The watertight door control as seen by MrHarder

[Lester Mitcham]

Hi Daniel,

Thank you for the info from Miss Francatelli's letter. Appreciated.

As you know from the TRMA plans there were two WTDs on bulkhead "F". One near the Grand Staircase and the other at the entrance to the passageway that ran between the Cooling Room and the other Turkish Bath rooms. Opposite to that WTD was a door giving access to the Swimming Pool.

As per what Cal posted I accepted two plates at different locations to what seems to be the case based on passenger testimonies.

Reading what Wheat said I understand he closed the WTD near the Grand Staircase while he was on F-deck then went up to E-deck and helped to close the other WTD - the one that Cal says was under E-24 from a plate outside E-26. Is that how you understand it?

Hope all is well with you.
With my best wishes. Regards,
Lester

 

[sashka pozzetti]

Apparently the letter that was sold with the Titanic life preserver was very detailed, and talked about these iron doors too. It seems that Miss Francatelli was very frightened indeed as there was water coming up along the corridor. She does say that the iron doors next to her room are bolted shut, so from where is the water coming in, is it from the other direction? I am interested to know how she got upstairs and what she would have needed to pass on the way in her obviously frightened state?

 

[Samuel Halpern]

Sashka.

I believe the quote would be, “I still stood there quite 20 minutes or more, saw all the officers come down to inspect the damage and then started screwing down the iron doors outside my bedroom.”

Her bedroom was cabin E-26. The screwing down of the iron doors referred to the the closing of the watertight doors on the deck below, F deck, which were closed manually from either F deck or from E deck above where she was. Her cabin was on the port side corridor of E deck between the 1st class staircase and the elevators. She would have seen water coming from forward down that corridor but not at the time those watertight doors were closed. That would be some time later. To go up she would go aft of her cabin to get to the staircase and then go up the staircase.

See att. diagram.

According to Sir Cosmo, Miss Francatelli joined him and his wife just before they went up to the boat deck. This would have been between 12:30 and 12:45 because when they got to the boat deck the first lifeboat No. 7 was just about to be lowered. If Miss Francatelli left E deck close to about 12:30, she most likely would have seen water at the forward end of that corridor since the ship was trimmed down by the head about 3 degrees about that time. It all seems to fit.

 

[Parks Stephenson]

I just read this thread for the first time today.

When Steward Wheat referred to an "inside" door was actually the "inboard" door of the two. They did have privacy doors with the watertight doors in that area, but it's obvious from Wheat's description that he closed the watertight door near the stairwell on the F-deck level, then went up to E Deck to close the outboard door across the passageway from the Swimming Bath.

The plan reproduced above is of Olympic, not Titanic. However, the watertight door locations in this area are the same for both ships.

Just prior to the ROV's entry into the Cooling Room vestibule during Jim Cameron's 2005 dives, the camera quickly panned across the forward bulkhead where the watertight door was supposed to be. All that we could see in the image was what looked like a solid steel wall, which indicates that the inboard door was shut, as Wheat claimed. Once inside the Cooling Room the camera picked up no illumination from the Mir hovering outside, that was positioned there for the express purpose of pumping light into the portholes outside the WC, Electric Bath and Shampooing Rooms. This tells us a couple of things: 1) the Cairo curtains did not frame actual openings in the steel wall of the fore-and-aft passageway (in Olympic, the curtains framed portholes in the side of the ship), and 2) there is a very good chance that the outboard watertight door is also closed, as Wheat claimed. Otherwise, I would have expected to see some hint of light around the starboard door leading into the glass-walled vestibule (although the presence of light would not have proved that the door was open, as it could have come through the portholes aft of the bulkhead).

We used the description of the E-deck watertight door floor plates to help Cameron narrow down the possible location of Margaret Brown's cabin, but when he tried to enter E Deck with his ROV, he found that it was a constricted area and most of the features (walls, furniture, etc.) were gone, so he aborted his penetration attempt. We never would have found the brass floor plates themselves because of the accumulation of silt and debris covering the entire deck.

Parks

 

[sashka pozzetti]

Than you so much for the details, and the map. For someone like me, who does not have a good understanding of the layout it really adds something to the description. Your quote is what I am referring to, but the letter that was with the life preserver about is apparently slightly different, I will try and see if there are any other details which would be interesting. I think she says that she has noticed how low they were in the water particularly, because she had been keeping an eye on how high she was above the ocean, throughout the voyage. There are some details about how cold it was, and about how frightening it was in the lifeboat. She was completely terrified, which was a reaction that I had not really understood before thinking about it properly. I had always presumed a sense of relief of leaving a sinking ship, but of course tossing around in the dark in a tiny boat, in an ice-field, not knowing if you would be saved would prolong the agony! :-(

 

[Samuel Halpern]

Just not to confuse anybody, when I wrote above that "Her cabin was on the port side corridor of E deck ..." I meant the port side of the starboard corridor on E deck as seen in the diagram I posted. That starboard corridor was in first class space over there. Over on the port side of the ship there was a very wide corridor referred to as "Scotland Road" which was the working corridor for many of the crew; e.g., the waiters, stewards, etc.

 

[David G. Brown]

If port is the left side, then starboard is the side that's left.

-- David G. Brown

 

[Samuel Halpern]

What you said about port is right.

 

[sashka pozzetti]

I am now left with no doubt

 

[Samuel Halpern]

When my wife was first learning to drive, many years ago, and was coming to an intersection the instructor asked her to turn left. To be sure she heard her correctly, my wife asked "You want me to turn left at the light?" to which the instructor responded with one word, "Right!" Well you can guess what the result was.

 

[Sahand Miraminy]

were watertight bulkheads/doors viewable in first class areas? Wouldnt that be an eyesore?

 

[sashka pozzetti]

What was actually involved in securing one of these doors. I wonder what it must have looked like to a passenger? Did they need equipment, and how long might it have taken. It must have been a very ominous sight indeed!

 

[Brian R Peterson]

Sashka,

If you read the above post Samuel explains that these doors were manually operated by a crewman from the deck above by means of a T wrench in the gearbox located in the floor of that deck.

Best Regards,

Brian

 

[sashka pozzetti]

Samuel,re; Francatelli letter. I don't have a copy here, but when I get the whole thing I will post what I can, as long as I don't breach any copyright laws. It wasn't actually sold, so I am not sure if we are allowed to put any of it on here.

 

[Jason D. Tiller]

Hello Sashka,

Laura Francatelli's letter may not have been sold, but that doesn't mean there aren't any copyrights attached to it. A much safer and better way, is to contribute it to the site by way of her biography.

That way, you avoid answering in front of a judge.