Aft Grand Staicase if the Titanic had sunk in one piece

[Newman123]

If Titanic sank in one piece and went down as slowly as it did in the 1958 film, "A Night to Remember", what would have happened to the Aft grand staircase during the sinking as well as the rest of the stern itself?

Even if Titanic went down in one piece, I'm pretty sure the Grand Staircase would still be a Giant Hole in the wreck. Would the aft staircase also be a giant hole like the forward staircase?

 

[Kyle Naber]

Probably. However, I think the stern still would have suffered a lot of damage from escaping air during the plunge. Compared to the bow taking a generous 2 hours and 35 minutes to sink, the stern would have been blown apart still during its decent (even before it disappeared beneath the surface) as it did even after the break.

As for the stairs, I wonder if it would have had the same fate as the forward staircase. Although the forward one went under at a low, downward angle, the stern was listing pretty severely. I’m not sure if the aft staircase would have broken apart and lifted out like the the forward (if you subscribe to that hypothesis) due to the position of the stern as it went down.

 

[Newman123]

So i wonder if the stern would be as badly mutilated as the one today.. If it's still attached to the bow, there is no broken end facing the current.

and when I mean "A night to remember" slow plunge, i mean this:

If the Stern went down that slow, I'm pretty sure there would be lesser air pockets as the stern would have less air pockets and flood thoroughly.

How would that affect the aft staircase?

 

[Kyle Naber]

So i wonder if the stern would be as badly mutilated as the one today.. If it's still attached to the bow, there is no broken end facing the current.

and when I mean "A night to remember" slow plunge, i mean this:

If the Stern went down that slow, I'm pretty sure there would be lesser air pockets as the stern would have less air pockets and flood thoroughly.

How would that affect the aft staircase?

I think the stern actually went down a bit slower than that after it had broken in real life. Still, this is a very fast pace in terms of the air’s ability to escape and allow water to replace it. If the ship had gone down whole, and slid under like in A Night to Remember, there would still be considerable air expulsion damage on the wreck. Cameron depicts this in the ‘97 film when the poop deck is being shredded apart with blasting air.

I’m not sure how it would have affected the stairs. My guess is that they would have dismantled and ejected out during the descent (both in a broken and whole scenario) in the first couple hundred of feet. There are reports of people clinging onto small sections of either the forward or aft grand staircases, as well as the barber's pole at the bottom of the aft one.

 

[Newman123]

so in short, it's going to be a giant hole regardless

 

[Kyle Naber]

Pretty much. The wood was extremely buoyant and each set was placed under a fragile, class cap. So either they lifted up and out during the final plunge, or they broke apart and flew out and floated up during the descent.

 

[Newman123]

though if we were going with the old notions of the single piece wreck being preserved by the coldness and darkness of the atlantic. The wood panelling and some baulstrades would be stuck to the hull like this:

 

[Rennette Marston]

I believe that the aft grand staircase, like the main grand staircase and other parts of the ship that was still full of air, would still implode during the ship's descent into the seafloor - regardless if the superstructure remained intact or broken apart. In addition to the air pockets imploding, the dense pressure of the surrounding seawater against the hull would've been enormous and the ship would've compressed on its way down.

 

[Rennette Marston]

I probably made an error with regard to the Titanic's Grand Staircases. More than likely they would've collapsed than imploded when the ship hit the seafloor - and that is assuming they had very little air left by the time the Titanic met the bottom of the ocean.