Cleaning the Titanic: An Enormous Task2 min read

Since this week marks the 101^st anniversary of the Titanic’s ill-fated maiden voyage, let’s take a look at what it really entailed to keep a boat that large (and that glamorous) clean.

When the great Titanic sunk, nearly 685 crew members vanished. These crewmembers cared for the 1,343 passengers aboard. The stewards worked 17-hour days and completed almost 57 different tasks, from cooking and delivering meals, making beds, and cleaning rooms.  They even helped passengers dress.

The stewards were divided into three classes. The First Class Steward had three to five bedrooms to look after, while the Second Class Steward had up to 10. The Third Class Steward could have up to 25 rooms. Considering that many of the Titanic’s passengers were in the Third Class, the Third Class Stewards had their work cut out for them.

Talk about dishes! Imagine washing 57,600 pieces of crockery (including pots and pans) 29,000 pieces of glassware and 44,000 pieces of cutlery all by hand. With all the cooking and cleaning, nearly 14,000 gallons of drinking water were used every 24 hours.

Cleaning the bathtub seemed to be far less of a chore considering most passengers had to share. In fact, there were only two bathtubs for third class on the entire ship. If you were fortunate enough to have one of the promenade suites you would get to experience your own private bath.

Cleaning toilets was also light work as there were few private bathrooms on the Titanic. In those days, most passengers and crewmembers used the public restroom facilities, which on third-class, included automatic flushing toilets. The reason being most “third class passengers were unfamiliar with indoor plumbing and may not remember {or understand} the need to flush the toilets themselves”.

Many of the stewards didn’t abandon their duties when disaster struck. Thirty-five year old Andrew Cunningham, helped many passengers put on lifebelts and board boats before a lifeboat picked him up. Crewmembers like Cunningham are an example of just some of the brave crew who were dedicated to serving their guests, both in luxury and in danger.

-Miss A