Boiler Room 6 was the foremost boiler room of the Titanic. Where the other boiler rooms had 5 boilers, BR6 only had 4 double-ended boilers, in which they generated steam for the reciprocating engines and were connected to the 1st funnel. This room could be accessed or left using the Firemen's staircase/tunnel, and the E Deck door at the very front of Scotland Road. There were also huge set of ladders that went over the boilers onto higher decks.
At the time of the collision engineers Hesketh and Shephard inspected this room. This room was compromised when the ship hit the iceberg and started flooding at once, ripping the entire side open. Firemen Fredrick Barrett and George Beauchamp were on duty when this happened. They squeezed under the watertight door before it shut. Barrett and Shephard went back in, and tried to pump the water out. It didn't work for long and they had to leave.
Random Info[]
Fireman Frederick Barrett, a leading stoker, was on duty in Boiler Room No. 6 when the collision occurred. He witnessed the alarm lights turn red, signaling that the ship had been ordered into all stop, and called out for the dampers to be shut in anticipation of a potential collision. The firemen began to shut the dampers, but before they could shut them all the ship collided with the iceberg. Suddenly staring down a huge gash in the hull that was allowing a large amount of water to rush into the boiler room, Barrett hastily escaped under the watertight door leading into Boller Room No. 5 as it was closing. He was then ordered to wait in Boiler Room No. 5 for further instructions while some of the stokers were sent back up top. He was then ordered to assist in putting out the fires in Boiler Room No. 5, where he remained until the bulkhead between Boiler Room No. 6 and 5 seemed to give away and a sent a tremendous wall of water crashing into Boiler Room No. 5. Barrett barely escaped this incident and hurried up to the boat deck from there.
A coal bunker fire burned in this boiler room for much of the voyage. While bunker fires are not at all uncommon and not great means for concern, some argue that the fire weakened the ship and accelerated her sinking. This theory has often been debunked, and it is widely considered now that the fire had no ill effect on the ship's sinking at all.
Popular Culture[]
In Nacht Und Eis (1912)[]
The firemen worked in Boiler Room 6 until the boilers (fictionally) exploded.
Atlantic (1929)[]
A few clips of the boiler room flooding are shown during the collision.
Titanic (1943)[]
There were only two clips of the room flooding.
Titanic (1953)[]
The boilers were shown often.
A Night To Remember[]
The boilers were a major location.
SOS Titanic[]
A clip of Boiler Room 4 flooding was used but that was it.
Titanic 1996[]
The boilers were a major location.
Titanic 1997[]
The room was shown several times during the film but most importantly in the "They're closing the doors" scene.
Titanic 2012[]
Boiler Room 6 was visited by Smith & Andrews shortly after the collision.
