Crew's Quarters

The Crew's quarters were on E-Deck and they were located along a corridor named Scotland Road. This corridor helped crew members and Third Class passengers get from one end of the ship to the other.

The crew was jammed into rooms with stacks of berths and the stewards dubbed these as "Glory Holes". Certain improvements in these quarters were included on Titanic over those on Olympic by Thomas Andrews, and the crew were grateful for these minor amenities. The Glory Holes also had special stewards assigned to them.

The stewardesses had a different lot on board. They were berthed in two person cabins scattered throughout the First and Second Class passenger areas of the ship. There were 18 stewardesses onboard and about 150 stewards to see to the passengers' needs.

There were a total of 908 crew members onboard Titanic and 696 of them perished in the sinking.

Accommodation was provided for the crew as follows: About 75 of the deck department, including officers and doctors, 320 of the engine room department, including engineers, and 544 of the victualing department, including pursers and leading stewards.

Eating facilities[]

The crew of the Titanic was something of a well oiled machine consisting of 908 individuals, all of whom were expected to carry out their duty to the fullest. Larger than any single passenger group on board, feeding all the members of the crew proved to be a challenge. To help maintain order in crew dining, the ship did not have one centralized "Crew's Mess" that all crew members would share, but rather many separate rooms set aside for specific groups of the crew to dine in.

The Officers had a mess located on the starboard side of the Boat Deck, directly at the base of the Third Funnel. Off-duty Officers were also free to utilize the Officer's Smoke Room located near their cabins just aft of the bow. The Postal Clerks and Marconi Operaters shared a mess just forward of the Maid's and Valet's Saloon on C-Deck, while Seamen and Firemen had separate Mess Halls on C-Deck just beneath the Forecastle. Pursers would dine with their passengers in First and Second Class, their tables often being sought after for dinner.

Engineers would dine in this room, which was actually named the "Engineer's Mess" on board the real Titanic, and were tree to utilize a smoke room set aside for Engineer staff up on the Boat Deck just aft of the third funnel when they were off duty. A staff of stewards whose sole purpose was to tend to the Mess Halls at all hours of the day would be in charge of these rooms and the crew who dined in them. Food would be served to the crew from the same galleys that served passengers, though in the case of the Seamen's Mess, the Greaser's Mess and the Firemen's Mess, a separate Crew Galley was set aside in the bow of the ship on C-Deck, exclusively to serve them.

The only members of the crew without a mess hall were among the victualing department, which included bell boys, stewards, and cooks. These members of the crew would instead make themselves food and drinks directly from pantries whenever the chance to do so arose. Many would use this down time making their meals in the pantry to gossip and converse with other members of the victualing department. Furthermore, it was commonplace for these individuals to take food from the pantries with them to their quarters once they were off duty. This non-traditional dining setup allowed the victualing department necessary flexibility in their meal times, allowing them to prioritize their duties first and seek out a meal once they had a moment of spare time.