Public Rooms at 11:40

[Samuel Halpern]

This is a pretty old thread, but a good question that I'll come back to in a moment.

With regard to closing times of public spaces, I did find a reference to a WSL brochure for passengers which stated:
Breakfast from 8 until 10 o'clock, Luncheon at 1pm, Dinner at 7 o'clock.
Bars open at 8am and close at 11:30pm.
Lights are extinguished in the Saloon at 11:00pm, Lounge at 11:30pm, and Smoke rooms at midnight.
Devine Service held in the Saloon on Sunday at 10:30am.

At midnight the clocks were put back in public spaces on westbound trips (forward on eastbound trips) and some men like Barkworth stayed up in the smoking rooms to set their personal timepieces to the new time. The lights would then be put out as the room cleared out.

Now according to Barkworth, he was in the smoking room late that night talking to Arthur H. Gee and Charles Cresson Jones about the science of road building when he decided to retire. As he started to leave someone said they were going to set the clock back at midnight, so Barkworth decided to stay up for that. Some time after that the ship struck. In another account he said "I was sitting in the smoking room with my friends when we heard a grinding sound which caused the ship to tremble." He did not mention Gee or Jones by name in that account, but they may have been the friends he was referring to when the crash came. If so, they decided to stay in smoking room until midnight as well. Barkworth did mention that he was with Gee and Jones on deck later on after all the boats had gone. Arthur Gee and Charles Jones did not survive.

Maybe others can shed more light as to who was there or not at the time of the crash.

 

[Mark Baber]

What year is that brochure from, Sam?

 

[Jay Roches]

The survivor testimonies are consistent with the closing times of the various public spaces as given by Sam Halpern above. I searched the inquiries for the public rooms on the Boat Deck and A Deck and no one mentions being in any public rooms except the 1st class smoking room, the gymnasium and the grand staircase areas. There were some other small rooms on the Boat Deck, like the officer's mess, that I searched for, and I found no evidence that anyone entered those rooms. For people on the Boat Deck, the gymnasium and the forward grand staircase were the only sheltered areas available. I seem to remember some source saying people were in the lounge after the incident, but no one explicitly testified that they were there at the inquiries.

 

[Samuel Halpern]

Good question Mark. A copy of the information for passengers page was published in Peter Thresh's book 'Titanic - The Truth Behind the Disaster' on p. 36. Credit was given to the George Behe Collection.

 

[Mark Baber]

Thanks, Sam.

 

[Ioannis Georgiou]

The opening hours were also mentioned in the passenger information booklet or even in the passenger list. The earliest one I remember is from Olympic 1913 which had the same times (without the smoking room) but the hours were the same in 1911 and 1912.
The smoking room was generally open till midnight and I think it was also mentioned by an Titanic survivor that they shut off the lights at midnight there.

 

[yntatny]

Lights in third class accommodation and in the forecastle were to be put out at 10 PM every evening. The Saloons, libraries, on deck and in companion ways at 11 PM except for emergency lights. Smoking room lights were put out at 12 AM. These according to WSL rules in effect at the time. Late at night the ship was not ablaze with light.

I seem to remember reading (in one of the testimonies, I believe) that after the collision, all lights were turned on to try and signal the Californian and/or the Mystery Ship.