segregation by sex in 3rd class {How much was there?}

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I must not have the right books, or else I can't find the answer to this in the ones I have. Kip, Peter...anyone...you listening? Help me with this one if you can, please.

Weren't the third class sleeping areas on Titanic segregated by sex? I don't just mean room by room; wasn't there a separate mens' third class cabin area and womens' third class cabin area, in very different parts of the ship? How rigoriously was this enforced? In the movie, we see men and women walking around the third class halls outside the cabins, at least when the ship was leaving Southhampton and everyone was trying to find exactly where they were supposed to be. The public rooms, of course weren't segregated, but I was wondering how people like little Cora and her father would have been handled, or the Irish woman and her two little kids.

-- Thomas Shoebotham (cathytom@ix.netcom.com), March 30, 1998

Answers

Response to segregation by sex in 3rd class

Hi Thomas,

You are correct. There was a strict segregation of the single males and females and no fraternisation was permitted. The males were in the bow, families were midships & single females in the stern half of the ship.

God forbid any 'procreation' by 3rd class passengers!!

-- Peter Edmead (peter.edmead@deetya.gov.au), March 30, 1998.


Response to segregation by sex in 3rd class

Peter, weren't all third-class rooms shared? Also, wouldn't they have used common bathroom facilities? It would seem to make sense even with today's loosened moral standards to separate the single males and females, regardless of class.

-- Dan Dalton (DDalton2@prodigy.net), March 30, 1998.

Response to segregation by sex in 3rd class

Actually, **some** fraternization was permitted in third class. There was a single dining saloon for all steerage passengers, and the third class common room (where a famous fictional jam session took place), fore and aft well decks, and the poop deck (so named because that's where the first class dogs were taken to go walkies) were all third class spaces and not segregated so far as I know.

Cheers!

-- Kip Henry (kip-henry@ouhsc.edu), March 30, 1998.


Response to segregation by sex in 3rd class

Poop Deck? Walkies? Kip, you simply HAVE to stop drinking that Oklahoma coffee! Actually, I would suppose that if someone in third class wanted to "get together" with a member of the opposite sex, they would find a way! Perhaps via "Scotland Road"? Love will find a way, as the song goes.

Regards, Peter

-- Peter Nivling (pcnivling@capecod.net), March 31, 1998.


Response to segregation by sex in 3rd class

How about a second hand account from Finnish survivor Anna Turja as told to her grandson?

http://www.webcom.com/jrudolph/turja.html

"The third class accommodations were beautiful, she said. The atmosphere was quite lively with a lot of talking, singing, and fellowship. It has been said that third class on the Titanic was as good as first class on many other ships of the day.

There were two double bunk beds in her room, one on either side of the room. She had two roommates on board who were also Finnish women. One of them had "taken the young Anna Turja under her wing." She was traveling with her brother. (In steerage, the men's cabins were in the front part of the ship, the women in the rear.) The other roommates were a mother and her young baby."

-- Crystal Smithwick (crystal@9v.com), March 31, 1998.



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