Has the Boiler Room ever been explored?

[Lindsey Casco]

I tried to research this but found nothing; just curious if the boiler room has every been explored under water? Or any attempts at it?

 

[Jack Dawson]

Hello, I think the closest thing that would fit your question would be an attempt to explore the remains of an exposed boiler room at the back of the bow section. Other than that, I do not recall any attempts made to penetrate that far into the ship's interior.

 

[Christophe Puttemans]

The boiler rooms are the deepest of the deepest rooms inside the Titanic, each of them sealed by a closed watertight door making it impossible for an ROV to travel between boiler rooms starting from the exposed one. An ROV would have to take the long way down, and nobody ever did that yet. Time is running out as the wreck keeps decaying.

 

[Jack Dawson]

Hi, coming back to this I think the 2005 expedition did locate one of the firemen's escape ladders. Looking at the plans, is that the one behind cabin E-202? I didn't put two and two together when I first replied, but I guess in a way you could say that was close to exploring the boiler rooms.

 

[Ioannis Georgiou]

Hi, coming back to this I think the 2005 expedition did locate one of the firemen's escape ladders. Looking at the plans, is that the one behind cabin E-202?

There is no escape behind cabin E-202. There are a few other rooms between them. The ladder was going down to boiler room No. 6.

The only boiler room explored is boiler room No. 2. They had try to send the ROVs between the boilers but there was too much debris.

 

[Jack Dawson]

Hi, Parks Stephenson said that Cameron found an escape trunk leading into either boiler room 5 or 6, from Scotland road. I'm trying to find where that would be on the plans. I only see the one by E-202 on Bruce Beveridge's plans.

 

[Ioannis Georgiou]

Hi, Parks Stephenson said that Cameron found an escape trunk leading into either boiler room 5 or 6, from Scotland road. I'm trying to find where that would be on the plans.

Meanwhile they had stated it is the one for BR 6. I do not think they went far enough down the Scotland Road because of the debris to get to the one for BR 5.

I only see the one by E-202 on Bruce Beveridge's plans.

I see which one you mean. I was writing by memory and would need to look where they filmed it. The other escape ladders were at the boiler uptakes.

P.S.: I think some details are in the book "Exploring the Deep" which is about all Wreck Expeditions of James Cameron having details of all his dives to the Titanic and what they discovered.

 

[Jack Dawson]

Hi! I will need to get that book then. Do you know if the footage of Scotland road was made available in any of his documentary programs?

Yes, that is why I was confused. Parks Stephenson's website mentions that they found Scotland Road blocked by debris, but the escape ladder on the plans is pretty far forward.

 

[Ioannis Georgiou]

Hi! I will need to get that book then. Do you know if the footage of Scotland road was made available in any of his documentary programs?

It is in "Last Mysteries of the Titanic" and also in the above mentioned book "Exploring the Deep".
But they did not get far because of the debris.

 

[Jack Dawson]

Hi! Sorry I never got the time to thank you; I will look for the book. I appreciate your reply.

 

[Scott Mills]

Hi, Parks Stephenson said that Cameron found an escape trunk leading into either boiler room 5 or 6, from Scotland road. I'm trying to find where that would be on the plans. I only see the one by E-202 on Bruce Beveridge's plans.

Correct. Unfortunately debris and rusticles blocked Cameron's attempts to penetrate the boiler rooms themselves from Scotland Road and he opted to abandon the attempt rather than risk the loss of the ROV.

 

[coal eater]

if the cable/wire was not problem the exploration would have been done,they would need send recevier and transmitter down to bottom then use radio controlled ROV [if ever those exsist] it would be really nice if hard-to-explore areas would be finally explored,ROV tecnology keeps progressing and they eventually get best one but wreck dont have much time left.

Cameron managed to explore engine room and reach the WTD to turbine room but the WTD was closed and full of debris so could not go more.... why they did not try go around and use ripped shell plating as access point to enter compartment?.

i am wondering what happened to engine telegraph in engine room, heard it was mounted on one of engine colunns but the telegraph was never found,only bridge telegraphs were found and one or two recovered.

 

[Mike Spooner]

Reading Richard de Kerbrech excellent book. DOWN AMONGST THE BLACK GANG. Under Introduction. As strange as it may seem, no known photographs of the engine and boiler rooms, with machinery in place, of the Olympic, Titanic and Britannic existed!
There are photos in the book from other ships to show what the very poor condition those fireman and trimmer had to face. Some would regard this was the worst job on the ship.

 

[Ioannis Georgiou]

There are a few photographs from Olympic at last one boiler room after it had been converted to oil burning.

 

[Ioannis Georgiou]

Cameron managed to explore engine room and reach the WTD to turbine room but the WTD was closed and full of debris so could not go more.... why they did not try go around and use ripped shell plating as access point to enter compartment?.

They had try to get from outside but the way was blocked by debris.

 

[Mike Spooner]

May be photos when the Olympic was converted to oil fire boilers June1920 the contrast could not be different they were jumping for joy as the muck grime coal dust and back braking shovelling coal had all gone. But it was to cost them over 200 loss jobs!

 

[Scott Mills]

They had try to get from outside but the way was blocked by debris.

Correct. I have been hoping that autonomous small form ROV technology that has really come a long way in the last decade, thanks in no small part to TEPCO and the Fukushima nuclear disaster, meets underwater archaeology. Thus, finally enabling the exploration and documentation of inaccessible portions of the Titanic wreck.

Unfortunately, this would take someone very wealthy with an interest in Titanic to actually come to fruition. I hate that this is the world we live, but it is what it is.

 

[Kodos the Executioner]

Hello, Lindsey.

I would always chuckle at the scene in Clive Cussler's "Raise the Titanic!" where the salvage crew drops down the funnel casings down into the boiler rooms in their struggle to keep the resurrected liner afloat.
I never considered actually using those as access points (no one would), but have always wondered if the access shafts behind the fan shaft for boiler room 6 (or forward in the case of room 5) on either side of the steam pipe shafts would be passable. They seem like clear shots, you certainly wouldn't have to take the twists and turns from the usual passages, and you know where the shaft leads.
You would be starting a deck or two more than your usual starting point (Boat deck or Shelter Deck C; but getting more iffy as the wreck deteriorates), and your ROV would have to be pretty small!

If only...

Cheers,

Kodos//
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"Mr. Lowe! Take a bosun's party and a Master-at-Arms, and get those children off the foc'sle at once!"

 

[Scott Mills]

I also hate to be the one to come out and say this, but given how quickly the wreck is deteriorating, I would not necessarily be opposed to limited interventions to get access to some of the more sensitive areas of the ship, from where information might be able to settle a lot of historical ambiguity.

And just in case you are wondering, by limited intervention I mean intentionally breaching areas of the hull or removing debris in a way that could cause limited damage to any part of the ship in the immediate area. Limited is the key here. Please do not read this as me being in favor of placing demolition charges all over Titanic!

 

[Michael H. Standart]

The thing is that going down where the stacks were and into the uptakes wouldn't lead you into the boiler room so much as it would lead you right into the boilers themselves. Those things are still right where the builders left them.