Titanic - What happened in the Engine and Boiler rooms
Introduction
This page is an attempted reconstruction of the chronological sequence of principal events which would have taken place in the Engine and Boiler Rooms of RMS Titanic after her collision.
The TITANIC struck the iceberg at 11:40 p.m. on the night of 14th April 1912 and as a result the vessel suffered damage to the structural plating of the hull about 10 foot above the level of the keel and for about 300 feet of the ships length. The speed of the vessel immediately prior to the incident was in excess of 21 Knots (24 MPH) and as a result the damage to the hull would have occurred in about 10 seconds.
Sequence of Events
The first reported communication between the Bridge and Engine Room would have been the "STOP" signal received on the telegraphs positioned between the two main reciprocating propulsion engines. This signal to stop the engines would have caused more than a little confusion in the machinery spaces, coming as it did during a normal ocean passage and with no prior warning of any impending problem or hazard. In fact it is recorded that none of the Engineers were in attendance at the control station for the main engines at that time and the telegraph replies were made by two greasers whose duty it was to lubricate the lower moving parts of each reciprocating engine.
However the engineers would have responded quickly to the sound of the telegraphs and would have brought the engines to a stop within a few seconds thereafter by means of closing the steam supply valve to each engine and subsequently reversing the direction of engine rotation momentarily to bring each wing propeller to a stationary position.
While these manoeuvres were under way the Boiler Rooms would have been advised by telephone of the revised steaming conditions in order that the personnel in these spaces could take the necessary action. For example closing the boiler furnace fire dampers to reduce the rate of steam generation and thus prevent, the boiler safety valves from lifting and venting the steam to the atmosphere by way of the pipes located in the three foremost funnels.
Simultaneously in the Turbine Engine Room the duty engineer would have immediately started to adjust the large change over valve in the exhaust steam pipeline from each reciprocating engine tc the turbine to re-direct the steam from each reciprocating engine directly to its respective condenser rather than to the turbine which was uni-directional and therefore plays no part in manoeuvring the vessel. The turbine and its associated shafting and propeller would nevertheless have continued to rotate in the "ahead" direction for a short time being driven by its momentum and the effect of the "way" of the vessel acting on the turbine engine driven propeller. The Engine Room staff would have would have alerted the Chief Engineer, who would most probably have been in his accommodation at the time, of the situation as soon as possible. He, and the remaining "off-watch" engineers would then have made their way back to the machinery spaces and to their appointed machinery surveillance positions.
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