She died on Wednesday, February 14, 1996.

Barbara West's Obituary

One of the two last survivors of the 1912 sinking of the ill-fated
Southampton liner, Titanic, has died.

Throughout her life, Barbara West Dainton shunned publicity, refusing
to talk about the loss of the Titanic and in the end she insisted her
funeral, held earlier this week in Truro, was to take place before any
public announcement of her death.

With her death in Cornwall aged 96 the only remaining Titanic
passenger left alive is 95-year-old Milvina Dean who lives in
Woodlands, near Southampton.

Born in Bournemouth, Dorset, Mrs West Dainton was a second-class
passenger on Titanic with her father, mother and sister, Constance.
She survived the sinking possibly aboard lifeboat ten, along with her
mother and sister and went on to marry in 1952.

Milvina Dean was just a ten week old baby when the ship hit the
iceberg and was the youngest person to live to tell the tale of the
loss of Titanic.

The Wreck Of The TITANIC

The ship lies 2 miles down and both halves are 1,960 feet apart. It would take two hours to get to the bottom. Down there, there's so much pressure that if there were a leak, the water would jet out powerful enough to slice a human body in half. The wreck has decomposed so much, that if we tried to move it, it would collapse into orange dust. The stern is a scrap heap because when the stern sank, it was not completely flooded with water and once it hit the bottom, it imploded. The bow, however is more intact and is more explored which deteriorates it. The cabins, Turkish Bath, Reception Room, and Dining Room all have some bit of elegance in them. When Ballard discovered the wreck, he saw rust hanging down the ship looking like icicles so he called them rusticles. Rusticles not only decompose the wreck, they also preserve it,s shape. In another 50 years, the TITANIC will become a orange spot on the sea floor. When the ship broke apart, contents spilled out like china, chairs, beds, coal, and many other things. The TITANIC is a graveyard. When bodies sank, their flesh was eaten by scavengers and their bones dissolved leaving pairs of shoes as a marker of where they died. The wreck is being scavenged and it's pieces sold (unlawfully). There is only one company that has salvaging rights. Survivors were outraged and made protests about them robbing their family member's grave but that didn't stop their greed. They're even bringing up their shoes and putting them on display without even letting them rest in peace!
The stern is a scrap heap because when the stern sank, it was not completely flooded with water and once it hit the bottom, it imploded. The bow, however is more intact and is more explored which deteriorates it. The cabins, Turkish Bath, Reception Room
, and Dining Room all have some bit of elegance in them.

Captain E. J. Smith

Click HERE to see footage of Captain Smith on the Titanic's sister ship, Olympic.

Click HERE for part II of footage of Captain Smith aboard the Olympic.

Click HERE for even more footage of Captain Smith aboard the Olympic.

Edward John Smith was born on January 27, 1850 in 51 Well Street, Hanley Stokes, England. His father was a potter and his mother was a member of Elruria Methodist Church. He went to sea at age 13 as an apprentice and later joined the White Star Line in 1886 as 4 officer on the Celtic. He rose in rank to captain of the Adriatic.
He was then transferred as captain of the Majestic where he was for 9 years. He was considered a millionaire's captain because he was one of the most successful captains
and had a salary of 1,250 pounds. He was again transferred to the Olympic. After a few voyages, he was transferred to the Titanic. When asked about the Titanic he said,"The Olympic is unsinkable, and Titanic will be the same when she is put in commission." He continued, "either of these two vessels could be cut in halves and each half would remain afloat almost indefinitely. The non-sinkable vessel has been reached in these two wonderful craft." "I venture to add," concluded the Captain, "that even the engines and boilers of these vessels were to fall through the
bottoms, the vessels would remain afloat." Smith was in bed when it was struck. The
shock awoke him, he went to the bridge and asked, "What have we struck?" "An iceberg sir". came the reply. Smith sent for Thomas Andrews and they both inspected the damage. Andrews explained that the ship was sinking. Smith gave the order to evacuate the ship. Nothing is known of the captain during the time of lowering the lifeboats. His death is a mystery. There are several different stories of how he died. Harold Bride said, "The last I saw of the captain of the Titanic, he went overboard from the bridge about, I should think, three minutes before I left myself."
Philadelphia banker Robert W. Daniel who leapt from the sinking ship two minutes before she went down said. "I saw Captain Smith on the bridge. My eyes seemingly clung to him. The deck from which I had leapt was immersed. The water had risen slowly, and was now to the floor of the bridge. Then it was to Captain Smith's waist. I saw him no more. He died a hero." One account said that captain Smith put an infant on Collapsible B and swam off.
Philadelphia banker Robert W. Daniel who leapt from the sinking ship two minutes before she went down said. "I saw Captain Smith on the bridge. My eyes seemingly clung to him. The deck from which I had leapt was immersed. The water had risen slowly, and was now to the floor of the bridge. Then it was to Captain Smith's waist. I saw him no more. He died a hero." His body was never recovered.




Quote: "I cannot imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder. I cannot conceive of any vital disaster happening to this vessel. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that . . ." (On the maiden voyage of the Adriatic in New York, 1907)