Titanic's bow name plates

[Dennis Evans]

I have heard and read the the word "Titanic" was not actually on either side of the bow. Several web sites point to a supposed edited photo of the Titanic during construction dealing the name on the bow. Is this actually true it was never printed on the bow area?
I ask because I viewed one of the 2 actual remaining movie clips and I'm positive I can see the word Titanic very briefly but positivly.

 

[Scott R. Andrews]

See the following thread: https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/discus/messages/5919/87199.html?1138280246 . There are currently 150 posts in that topic.

Regards,
Scott Andrews

[Moderator's Note: This message and the one immediately above it, originally posted as a separate subtopic, have been moved to the subtopic mentioned by Scott in his message. MAB]

 

[david wilson]

Scott,a while ago you asked me for some info regarding a "batt rivet".I have some more for you regarding the punching of holes.It is not a well known fact that all holes were punched to a formula in H&W's plater's sheds.In today's fab shops people are merrily punching away not knowing why punches keep breaking.They believe that they are not putting enough oil on the punch,to help it penetrate the steel.In all my time at H&W did I see one punch break or oil used.If you were to buy,say a 22mm dia punch off the shelf,you would get a 23.2mm dia die (thimble).This is ok for plt up to 6mm thick.In the case of a shipyard however,punching holes in thick plt the punch would only last about a dozen holes.The punch always breaks on the way up.In other words it gets pulled off.To punch 22mm dia holes in 20mm plt,you take the dia of the punch & add on 1/5th the plt thickness.This gives us 22+4=26 for the dia of the die.Most of the time the holes would be marked on the fay side,that is the faces of the plts that come together.The side of plt where the point protrudes from is countersunk.This forms a type of wedge,which is very strong in tension.Alas,Titanics shell rivets were subjected to shear,the rest is history.
I posted a thread on this a while ago,comparing butt laps(british)to butt straps(european).Cap'n David G Brown agreed with me regarding the shear aspect created in the laps.I know the straps increase the weight dramatically but at least the shear factor is shared between all the plts in the strake concerned.I've often wondered if the board of trade had known how the water got in,would they have made butt straps mandatory.I am interested to hear your point of view.
seven degrees west.
regards.
dw.

 

[Mervyn Pritchard]

Its funny how you stumble across these old threads and wonder if there is any point reviving them (has everyone gone home?) or whether a lot of the content has been superceded.

In the off chance that it has not i will tell you what i know.

The bow letters were in fact slanted (or italicised). They were distorted so that the horizontal aspects ran parallel to the sheer and the vertical aspects remained upright as viewed side on to the ship. The upshot of this was that a different set of templates were needed for port and starboard and these would have been calculated by the shiprights in the same way that they would have calculated the cant angles and frame profile offsets for the moulding loft. This distortion is clearly noticable on the rigging plans for Nomadic, and on the ship itself (as Maintenance Officer onboard i was one of those who helped repaint the bow lettering last year). The stern lettering, because of its orientation did not require any jiggery pokery to make it look right, it was just straight lettering. This "straightening by making unstraight" was for the benefit of the eye as otherwise it just would not have looked right... maybe you are just going to take my word on that but a similar philiosophy was employed internally with all the wooden panelling, with orizontal lines following the sheer and verticals being... well, vertical! In my Nomadic book "the Belfast child" this distorting of the decor is demonstrated with a photo or two, there is also at least one photo where the etching of the lettering is prominently visible. The sheerline stripe is also caulked in and it is interesting to note that when Nomadic was Transferred to SCRS and renamed "ingenieur Minard" in the thrties her signiture was not altered, just painted over.

The letters were cut in, i think this has been put to bed now. The cuts were not big, about 3/32 wide and probably not even as deep. I would have presumed that being rather discrete this detail would long have vanished from the wreck due to surface corrosion although i was interested to hear that it is visible on the big piece. I know that if Nomadic ever had an engraved load line marker it has long been removed by waterline corrosion.

Regards -

Mervyn Pritchard
Committee Member
Nomadic Preservation Society.

 

[jim mclaughlin]

I worked in Harlands for 30 years as a welder and have welded several ships names, first the name would be marked out with hammer and dab, then a bead of welding following the outline, then painted. Titanic was not a welded ship so probably a caulker would cut the outline of the dab marks using a diamond cutter (a chisel with a diamond shaped point) leaving a groove for the painter to follow. just a suggestion. ( my father was riveter then a caulker after riveting was dropped in favour of welding.

 

[Roman_Patrick]

Hello!

I am working on a 1:1 scale replica of the lettering of Titanic. I am aware that the letters were 18 inches tall, but does anyone know the inches measurements of the distance between each letters?

I am also including the yellow sheer stripe which was about 5 inches tall. If anyone knows the distance from the letters to the stripe, this would be incredibly helpful!
Are there any to scale profile diagrams of titanic?

Thank you in advance for your help!

Roman

 

[Mike Bull2019]

The sheer stripe 'was 10 1/4 inches wide, tapering at the bows and stern'. Source- 'Titanic The Ship Magnificent' Vol 1.

 

[captainjack]

Were the letters painted on were they attached?

 

[Mike Bull2019]

The outline of the letters were cut into the steel plates, and then filled in with paint; those on the port bow were cleaned off and filmed in 1987-

 

[captainjack]

Amazing.

 

[Ken Ziemski]

Hello!

I am working on a 1:1 scale replica of the lettering of Titanic. I am aware that the letters were 18 inches tall, but does anyone know the inches measurements of the distance between each letters?

I am also including the yellow sheer stripe which was about 5 inches tall. If anyone knows the distance from the letters to the stripe, this would be incredibly helpful!
Are there any to scale profile diagrams of titanic?

Thank you in advance for your help!

Roman

Dear Roman, I don't think you can get a fixed measurement between the letters because as any good typographer, designer, or anyone with any aesthetics, especially back then, even as large as the letters were, tracking between letters, spacing and kerning would still have been considered with respect to the designer of the typeface itself. I would suggest researching as many photographs as possible and scale the letters (and spacing) mathematically from that research. But still respect the aesthetics of the typeface. I had a career in graphic arts for over 35 years and typography was one of my main passions.

Amazing.