Ship's dog kennels

[Charles Provost]

Hi, I would like to know where the kennels were on the Titanic. Charles A. Haas and John P. Eaton, in their book 'Titanic: Triumph & Tragedy', place the dog kennels on F-deck, near the third class galley. James Cameron's Titanic Explorer (an interactive CD-ROM) does not have the same information: Most of the people who boarded the Titanic with dogs left them in the kennels, which were on the Boat Deck near the fourth funnel. The ship's butcher was in charge of them, a holdover from the dogs when slower ships carried livestock and other animals on their voyages. Titanic passengers had free access to their pets and could walk them on deck at any hour. (...) Does someone can help me to clarify this? Best regards,

Charles

 

[George Behe]

Hi, Charles!

On board the Carpathia survivor Richard Williams spoke with the man who released the dogs from the kennels. (The man in question survived the sinking, too -- and thus was not John Jacob Astor like Eaton and Haas claim.) Anyway, this man specified to Williams that "He went up to the top deck and opened up all the kennels." The evidence is pretty clear that the kennels were not down on F deck (again, like Eaton and Haas claim) or else none of the dogs would have found their way topside and later been seen swimming in the water.

All my best,

George

 

[Charles Provost]

Many thanks to you George. Sincerely yours,

Charles

 

[shallien]

do you know where i can find information on the dogs/what kind/what were ther names?

 

[Jan C. Nielsen]

shallien:

Look under the topic (in the Tree View) entitled "Passengers Dogs." There's an extensive discussion of the dogs, their owners, and which ones survived the sinking. Good luck!

 

[shallien]

thank you so much!!

shallien

 

[Nigel Bryant]

I guess it would make sense for the dog kennels to be on or near the Boat-deck because it would be easier to walk the dogs on the deck.

Regards Nigel Bryant

 

[B-rad]

I recently came across and interesting article from the 'Weekly Commercial News' Vol. 46, 1913- which states: "It will doubtless be interesting to many passengers to learn that comfortable and well-appointed dog kennels have been installed in the middle deck for accommodation of canine favorites.”

This gives the indication that Olympic did not have kennels before its 1913 refit. It was even more interesting as I did not realize there was debate as to where the dog kennel was located until I tried to research the if, where and when of Olympic's dog's kennels.

Bob Read has written a great article about the kennel being located on the boat deck, as per post 1912 plans of the Olympic, but could the kennels have been originally put on F deck and moved onto the boat deck?

 

[B-rad]

Or perhaps it was on the L&L plan (I have a copy of the plans from 1910, that only goes to D deck so I cannot confirm this) due to the changes made to the Olympic, and did not reflect Titanic....

 

[Talira Greycrest]

Everything I've read says the dogs were housed either in the kennels on F Deck or in their owners cabins. I haven't seen any deck plans showing kennels on the Boat Deck.

 

[B-rad]

I agree. As I mentioned, I hadn't even know there was any debate until I found that article. Then I went to research where Olympic's kennel was originally, and realized that none of the Olympic plans up until late, have a dog kennel. So this leads me to believe that the kennel was first introduced on Titanic and subsequently installed on F deck on the Olympic, as the article implies, and was later moved to the boat deck.

Unfortunately this does not resolve where Titanic's was. The L&L plan supposedly show's it on F deck (I say supposedly as I do not have a copy-nor can find a decent picture to examine). This could be related to changes done to the Olympic. Also, just because the plans have it in one place, doesn't mean they didn't move it, as we know H&W were always trying new ideas. I wish I had the plans to look at, and determine whether I'm sticking my foot in my mouth...lol.

Either way, this article is pretty amazing, and gives me something new to explore! Yay!

Please read: http://www.titanic-cad-plans.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Kennels.pdf Very interesting.

Another interesting thought, is that if the dog kennels were on the boat deck, and featured for the first time on Titanic, could this explain the nature of the mystery box on the boat deck on the starboard side of the second class entrance? A dog fountain, food container??? Throwing it out there...

 

[Aaron_2016]

The dog kennels are mentioned at the end of this video clip from the Titanic Explorer cd-rom.






If the dogs were seen on the boat deck then the kennels may have been located on the boat deck, which would provide easy access for walking passengers' dogs and for sanitary reasons.


.

 

[Michael H. Standart]

As I understand it, the Kennels were in fact moved to the boat deck for the sanitary reasons mentioned. Since it was something done by the crew, you wouldn't see any indication of it in the shipbuilder's plans since Harland & Wolff had nothing to do with it.

 

[Bob Read]

There has been debate about the location of Titanic’s kennels. Evidence has come to light that the location of the kennels was on Titanic’s boat deck: The article which presents this case can be found here: The Case for a Boat Deck Location of Titanic’s Kennels

 

[John E. Smith]

Who was in charge of the kennels? Was it a particular person who had to walk the dogs? Or just any member of the crew?