What did Titanic's officers look like?

[Dan Parkes]

There have been a number of posts over the years asking about the various heights of Titanic officers.

Now, thanks to Board of Trade applications and certificates recently released by The National Maritime Museum, we can discover the height, eye colour, skin colour and any 'percularities' (such as tattoos) that each officer wrote in their application, as well as their signature and examples of their handwriting.

I have compiled this information together into a single page, including colourised photographs of each officer, that you can find here:
What Did Titanic's Officers Look Like? | William Murdoch

Hopefully this will prove helpful in anyone doing research into what the officers looked like.

Any additions, corrections etc please let me know!

 

[Brandon Whited]

How interesting! I am intrigued as to what Second Officer Lightoller's tattoo might have been of. Of course, at this point I suppose we'll never know. Bravo on a fascinating - and might I add, fun - piece of research.

 

[Svenja Wunderlich]

Great job, D.E.! Please keep us up to date if you're recolouring any more pictures! I think that gives a far more lively impression of the crew and passengers aboard than the pictures in black and white.

 

[J Burdette]

Great to see you made this public, Daniel. I've been contemplating it myself. The colorized photos and charts are a major plus!

 

[ayj]

HI.

Great idea. The idea of giving us an over all description of all officers and comparing them to each other.

One thing, Captain Smiths hair colour was black before he went grey.

Ive seen a picture of smith 1900? On bridge with a small boy. His beard was black.

I even recall the picture on this site.

 

[Dan Parkes]

Thanks ayj, appreciate your feedback.

Are you referring to this photograph here?:

In which case it looks white to me. However determining hair colour via black and white photographs is always going to be a difficult process.

 

[Michael Guntli]

wow impressive- funny- I'm 5'7" and most were around my height.

 

[ayj]

Mmmm... How to post image on this site?

D.e parkes.

His beard hair looks dark. I think this image originally came from here? Et titanica .

 

[Ioannis Georgiou]

Sorry to say but on the image of the "boy with Captain on the bridge" that is NOT Captain Smith.