Passenger Accommodation
FIRST CLASS
First-class passengers were accommodated on the five levels from the Upper
to the Promenade decks.
There were 30 suite-rooms on the Bridge deck and 39 on the Shelter deck.
These were so arranged that they could be let in groups to from suites,
including bedrooms, with baths, etc., with communicating doors. But on each
of these two decks, close to the companionways, on either side, adjacent
rooms were fitted up as sitting or dining-room.
The private promenade decks had been connected to the parlour rooms and
the Cafe Parisienne was connected to the restaurant. The Cafe Parisienne,
in the first class, had the appearance of a charming sunlit veranda arranged
with trellis work. Chairs in small groups surrounded tables. Dinners and
lunches were served with the same service, to the advantages of the restaurant.
The private promenades were about fifty feet long, complete with mock oak
beams; an absolutely novel feature. The rates for both these suites during
the height of the season was around £870.
The first class dining room could hold over 550 passengers at one time for
dining. There were also recessed bays where family and other parties could
dine in part privacy.
The style was English: a reminder of Jacobean times with the oak
of 16th - 17th century England. Furniture was oak designed to co-ordinate
with the surroundings. The dining room, three decks high, was topped by
a glass dome. There were two palm courts and a Turkish Bath. The first class
reading room had a rose coloured carpet. Pink draperies hung on the windows.
The Georgian smoking room was panelled with the finest mahogany and had
mother-o-pearl inlaid work. The light entered through painted glass windows
depicting landscapes, ancient ships and historic and mythological figures.
There was a marble fireplace over which hung an oil-painting of Plymouth
Harbour. There was also a Georgian reading and writing room for ladies,
beside the smoking room.
The Verandah Cafe adjoined the smoke room. This was decorated with green
trellis and climbing plants. Its chairs were red and brown cushioned. The
windows were bronze-framed and nearly seven feet tall. The Cafe also had
palm trees in it. There was a separate a-la-carte restaurant for private
dinner parties and a barber shop.
The first class promenades were on the three top decks. The state rooms
were decorated in different styles: Louis Seize, Empire, Adams, Italian
Renaissance, Louis Quinze, Louis Quatorze, Georgian, Regency, Queen Anne,
Modern Dutch and Old Dutch. The state rooms were of the highest standard
and the promenades were very spacious, which was unique at that time for
being an enclosed promenade.
The restaurant was decorated in Louis XVI style with panelled floor to ceiling
in French walnut. The gymnasium was on the top deck and there were three
elevators in first class. If you didn't like the gym, there was also a squash
court.
In all, there were nearly 350 first class rooms, 100 of these being single
rooms. There was accommodation for over 750 first class passengers.
There was a first-class companionway at the forward end of the accommodation,
extending from the Boat deck to the Upper deck, with large halls on each
level, while further aft was a second companion way extending from the Promenade
deck to the Shelter deck.
SECOND CLASS
Second-class passengers had their accommodation on the Middle, Upper and
Saloon decks, and the third-class passengers on the Lower Deck, forward
and aft, and on the Middle, Upper and Saloon decks aft. Rooms were arranged
as two or four-berth, each with mahogany furniture and sofa-beds. The cabins
had linoleum tile floors.
There were two second-class companionways: one extending from the public
rooms placed between them, with a smoke room on the Bridge deck, a library
on the Shelter deck, and the dining saloon on the Saloon deck, with staterooms
on the Saloon, Upper, and Middle decks.
Corridors were carpeted in two-tone red or two-tone green and walls were
wood-panelled.
The second class dining saloon extended the breadth of the vessel and seated
440 people at any one time. The second class library was decorated in brown
carpet and mahogany. The furniture was covered with tapestry and was set
off with green silk draperies.
Second-class passengers could number over 550.
THIRD CLASS
For the third-class passengers, there was a large number of enclosed berths,
with 84 two-berth cabins. The total number of third-class passengers provided
for was over 1,100.
Third class accommodation was also very good. Veitchi-covered stairways
in third class entrances opened onto linoleum tiled, steel-walled corridors.
The cabins ranged from two-berth to six-berth and even eight-berth rooms.
There were also portable rooms whose steel, movable walls enclosed variable
spaces according to the number of passengers on board. Almost all third
class state rooms were panelled in pine and had veitchi floor coverings.
Titanic was the first ocean liner to have a swimming pool. For those interested
in photography and who owned a camera, there was also a fully equipped dark
room.
There were a gymnasium and electric and Turkish baths, which cost four shillings
(20p) or $1. Third class ('steerage') passengers even had better facilities
than second class passengers on some other ships.
Facilities offered:
Lifts
Gymnasiums
Swimming Baths
Luxurious Apartments
Saloons
Dining Rooms
Restaurants
