Telephone exchange on C deck

[Daniel Klistorner]

There was a thread about this some time ago and was asking what the 50 telephone exchange on C deck was for and whether cabins had telephones.

So far as I know, there were no telephones in cabins on the Titanic. The 50 telephone exchange on C deck was mainly between working areas of the ship.

The exchanges were between the following areas:

Commander
Chief Engineer's Room
Chief Engineer's Office
Purser's Office
Chief Steward
1st. cl. Smoke Rm. bar
1st. cl. Saloon bar
Chief 2nd. cl. Steward
Chief 3rd. cl. Steward
Grocery room
Chef's office
Baker's shop
Butcher's shop
3rd. cl. galley
Surgeon
Surgery
Assistant purser's office
2nd. cl. Smoke rm. bar
Restaurant pantry
Steward's office
Marconi room
Enquiry office
3rd. cl. surgery

Hope this helps to understand what the phone exchange was used for.

Daniel.

 

[John Senchak]

What 911 ! they could have used it.

 

[Diane Ostrow]

Hi Daniel~
Thanks for posting this info! Actually I had just seen some pics of olympic's marconi room showing the phone to the bridge and I was wondering if Titanic had the same phone! If they did indeed have it why doesn't it seem to have been used more? Could they have phoned ice warnings to the bridge if too busy to take them up? Why would the Captain not have used the phone re: the CDQ instead of walking to the Marconi room what appears to be several times? I'm not really clear on how far from the bridge the Marconi room was, so maybe it was just easier to walk there than to use the phone? Any insight anybody?
Thanks,
Diane

 

[Michael H. Standart]

A different circuit maybe? Honestly,I don't know the answer to this one. All else aside, the Marconi operators may have been too busy with all the personal traffic they were handling, so if it wasn't addressed to "Master, Titanic", it would get put off to the side. With two operators, the Marconi room was a 24/7 type of deal, and they had an avalanch of messages to send and receive.

Cordially,
Michael H. Standart

 

[Diane Ostrow]

Hi Michael!
The avalanche of messages was why I was wondering if it might not have been quicker to just call the bridge with ice Warnings. Did all the ice warnings come to Master,Titanic, or were some addressed in other ways?
Ahoy!
Diane
P.S. Any luck with those listings I sent you?

 

[Michael H. Standart]

The problem is that I'm not really up on how the Marconigrams were handled. If memory serves, the "official" traffic for the master was hand delivered.

I checked out the book links you gave me. Unfortunately, the seller that had the one I wanted didn't have a secure way of handling credit cards, so I had to pass on it. These days, one is wise to avoid giving out information like that by any means other then one known to be secure.

Perhaps somebody else has it, so I'll keep on looking. Thanks.

Cordially,
Michael H. Standart

 

[Dave Gittins]

There was no phone to the bridge from the radio room. One was added to Olympic later.

Tucked away in the evidence is the fact that White Star was supposed to provide the radio room with a messenger boy. Bride said that was more trouble than it was worth. (All in British inquiry if you dig for it).

You can see what the priorities were. Whizz passengers' messages, mostly pointless greetings, to the radio room by pneumatic tube. Get messages to the bridge by guess and by God.

Dianne, many of the warnings were not addressed to Captain Smith, most importantly the one from Mesaba and the one from Amerika

 

[Diane Ostrow]

Hi Dave!
Good to hear from you! I'm sorry, I must be confused, but I thought that Daniel's message above said there was a phone in the Marconi room. Was there no phone at all or just not one to the bridge? From what you're saying about the messenger boy that was supposed to be assigned to the Marconi room(that Bride thought was superfluous) it seems that Michael's recollection that all messages directed to the Master were to be hand delivered might be right on target! One now has to wonder if that phone that was added to Olympic's marconi room later was the direct result of what happened with Titanic?!
Ahoy!
Diane

 

[Remco Hillen]

A thing that I thought would be interesting: one of Britannic's extra safety features included a pneumatic tube which ran from the wireless room to the bridge.
Due to this addition, the wireless operator didn't had to leave his post when deliveriing a message to the bridge.

Regards,
Remco

 

[Diane Ostrow]

Hi Remco~
That is interesting! Do you happen to know what the date was on this addition? Was it in the original plans or added to them? I imagine that it was due to the events that occured on Titanic that it was added? Does anyone else have any info on this?
Ahoy!
Diane

 

[Remco Hillen]

Hello Diane,

It was an extra feature which was added after the Titanic disaster, that's all I know of it.
Would be interesting to know some more about it, it sounds quite ingenious.

Regards,
Remco

 

[Dave Gittins]

Not exactly ingenious. Pneumatic tubes were a common way of transporting small containers in those days. At one time Paris had a system covering a good deal of the city. Some of it still remains. The system was also widely used in big shops to send dockets around the place. I was surprised to find a modern supermarket near my home still using the system. Anybody know how common it is today?

 

[Diane Ostrow]

Well, my hospital just got one 5 or 6 years ago to take blood samples to the lab and get medications from the pharmacy! They stated it to be "State of the art", but they must have meant in this usage!

Before everything was carried by voluteers! Maybe they're coming back into vogue?
Ahoy, Diane

 

[Dave Hudson]

Where was the other end of the Titanic's tube? The Pursur's Office?

I may sound dumb for asking, but how do they work?

David

 

[Dave Gittins]

David H, the other end was in the Purser's office. That's where the passengers placed their messages and paid for them.

To learn more than you could want to know about the system go to

http://www.cix.co.uk/~mhayhurst/jdhayhurst/pneumatic/book1.html

If you want to buy one, go to http://www.ptcarriers.com

The system is evidently much more alive than I thought. I always associate it with the department stores of my youth. These used a mixture of pneumatic tubes and rubber catapults to send dockets about. There was no till or cash register on the sales counter. When a sale was made the salesperson wrote a docket and put it with the customer's money into a container. The container was shot across to the cashier, who often sat high above the shop floor. The receipt and any change were shot back to the salesperson. I fancy Titanic's passengers saw similar systems at work.