Were most of the Titanic's lights on during the Sinking?

[Greendreamer]

Suzette Baxter told the Toronto Telegram reporter "Looking back from the lifeboats we saw the lights of one of the lower decks disappear under the water."
Titanic

 

[Khan aadil]

I think titanic should be seen like this
This is the image of white star liner RMS Majestic during night at harbour
lights appearing from portholes is faint and on deck we can see boat deck is brightly lit with bulkhead lamps and lights on promenade decks so I thought some survivor would say that ( lot of lights remained lit on titanic during in which it seems very bright from a miles)

 

[Magnus Lundin]

I would imagine that Titanic's cabin lights were 60W, which was quite standard for an incandescent light bulb of the period. The 60kW available from the two emergency generators running together would have lit 1000 60W bulbs.

The cabin lights were nowhere near 60W. We know from the Olympic that only the First Class staterooms had 30W incandescent light bulbs (as did the boiler and engine rooms). IIRC, the ship carried two 75W lights, but the ship's cabins and common areas were very dimly lit compared to today's standards (as a comparison, the Second Class library had an illumination of four foot-candles. The Illuminating Engineering Society recommends an illumination of 15-60 foot-candles).

 

[Keith H]

According to the testimony of Thomas Ranger at the British enquiry the lights of the Titanic stayed on apart from the submerged sections gradually going out till it broke in half then the lights stayed on in the rear section from the forth funnel back gradually dimming and going out as the stern disappeared beneath the waves .
He also states that the emergency generator under the forth funnel was running as the ship sank as he had passed it on his way up to the boat deck.

 

[Keith H]

Another reason why lights stayed on in cabins below the water may be the space between the door and ceiling that would form an air pocket as the cabin filled up with water till eventually the fuse board located elsewhere for that block of cabins became submerged and shorted out or the air pocket got smaller with mounting water pressure and immersed the light fitting

 

[Keith Peterson]

I really wish we could get a look at what these looked like.

Me too lol!

 

[HugoGHA]

The emergency lights topic has been bugging my head for a while.

I know Titanic had emergency dynamos that kept the lights on (but weaker) in the case the main dynamos failed, and that those sent power, like the main ones, through steam pipes. But if the steam pipes broke, all the steam would be released and apparently all the power would be gone in a second or two.

But, a few days ago, I asked a question specifically about this in the comments of Tom Lynskey's livestream for Titanic's 110th anniversary, and one of the authors from the book "On a Sea of Glass", Tad Fitch, replied me saying some lights could remain on longer than others in case the steam pipes broke, but this seems questionable, so I decided to ask here to see if I could get more information about this.

 

[Stephen Carey]

If Titanic had had an emergency lighting system from batteries (as Olympic and just about every ship thereafter had) then the lights could stay on. However the auxiliary dynamos of 30kW each would stop as their steam supply stopped. As the main steam pipe broke, it was probably the 'red glow' mentioned by some survivors as the dynamos gradually wound down before their switchboard breakers opened.

 

[Rose F.]

If Titanic had had an emergency lighting system from batteries (as Olympic and just about every ship thereafter had) then the lights could stay on. However the auxiliary dynamos of 30kW each would stop as their steam supply stopped. As the main steam pipe broke, it was probably the 'red glow' mentioned by some survivors as the dynamos gradually wound down before their switchboard breakers opened.

That was something I wondered about. Surely with the mass they had, the dynamos would have such inertia that they wouldn't immediately stop as soon as steam was cut. That said, I can't imagine that the glow from the dynamos winding down would last more than a matter of seconds..

 

[Steven Christian]

The only batteries that I'm aware of on Titanic were the one for the back-up transmitter and any that were in hand held flashlights (believe the brits call them torches). I've read that Titanic went back to the mechanical wind up system for the master clock because batteries in those days weren't very reliable. Actually most batteries today still suck. I've been reading for 30 years how all these new super batteries are just around the corner but they never seem to pan out. Maybe someday they'll deliver on all the promises. Cheers.

 

[Steven Christian]

That was something I wondered about. Surely with the mass they had, the dynamos would have such inertia that they wouldn't immediately stop as soon as steam was cut. That said, I can't imagine that the glow from the dynamos winding down would last more than a matter of seconds..

It depends on how the circuits or generators failed. If the lighting circuits had a hard fault they would go out immediatley from a circuit breaker trip. If the gennys lost steam and they just spun down to a stop then the light would go dimmer and dimmer before going out completley. I've read accounts of both scenarios. Your right about the glow not lasting very long if the steam was cut off all at once. The lights (electrical load) would have acted like a dynamic brake on the generator. If the steam ran out slower then the glow would have lasted a little longer. I've never seen a full schematic of the electrical system. A under voltage trip relay could have tripped them also at some point. Cheers.

 

[Matthew Mozingo]

I heard that one explanation for the conflicting reports of whether the lights went out after the breakup or stayed on, could be that a small number of emergency deck lights stayed on after the main grid failed. Does anyone know how this system worked? Or whether this is plausible?

 

[Ajmal Dar]

I heard that one explanation for the conflicting reports of whether the lights went out after the breakup or stayed on, could be that a small number of emergency deck lights stayed on after the main grid failed. Does anyone know how this system worked? Or whether this is plausible?

Try Titanic The Ship Magnificent. It is a fantastic value resource for the design of the Titanic. About 1100 pages for the two volumes and cheap from Amazon.

 

[Anakin]

There is evidence to suggest that some lights had remained on following the breakup. Though, this wouldn't have been normal lighting. Rather, it would have been Titanic's emergency set burning from the emergency generators located in the stern on D deck, far away from the breakup area. By the time of the breakup, this generator was already on throughout the night due to the crew using it to provide extra power to the Titanic. Most likely following the breakup, the emergency generator started using its emergency dynamos once the exhaust steam was drained. Now for how long this transpired, we don't know, but evidence does suggest there were at least some lights still burning.

 

[Roger Southern]

Anakin, the emergency dynamos were main line steam powered just like the main set. The only emergency aspect was that they were sited further up in the hull to be above possible flooding. Once the steam lines were lost then they would rapidly spool down. The only lights that could have remained visible were any oil lamps and there were none of those in the main body of the ship. Possibly one at a mast head?