Glass windows on the forward promenade

[Robert McCahl]

There is another post that talked about access to the A deck promenade. Toward the bow the promenade was closed off by a wall, with a window and a door.

Unlike the Olympic which had an open promenade nearly all the way around, the Titanic had a different design where there were what appears to be smaller windows. I understand this was Ismay’s idea as a “spray guard” for the forward area of the promenade.

My specific question is...

Where these windows “open” to the air or was there actual glass there?

If there was glass, could these widows slide open?

The CAD plan says that they are sliding windows however, in every model I see, as well as in Cameron’s movie, these windows seem to be open to the environment with no indication of glass.

I am building a model and I’d like to add “glass” to these windows as I imagine they would have likely been closed on a cold night.

Here are the windows I’m asking about. (I believe this is the Olympic after modification?)

 

[Tim Gerard]

On Titanic there was glass on those windows on the forward part of the A-deck promenade. Gross tonnage is a measure of enclosed volume of a ship (not a ship's weight) and is what they use to compare if one ship is larger than another. If I'm not mistaken, these windows enclosing the forward part of Titanic's promenade played a large part in the Titanic having a larger gross tonnage than Olympic with its fully open promenade, and thus at the time being the largest ship in the world.

Those windows were thick, and needed a special hand crank to be opened. During the sinking this caused problems with loading Lifeboat 4. The story goes that Captain Smith suggested they lower No. 4 to A-deck to load it from the promenade, but he forgot this portion of the promenade was enclosed, unlike on Olympic where it was open the whole way around. They eventually got the windows open and the boat loaded and launched but it was problematic.

 

[Bob Read]

I don’t believe that an area which was open at one end counted toward gross tonnage. I believe Titanic’s increase in gross tonnage was mainly due to the conversion of what was a screened promenade on Olympic’s B deck to staterooms on Titanic’s outboard B deck.

 

[Robert McCahl]

On Titanic there was glass on those windows on the forward part of the A-deck promenade. Gross tonnage is a measure of enclosed volume of a ship (not a ship's weight) and is what they use to compare if one ship is larger than another. If I'm not mistaken, these windows enclosing the forward part of Titanic's promenade played a large part in the Titanic having a larger gross tonnage than Olympic with its fully open promenade, and thus at the time being the largest ship in the world.

Those windows were thick, and needed a special hand crank to be opened. During the sinking this caused problems with loading Lifeboat 4. The story goes that Captain Smith suggested they lower No. 4 to A-deck to load it from the promenade, but he forgot this portion of the promenade was enclosed, unlike on Olympic where it was open the whole way around. They eventually got the windows open and the boat loaded and launched but it was problematic.

Thanks for the reply!

On my model I will put clear plastic acetate sheets and line the backing of the windows to replicate the glass.

It looks like these types of windows were also located on the second class closed promenade on C deck as well?

It’s very difficult (impossible really) in the picture to see the glass but I noticed that along the right edge of the window there is a darkline and what appears to be a white line, on each window these lines are different length. I wonder if this is the height set on the windows?

Here is my modification of the picture, I drew lines to represent the top of the windows using those lines along the right edge of the window.

I don’t see what appears to be cranks, was it a handle that was attached by the crew?

The reason I ask is because no evidence in pictures or movies, and even on the wreck itself seem to show evidence of glass in these windows.
Thanks!

 

[Bob Read]

Here is a display of an Utley's sliding glass window that was used on the Olympic class ships. The crank handle is in place and you can see that the window has been lowered about halfway.

 

[Tim Gerard]

I don’t believe that an area which was open at one end counted toward gross tonnage. I believe Titanic’s increase in gross tonnage was mainly due to the conversion of what was a screened promenade on Olympic’s B deck to staterooms on Titanic’s outboard B deck.

Looks like I was mistaken this whole time. I found the ET thread where it had been discussed. I get a little rusty sometimes with what is and is not considered part of a ship's gross tonnage.

Was the enclosed A-deck included into the Titanic's Gross Tonnage?

We all know that the Titanic had gross tonnage of 1,004 more than the Olympic had, as built. As we also know that gross tonnage (GT) only includes the enclosed spaces of a ship. So the question is, what spaces did the Titanic have enclosed that the Olympic had not to count for in the raised GT...

www.encyclopedia-titanica.org