Surviving paint on the Titanic wreck

[Tarn Stephanos]

In 1987 when Dr Ballard gave a slideshow of his dive to Titanic at a THS convention, he showed some still unpublished photos- most impressive to me were areas beaneath the waterline where the red antifouling paint was still there, solid and unfaded. Also in most shots, the officers quarters on the forward Boat deck appear yellow, likly due to the lighting, but there were a couple of slides where the true white color of the officers quarters was visible. Plus the brown paint around the window frames of the officers quarters was still there.
When the Big Piece arrived in Boston in 1998, there was quite a bit of paint...Mainly flecks of black paint, on the Big Piece's rivetheads.
Sadly all of that paint was washed away as the piece was sprayed with a conserving solution. I remember on could touch the outer hull part of the Big Piece, and ones hand would be stained with rust and black paint.

The inboard D deck partition of the Big Piece had a large section of unchipped white paint, at what appeared to have been the edge of a door frame. After conservation, that whitre paint was hidden under a brown coating.

So it stands to reason much of the still submerged wreck retains its its original paint. Anyone know if there is any section of the wreck that retains the largest ammount of paint, or is it all covered by the rivers of rust?

Im assuming the area beneath the waterline must have the largest ammount of survving paint. Im guessing the paint UNDER the wreck must be perfectly preserved.


Tarn Stephanos

 

[Sahand Miraminy]

Hey Tarn,
I've read that on one of Ballard's expeditions, the submersible smudged against the ship and black paint was rubbed on the submersible. I bet you already read this before or even might have seen the evidence! I wonder if the paint under the mud is still there. I was watching on the Discovery Channel just an hour ago some special on the Titanic wreck and the hull and everything looked pretty black to me from what i remember. Well thats all I know!

Sahand

 

[Brandon Whited]

I heard about the remaining red paint on the waterline area in some book I think. I believe in Ken Marschall's report of the 2001 dives, he states that the interior walls of several rooms retained white paint. I think it's in Charles Pellegrino's second book where he states that if they could somehow attach a large brush to one of the submersibles, they could remove all the rust and the ship would look as good as new. I'm pretty sure it's not that preserved, but certain areas do indeed retain paint.

 

[Jamie Bryant]

That is an interesting point concerning the white paint, and you've just put another bullet through Robin Gardiner, who used this as a foundation for his switch theory. The Olympic after all had white paint for her launch.
JB

 

[Mike Bull]

Clearly for much of her time on the bottom, the basic white/black/red of the hull survived pretty much intact; one can only imagine what she would have looked like in her earlier decades on the sea floor; I'd really like to see a damn good Ken Marschall effort at that actually, a supposition of how the ship looked as she had first settled on the bottom.

Whatever was in that 1912 red anti-fouling paint, clearly it works pretty darn well, for so much of it to remain to this day!

 

[Michael H. Standart]

It should be noted that the white paint mentioned here was found on the inboard side, which is to say the interior portion. Given the styling and the decor, that's exactly where one would expect to find it.

 

[Tarn Stephanos]

The D deck partition on the Big Piece had a pefectly intact stretch of white paint ,on what was once a door frame of a 'glass room', once part of the D deck 1st Class galley...

Hi Mike- I councour- If Ken has the time (hes a busy guy), I too hope he'll concider a doing a 'day after' painting of a newly sunk Titanic.
He did a painting along these lines of the Andrea Doria, which was on the back cover of a Titanic Commutator years ago...

Im sure throughout the Titanic wreck, you will find intact stretches of paint...There is still white paint in the nooks and krannies of the wood paneling in the D deck Reception room..


Regards


Tarn Stephanos

 

[Damon Hill]

Speaking of paint in the Reception room, they also saw what looked suspiciously like paint strokes on the ceiling amidst all the decorative panelling which is still up there.
Damon

 

[Danger-Mouse]

Clearly for much of her time on the bottom, the basic white/black/red of the hull survived pretty much intact; one can only imagine what she would have looked like in her earlier decades on the sea floor; I'd really like to see a damn good Ken Marschall effort at that actually, a supposition of how the ship looked as she had first settled on the bottom.

Whatever was in that 1912 red anti-fouling paint, clearly it works pretty darn well, for so much of it to remain to this day!

I too would love to see a Ken Marschall painting like that. If I was wealthy, I would commission him to paint such a picture.

I wouldn't mind, in fact, seeing a speculative painting of the wreck - complete with all we know about the deterioration - showing her in one piece. Presumably, the poop deck would still have peeled back, and the after well deck would still have been virtually destroyed. The funnels would be gone, the rusticles would still be there, but the bow and stern would still be together.

. . . sorry, I'm going off topic.

 

[Danger-Mouse]

When the Big Piece arrived in Boston in 1998, there was quite a bit of paint...Mainly flecks of black paint, on the Big Piece's rivetheads.
Sadly all of that paint was washed away as the piece was sprayed with a conserving solution.

Speaking as an objects conservator, I am rather horrified to hear of this. No conservator would willingly wash away such paint (unfortunately, at the end of the day, it is the client's decision).