Mr. Palmer’s Titanic II will of course have a recreation of the RMS Titanic’s Grand Staircase, However did you know that the RMS Titanic also had ‘electric lifts’ (Elevators)?
The Grand Staircase
Text from the White Star Line publicity brochure:
We leave the deck and pass through one of the doors which admit us to the interior of the vessel, and, as if by magic, we at once lose feeling that we are on board a ship, and seem instead to be entering the hall of some great house on shore. Dignified and simple oak panelling covers the walls, enriched in a few places by a bit of elaborate carved work, reminiscent of the days when Grinling Gibbons collaborated with his great contemporary, Wren.
In the middle of the hall rises a gracefully curving staircase, its balustrade supported by light scrollwork of iron with occasional touches of bronze, in the form of flowers and foliage. Above all a great dome of iron and glass throws a flood of light down the stairway, and on the landing beneath it a great carved panel gives its note of richness to the otherwise plain and massive construction of the wall. The panel contains a clock, on either side of which is a female figure, the whole symbolizing Honour and Glory crowning Time. Looking over the balustrade, we see the stairs descending to many floors below, and on turning aside we find we may be spared the labour of mounting or descending by entering one of the smoothly-gliding elevators which bear us quickly to any other of the numerous floors of the ship we may wish to visit.
The staircase is one of the principal features of the ship, and will be greatly admired as being, without doubt, the finest piece of workmanship of its kind afloat.
You may remember that the Grand Staircase was a prime feature of James Cameron’s 1997 ‘Titanic’ movie.
Below: The wonderful cut-away model clearly shows where the Grand Staircase was actually located onboard the RMS Titanic. Note the staircases ‘dome’ on the upper deck which received natural light.
Interestingly, the original Titanic used many exotic woods for her décor, fixture and fittings, such as the Oak ‘Grand Staircase. However solid wood no longer meets modern maritime fire/safety regulations (SOLAS – ‘Safety of lives at Seas’). Today wood veneers must be used instead.
The Electric Lifts
Titanic’s first class passengers were provided with three electric lifts (elevators), complete with lift attendants and comfortable sofas outside in the lift lobby and actually INSIDE the lifts. (I bet the sofas inside the lifts will be removed from Titanic II’s design, to increase the lifts passenger capacity)
The lifts were located side by side, immediately in front of the Grand Staircase.
Another lift was available for second-class passengers.
Fire Exits
The original RMS Titanic did not have enough emergency exit staircases, according to SOLAS.
New ‘escape staircases’ in addition to the original staircases, will be housed in the redundant boiler exhaust uptakes.
Malcolm
(Some text from Wikipdia)
Links to Malcolm’s Titanic II pages on:
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