Crew of the Titanic

Crew

• MB – CS Mackay-Bennett
• M – CS Minia
• MM – CGS Montmagny
• A – SS Algerine
• O – RMS Oceanic
• I – SS Ilford
• OT – SS Ottawa

Deck

• One able officer, also known as a bosun or boatswain, and one boatswain's mate, who had seniority over all the unlicensed deck crew. They were experienced seamen who managed the deck lines, deck cranes, winches, lifeboat davits, etc. on the deck. Only the boatswain's mate survived.
• Two medical doctors, one senior and one junior, titled Surgeon and Assistant Surgeon respectively. They were responsible for treating injuries and illnesses on board involving passengers or crew and had access to the ship's hospital and store of pharmaceuticals. Neither medical officer survived the sinking.
• 29 able seamen, who had completed additional training and usually had seniority over other crew members. They carried out the day-to-day operations of the ship. In addition, they were trained to operate the lifeboat davits and man the lifeboats themselves. Each able seaman was assigned to a lifeboat and take charge of that boat if no officer were present. About eight of these men were lost when they went below decks to open the E Deck gangway and were never seen again. As almost all the remaining able seamen had departed in the first lifeboats launched, the lifeboats launched subsequently had a shortage of trained seamen to man them. As a result, a few stokers and even victualling stewards were ordered to man the launching and rowing of the boats. In one instance, a passenger with yachting experience was put in co-command of a lifeboat. Nineteen of these survived the sinking.
• Two Masters-at-Arms, who, along with the First Officer, kept the keys to the only firearms on board. One survived, one was lost.
• Seven quartermasters ; highly trained seamen who worked on and around the bridge to steer the ship as helmsmen, manage signal flags, and stand watch on the bridge to assist the duty officer with general navigation.
• Two window cleaners. One survived, one was lost.
• Two Carpenters/Joiners which keep eye on fresh water and were repairing and working with wooden parts of ship
• One lamp trimmer. His duties, as he said was “to mix the paint, and all that kind of thing for the ship, and to look after all the decks, trim all the lamps, and get them in proper order. That is all, I think. To put the lights in at nighttime and take them off at daybreak.” He survived the sinking.
• Six lookouts, who worked two to a shift in the crow's nest; the shifts lasted only two hours at a time because of extremely cold winds which lookouts were exposed to in the open crow's nest. Despite the myths, lookouts were never supposed to have binoculars. They were supposed to see the object and not identify it. The binoculars would have made the view area even smaller and not help at all since the iceberg was practically invisible to the human eye, with the air temperature at, and a headwind.

Engineering

• 25 engineers; all were lost.
• 2 boilermakers; both were lost.
• 13 leading firemen and 163 firemen. The ship had 29 boilers, 25 containing six furnaces each, four containing three furnaces each, for a total of 162 furnaces. Each fireman was assigned one boiler and three furnaces. Of the Titanics six boiler rooms, each leading fireman was assigned to two of them with 10 to 15 firemen under him. Next to each boiler was a coal chute that deposited coal from the overhead coal bunkers, and a fireman with a shovel would constantly feed coal into the three furnaces. Shifts for all the firemen and their foremen were four hours on and eight hours off. The heat in the boiler rooms usually exceeded, so a four-hour shift was very demanding. Most of the firemen worked wearing only their undershirts and shorts. Of the firemen, only three leading firemen and around 45 other firemen survived. Several of the firemen who survived got into the lifeboats dressed only in their undershirts and shorts in weather.
• 73 trimmers, or coal trimmers, on the Titanic. Of the engineering crew, the trimmers were paid the least and had probably the worst job of the crew. The trimmers worked inside the coal bunkers located on top of and between the boilers. The trimmers used shovels and wheelbarrows to move coal around the bunker to keep the coal level, and to shovel the coal down the coal chute to the firemen below to shovel it into the furnaces. If too much coal built up on one side of a coal bunker, the ship would actually list to that side. All the residual heat from the boilers rose up into the coal bunkers, and inside, the bunkers were poorly lit, full of coal dust, and extremely hot from the boilers. Around 20 of them survived.
• 33 greasers. These men worked in the turbine and reciprocating engine rooms alongside the engineers and they were responsible for maintaining and supplying oil and lubricants for all the mechanical equipment. Only four of them survived.
• Eight electricians; six as part of the crew company and an additional two in the Guarantee Group. All eight were lost.
• Six mess hall stewards. These men worked in the crew's kitchen to cook and serve food for the crew: four served the engineering crew; two served the firemen. Just one steward from engineering survived.

• A memorial to the 244 engineers, firemen, trimmers, and greasers who lost their lives during the sinking of the Titanic is located in the ship's port of registry, Liverpool. It is named the Memorial to the Engine Room Heroes of the Titanic.
• A memorial to the Titanic Engineers in Southampton, from where many of the crew members came.
• The Chief Engineer, Joseph Bell, has a headstone at Farlam, near Brampton, Cumbria, in the graveyard of St Thomas a Becket Church.

Victualling

• The Purser, who supervised all of the Victualling Department and was the direct link between passengers and the ship's officers.
• 322 stewards, who performed over 57 different functions in each class's dining saloon, public rooms, cabins and recreational facilities. Around 60 stewards survived. The most prominent of the stewards' roles were:
• *Bath Stewards, responsible for maintaining supplies in the communal bathrooms utilised by everyone except for a few First Class Passengers.
• *Bedroom Stewards, assigned to each class. The First Class Bedroom stewards not only cleaned the rooms and made beds, they were also available to serve food in the rooms or help the passengers in getting dressed. Most stewards were poorly paid and relied on tips for their income. Each First Class Bedroom Steward was responsible for three to five rooms, Second Class Stewards for up to 10 rooms, and Third Class Stewards for as many as 25.
• *Bellboys, teenage boys as young as 14, who helped carry passengers' luggage when needed.
• *"Boots", stewards responsible for cleaning and shining the passengers' boots and shoes.
• *Glory-Hole Stewards, whose function was to clean and maintain the crew quarters.
• *Linen Stewards, responsible for washing and maintaining all the linen on board.
• 62 Galley and kitchen staff, including chefs, cooks, bakers, butchers, and scullions who worked in the kitchens of each class to cook the various meals for the passengers. Scullions, called dishwashers today, were responsible for washing and drying the dishes. Around 13 survived.
• 20 stewardesses and one matron who were, along with two restaurant cashiers, the only female members of the crew; all but three of whom survived. The stewardesses' duties were similar to the male stewards', although they usually served only women passengers.
• 13 Storekeepers, only two of whom survived.
• 4 life attendants; rest of them were lost.
• Four Clerks, employed in the Purser's Office to deal with passenger's enquiries and requests.
• The two radio operators, who were actually employed by the Marconi Company and not directly by the White Star Line, were assigned to the Victualling Department, possibly because at the time radio communication was seen principally as a service rather than as an essential part of the ship's operation.
• There were also three barbers assigned to the Titanic as part of the vendor group; August H. Weikman and Arthur White worked in First Class and Herbert Klein in Second Class. None of them were employed by the White Star Line for all three were self-employed and worked mostly for cash tips. The White Star Line only provided their meals and living quarters. Of this group only Weikman survived.

Restaurant

Postal clerks

Guarantee group

Orchestra

First surviving crew members to die