Passengers and Stokers

[Matthew Mozingo]

So, I saw a “documentary” recently that claimed the stokers of the “black gang” were intentionally kept secret from the passengers, and that struck me as kind of odd. Would a passenger in 1912 actually be surprised to learn that there was a small army keeping the ship going, or was this just something that was generally known and not thought much about?

 

[Kiku]

Wonder why, when some passengers saw the blackened face of a stoker looking down on them from the top of the dummy funnel, took it as a bad omen.

 

[brionboyles]

So, I saw a “documentary” recently that claimed the stokers of the “black gang” were intentionally kept secret from the passengers, and that struck me as kind of odd. Would a passenger in 1912 actually be surprised to learn that there was a small army keeping the ship going, or was this just something that was generally known and not thought much about?

Not so much "secret" as "out-of-view"...
In an age where one's valets and maids were scrupulously groomed and often as fashionably clothed as their employer, bumping into a boisterous, be-grimed stoker climbing out of the boiler room, dripping in sweat and perhaps not having bathed for a day or two... could be quite a shock to passengers.
Stokers, trimmers (those who worked keeping the coal bunkers level and feeding the boiler rooms with coal) were by nature extremely filthy for most of their time on watch. They were also pretty much the bottom of the social pecking order... often "coarse", unskilled and unschooled for the most part, a rule of thumb to keep them separated from passengers was more a matter of caution and practicality to preclude embarrassment to the company and passengers.
Similarly even to this day, most restaurants frown on scullery crew and kitchen staff wandering about "the front" (the dining room). Not out of snobbery, but to keep things looking tidy. A dishwasher or a sous chef in dirty aprons, food-stained shirt-fronts, dripping with dishwater and sweat are not often thought of as congruous to a pleasant dining experience.

 

[Stephen Carey]

So, I saw a “documentary” recently that claimed the stokers of the “black gang” were intentionally kept secret from the passengers, and that struck me as kind of odd. Would a passenger in 1912 actually be surprised to learn that there was a small army keeping the ship going, or was this just something that was generally known and not thought much about?

Thinking about my own island race countrymen, they are totally ignorant of just about anything to do with the sea and ships. Passengers in your car haven't a clue what happens when you turn the key, and a lecture on the Titanic accident I gave to Glasgow University naval architecture students was well received. One asked "How do you start the Titanic, is it with a big ignition key?"
I responded with a lecture on how to start the ship from cold, which is reproduced somewhere on this site.