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Introduction - By the early part of the
20th century, the law looked after crews and passengers in a sanitary sense with
reasonable thoroughness. But although shipping companies were now required to exercise due
diligence in providing proper sanitation, they had also discovered the advertising
advantages of promoting the ingenuity, the refinements and the luxury of the modern
sanitary arrangements they could now provide. The result was that the great liners of Titanic's
era lacked nothing that would be found in an up-to-date mansion or hotel on land.
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Titanic’s
sanitary fittings were surprisingly similar in appearance to those used ashore. 1st Class
had the best accommodations, of course, but by no means did the lower classes suffer.
Perhaps the biggest drawback to Olympic and Titanic’s sanitary
fittings was the relatively small number of private water closets and baths. Though
bathing was not necessarily a daily activity for many people in 1912, the trip to a water
closet on Titanic could sometimes involve a climb to another deck or a walk to
the opposite end of the ship . . . (continued) |
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Image above, Shanks & Co. Advertisement - A period
advertisement from Shanks & Co. The
Shipbuilder / Author’s collection |
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Lavatory and washbasin fittings -
Many of the Royal Doulton fittings on Titanic included washbasins of glazed
porcelain or glazed earthenware, nickel-plated taps, and other hardware fittings to
accompany their products. Washbasins manufactured by Shanks could be seen in public
accommodations and most notably in the private baths of the 1st Class suites, being wall
mounted in marble tops and back splashes with iron brackets.
The best 1st Class staterooms were provided with Doulton washbasins set in
veined or St. Anne’s marble upon wooden table stands fitted with a cabinet below and
paneled doors. These washbasin cabinets, sometimes referred to as “carcases,”
were fitted with nickel-plated taps and hardware. The size of these washbasin cabinets
varied depending on the size of the room and assigned occupancy. Some of the basins have
been raised from Titanic’s wreck, and they bear the Doulton seal even after decades
of lying on the ocean floor.
In many of the smaller staterooms on Titanic where the conservation
of space was a necessity, the fold-up washbasin cabinet commonly called a
“compactom” was utilized. This was one of the few pieces of furniture
specifically designed for use aboard ship, patterned after those used in railway cars. . . (continued) |
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closets - Titanic’s water closet basins were made of white-glazed
fireclay, the glazing being completely free of lead, and able to withstand the action of
acidic waste. The glaze used to create the shiny surface of sanitary products was very
similar to the glaze used for tableware. The word “leadless” was usually seen
somewhere on their surfaces, and for an interesting reason. Lead had been used in glaze
for centuries and it is this lead which gave the glaze a bright attractive sheen.
Unfortunately, lead is poisonous. In tableware, the lead in the glaze could be leached out
into foodstuffs by the acids contained in food. Once the health effects became known, lead
was banned from use in glazing tableware. This practice was copied by the sanitaryware
manufacturers, but for the safety of those workers in the plants, not the users of the
product. “Leadless,” however, was no doubt marked on the basins themselves to
suggest that the product was somehow safer for the consumer . . . (continued) |
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Image left. A page from
the catalog of George Field & Co., which supplied many of the smaller
“convenience” fittings for the Olympic-class liners. Campbell McCutcheon collection |
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Image far left. This
image shows one of Olympic’s public bath rooms. The tub has no shower spray and is
not supplied with hot and cold fresh water, as the public baths rooms were supplied only
with salt water. The tall cylinder with the knob on top (to the left of the tub) is the
drain release. The wood partition next to the tub identifies this particular bath room as
being within a block of bath rooms rather than a stand-alone compartment. While
stand-alone bath rooms were enclosed within steel bulkheads on all four sides, steel
bulkheads formed the perimeter around a block of baths and stile-and-panel wooden
bulkheads divided the adjacent baths within the block. Author’s collection |
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Other topics in this chapter include: Lavatory
and washbasin fittings - Baths - Urinals |
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