Brian Ahern
Member
Does it seem possible to anyone that the staterooms shown on the website below were on the Rotterdam IV, and not the Olympic or Titanic?
To view them, please go to the following link and scroll down to the bottom:
http://www.dkb.nl/mutters/geschmutters_US.htm
(For the sake of avoiding confusion, the Rotterdam IV was definitely the Rotterdam of 1908. Contrary to the title of another thread, the ship now known as the Rembrandt was the Rotterdam V)
The website is on the history of HP Mutters & Son, the Dutch furniture-manufacturing company contracted to decorate some of the first-class staterooms and public rooms of the Olympic/Titanic and various Holland-America liners. The photos - in spite of the site's claim - are almost certainly NOT of Titanic cabins, but they might well feature Olympic cabins.
There are a few reasons why I think they might be photos of the Rotterdam's interiors instead. The first is that - if they were photos of the Olympic-class liners - then it seems like they would be much more widely circulated than they have been (copyright issues aside).
Photos that we know to be of Olympic-Titanic staterooms reveal that, even in the choicest B Deck cabins, the beds tended to be up against the wall, and not freestanding in the center of the room like the beds in these cabins.
When the Rotterdam docked in New York on her maiden voyage in 1909, the New York Times reported that her staterooms were at least as large as those on the Lusitania and Mauretania. And according to John P. Eaton's research article (https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/canceled-titanic-passages.html), at least two parties of first-class passengers (a Colonel Hitchens and the J. Clifford Wilson family) changed their bookings to the Rotterdam because they thought the accommodation would be superior to that which they had been assigned on the Titanic.
The photos on the website below reveal that Rotterdam's public rooms, at least, were certainly on par with those on the finest German and British liners: http://www.halpostcards.com/unofficial/rot4p.html
Unfortunately, I have yet to find any photos online identified as Rotterdam IV staterooms. If anyone has any pictures or links to share, I would greatly appreciate it.
To view them, please go to the following link and scroll down to the bottom:
http://www.dkb.nl/mutters/geschmutters_US.htm
(For the sake of avoiding confusion, the Rotterdam IV was definitely the Rotterdam of 1908. Contrary to the title of another thread, the ship now known as the Rembrandt was the Rotterdam V)
The website is on the history of HP Mutters & Son, the Dutch furniture-manufacturing company contracted to decorate some of the first-class staterooms and public rooms of the Olympic/Titanic and various Holland-America liners. The photos - in spite of the site's claim - are almost certainly NOT of Titanic cabins, but they might well feature Olympic cabins.
There are a few reasons why I think they might be photos of the Rotterdam's interiors instead. The first is that - if they were photos of the Olympic-class liners - then it seems like they would be much more widely circulated than they have been (copyright issues aside).
Photos that we know to be of Olympic-Titanic staterooms reveal that, even in the choicest B Deck cabins, the beds tended to be up against the wall, and not freestanding in the center of the room like the beds in these cabins.
When the Rotterdam docked in New York on her maiden voyage in 1909, the New York Times reported that her staterooms were at least as large as those on the Lusitania and Mauretania. And according to John P. Eaton's research article (https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/canceled-titanic-passages.html), at least two parties of first-class passengers (a Colonel Hitchens and the J. Clifford Wilson family) changed their bookings to the Rotterdam because they thought the accommodation would be superior to that which they had been assigned on the Titanic.
The photos on the website below reveal that Rotterdam's public rooms, at least, were certainly on par with those on the finest German and British liners: http://www.halpostcards.com/unofficial/rot4p.html
Unfortunately, I have yet to find any photos online identified as Rotterdam IV staterooms. If anyone has any pictures or links to share, I would greatly appreciate it.
