I guess it's a little late for anyone that didn't already know, but there was a great special on City TV Monday night. I'm not sure if it would only be available in Ontario or what. Anyway, on the special (about the historical Titanic) it mentions that the steerage part of the front of the boat would have been filled with water before even the first lifeboat had been launched, so all the people locked in the area were dead by then. Does anyone have more info on that? There was also an amazing recreation of the sinking using a model 1/100th of the side to see if Captain Smith should have opened the watertight doors to allow the ship to sink uniformly instead of by the head. (It turns out he made the right choice.) So if anyone out there has more information on these items, I'd love to hear them!

-- Mariana (msilva@igs.net), March 31, 1998

Answers

Hi Mariana:

Anyone unfortunate enough to get trapped in the forward holds or in boiler room 6 at the time of the collision would indeed have drowned well before the lifeboats began launching. However, the forward steerage quarters did not extend below the "Lower Deck," which was two deck levels above the keel, so presumably the water would have taken a few minutes to reach the level of the foremost passenger and crew accomodations.

In addition, there are numerous accounts of survivors who saw large throngs of third class passengers streaming aft along the E-Deck alleyway (which ran the most of the length of the ship), who were driven out of their quarters by the water. There are also accounts of passengers and crew being rousted out of their bunks in these areas, so I suspect that most all of the souls in these foremost areas were able to get out before the water got too high.

Cheers!

-- Kip Henry (kip-henry@ouhsc.edu), March 31, 1998.