Shipboard etiquette around 1912

[Arun Vajpey]

Reading about the movements and actions of people after the collision....to some extent even before - often made me wonder if they behaved rather differently during a long voyage such as a transatlantic crossing ie sort of let their hair down a bit.

I was always under the impression that many people of that era - middle class and above - did not easily mix and talk to strangers, let alone socialise with them while leading a 'normal life' on land. Yet, on board the Titanic you read about 'shipboard companions' of the opposite sex, even though they had not met before. I realise it probably only meant sharing the same dinner table but the overall impression I got was that people tended to be less conservative and shed some of their social inhibitions while at sea.

Is that a fact or am I reading too much between the lines?

 

[Aaron_2016]

There might have been a friendly social feeling in Second class and Third class. Survivor Edith Rosenbaum talked about the cold formality of First class on the Titanic.

Skip to 0:40

 

[Arun Vajpey]

Yes, of course. But I am asking more about etiquette than friendliness. To put it in another way, several people, including many women, just put on a dressing gown on top of their nightclothes and went out to investigate what the disturbance was about after the Titanic had struck the iceberg even when most did not think it was anything to be worried about. Maybe in 1912 that sort of thing would have been unlikely if there was some sort of disturbance in a posh hotel on land for example; people might have stopped to dress properly first etc. Also, I am guessing that women would have hesitated to go exploring by themselves in land-based situations like they did on board the Titanic.

The 'stiffness' mentioned in that video might have something to do with class divisions of the time. But what about while dealing with people of one's own perceived class?

Maybe that's not the best example but what I am asking is, did shipboard atmosphere during long voyages create its own microcosm so that people dropped some degree of formality?

 

[SmileyGirl]

I’ve always thought it was strange that some women went to the boat deck with just coats on over their nightwear. I would have expected a bit more ‘proper etiquette’. They did not know it was an emergency after all!

 

[IanMcD]

There might have been a friendly social feeling in Second class and Third class. Survivor Edith Rosenbaum talked about the cold formality of First class on the Titanic.

Skip to 0:40

What is that dangling off the starboard side of the bow at the beginning of the video? Probably a film defect or something that was added to the film? It doesn't quite look real to me.

 

[Harland Duzen]

What is that dangling off the starboard side of the bow at the beginning of the video? Probably a film defect or something that was added to the film? It doesn't quite look real to me.

I think it's a Toilet Hut + Sewage Outlet for the workers.

 

[Yuriko Cheng]

I’ve always thought it was strange that some women went to the boat deck with just coats on over their nightwear. I would have expected a bit more ‘proper etiquette’. They did not know it was an emergency after all!

Have you ever been to a hotel where people walk from the pool to their rooms in nothing but their swimwear, or an airport lounge with people sprawled sleeping on benches and on the floor? I think it's a similar situation on the Titanic, where travel makes one more lax in observing the proper social protocols of the day. It could also be that people had this subconscious mentality of 'what happens at sea stays at sea'. After all, who on land is going to know or care what social indiscretions happened onboard a ship in the middle of the North Atlantic?

 

[Arun Vajpey]

I think it's a similar situation on the Titanic, where travel makes one more lax in observing the proper social protocols of the day. It could also be that people had this subconscious mentality of 'what happens at sea stays at sea'. After all, who on land is going to know or care what social indiscretions happened onboard a ship in the middle of the North Atlantic?

I agree with that completely and it's true with almost all cultures (with a few exceptions, but we won't go into that). I grew-up in India during the early and mid-60s where social mores were a lot more conservative than they were in the West at the time. But even there I noticed that people were lot more lax about social protocols during long train journeys etc or even while vacationing in an unfamiliar place where the "others" around did not know you.

I have read quite a few books set within scenarios involving sea travel in the Victorian and Edwardian era; while most were fictional stories, the social atmosphere must have reflected what it was really like during those times. The general impression was that men and women were rather more relaxed in their outlook and social norms were less rigidly adhered to while travelling compared with the often more conservative and stifling atmosphere "back home".

It says a lot about human nature. We are indeed a strange species.