Interesting facts

[Seth Christian Riedel]

I just read about all of the different decks on the Titanic and found that it had a lot of rooms that you would never expect. Here are some of the interesting ones: gymnasium, hospital, doctor's office, barber shop, swimming pool, turkish bath, raquet court, and post office.

By the way...does anybody know what the bridge is on a boat?

 

[Michael H. Standart]

The Bridge refers to the control centre up forward where the navigation team cons the ship. Titanic's bridge was located all the way up forward on the Boat Deck.

 

[Dave Gittins]

Seth, most of the things you mention were not unusual at the time. Some had been introduced earlier by the Germans, who had the lion's share of passenger shipping on the North Atlantic. Until her dramatic demise, Titanic was nothing special. She has been romanticised to a ridiculous extent, especially in the last 50 years. She didn't become "the ship of dreams" until 1990.

As well as the bridge explained by Michael, you'll find references to the docking bridge. This was an open platform that ran across the ship near the stern. It had its own controls and was used when bringing the ship to a wharf.

 

[Kyrila Scully]

Hello, young Seth. I see you're from Tennessee, not much opportunity to see ships there, but you can be virtually transported to all sorts of ships here, and I do hope you'll take advantage of all the information on this website. I'm from Kentucky myself (originally) but live in South Florida by the ocean now.

Kind regards,
Kyrila

 

[Seth Christian Riedel]

why is the Titanic always referred to the "RMS Titanic"?

 

[Amanda Ratliff]

RMS refers to Royal Mail Steamship.

Similar to, for example: USS Constitution

 

[Noel F. Jones]

In the interests of pedantry, strictly speaking 'RMS' is an abbreviation of 'Royal Mail Ship' - steam or otherwise. It signifies that the vessel's owners are party to a British government mail carrying contract. Historically it carries a distinct cachet, particularly for passenger vessels, connoting speed, reliability and regularity. It is unique to the liner trades.

In today's scheme of things, any vessel only spasmodically working a line and otherwise employed in cruising yet still aspiring to 'RMS' might be said to be pushing the envelope (whoops!)

Noel

 

[Alex McLean]

I read in a special edition about the QM2's January maiden sailing that she was designated RMS, taking royal mail somewhere or other during the voyage.

 

[Wesley Burton]

Seth, you seem to be new to this stuff. I remember asking the same question when I was about 6-7.
Seeing as QM2 is a Cunarder it should have the name RMS.

 

[Christine Geyer]

Hmmmm... I don't remember exactly what was on my mind when I was 6-7, maybe my roller skates or with whom I'd play the skipping rope, but it wasn't the technical construction details of Titanic's Turkish Bath for certain

Welcome aboard Seth. A little tour round the Encyclopedia Titanica main site is a good way to get familiar with Titanic's design. Most helpful are the Titanic deckplans right at the bottom of the start site. Of course there's much more to explore. Also for an overview about sailing and ship terms you can go here

Please feel free to ask questions on the message board. It's advisable to have a look at the archives before you start a new thread and see if such a topic is already existent, which is often the case.

I hope you enjoy your time at ET

Regards
Christine

 

[Tom Bates]

I Remember when I was about 6-7 asking things like what does ss mean and why cant a ship stop on a dime like a car. And tons of very simple questions.