Trapped by watertight doors?

[Tiespd]

Hi,
I’ve always had a doubt about people in this specific part of the ship. There is a part in E deck which is sounded by watertight doors and, apparently, there’s no staircase to go up or down, there is just a door only for crew (I guess I’m right). The part is between the cabins E-75 and E-69. If you check, there’s no info about people in those cabins, if they survived or die.
I don’t have much knowledge about the topic but maybe people can open and close watertight doors? I guess not because then which is the point of closing then? Did they when through the crew door?
Thank you!

 

[Ioannis Georgiou]

Those WTD would have been closed by stewards which would have made sure that there was no one in the cabin.

 

[Tiespd]

Thank you so much, so only the watertigh doors of the boiler room were closed from the bridge? I though they can close all the doors of the ship.

 

[Ioannis Georgiou]

Only the WTDs below (boiler, engine rooms etc.) could be closed from the bridge. All the other WTD had to be closed by the crew.

 

[Jay Roches]

The area in question was between watertight bulkheads K and L. On the starboard side were cabins E-69 through E-75; the engineer's mess was on the port side. Both areas had the same issue. There was a way out, though, even if the manually-operated watertight doors were closed. The doors near the aft bulkhead (WTB L) led into the reciprocating engine casing, which contained catwalks and ladders that aren't shown on the Beveridge plans found on this site. I can't find a drawing that shows the catwalks in the engine room space, but there's one for Boiler Rooms 1 and 2 here, showing the ladders that led up to A Deck.