In the course of the project, which requires
us to evaluate every last inch of the Titanic,
using the very few resources available, some
of which we've uncovered, we inevitably find
some spaces that some people expected to be
one way, but in reality have turned out to
be entirely different.
I mentioned in a previous video that we - specifically
Matt here - had uncovered one of these places
on the ship and wanted to share it with you
guys at some point.
Now if you are just casually interested in
the Titanic, like most people, this might
not seem like that big of a deal to you; it's
not like we found out that the Grand Staircase
is different than what everyone perceived
it to be.
This is slightly smaller.
However, if you are genuinely interested in
the Titanic, like we are, you will find it
to be exciting, and we did when we discovered
it.
We found it pretty exciting.
I mean, it was discovered by accident actually.
We were working on the Dining Room and the
Reception Room bulkhead- the bulkhead right
between the two rooms.
There are arches in the room- windows, and
they weren't fitting exactly in the models.
So what we were looking at were the Olympic
photographs of the space and the plans and
it just wasn't lining up correctly.
So, what we decided instead was to look at
the only known photograph of the Titanic's
Dining Room.
We have a good version of this photograph
thanks to our consultant, Ken Marschall, who
was gracious enough to send us many, many
Titanic photographs.
Now this photograph of the Titanic's Dining
Room was taken on the morning of April 11th
by Francis Browne, who was a passenger.
He's a pretty famous, well known passenger
who took many photographs of the Titanic before
leaving in Queenstown.
Now, the photograph in question actually shows
the bulkhead, but it's in the background.
There's passengers in the way, the background
of the photograph is washed out by the lights
coming through the windows, so the bulkhead
isn't that visible.
Looking at it, right away there was something
up.
The way it was always expected to be is identical
to what the Olympic had.
It was a series of five arches, four on identical
ones, two on either side, and one in the middle
which was larger.
I was looking for one pilaster and a beam-
an overhead beam that runs the length of the
ship.
And right at that beam was where there should
be a pilaster, then an arch, and then another
pilaster.
Now the pilaster was there and there should
have been one of the arched windows right
next to it, but instead there was a large
open space to the right of the pilaster, and
you could see right through that open space,
right into what looked like the Reception
Room.
So, there was a lack of what should have been
there.So, something was different than Olympic.
I took the photo, scanned it, and put it into
paint to try to trace out what I thought I
was seeing and send it to the other members
of the team to get their opinions on it, that
there seemed to be an open space around the
area where there should have been the two
windows.
There was just one gigantic arch.
And what was even more curious was there was
like a keystone in the middle of the arch,
which meant that this was the center of the
arch, where there were two.
So, if there were two here, there was another
window here.
So the next step was to create concepts of
this.
I made one in SketchUp, Kyle made one in photoshop,
and we sent it to our consultants to get their
opinions on it.
We sent it to Bill Sauder.
We sent it to Ken Marschall.
People sort of passively understood that it
was essentially the same as it was on Olympic-
just an arched gallery.
Careful examination of the only known photographs
of the First Class Dining Room on Titanic
shows that White Star was not satisfied with
the original configuration and the windows
had been substantially enlarged.
After getting their approval of the new design,
we implemented it into the game.
We designed it properly and put it into the
game engine, and that's what we're going to
have now.
So, on either side of the boiler casing in
this bulkhead, we have the doors between the
Reception Room and Dining Room- the same doors
that were on Olympic were also on Titanic,
but the arches are what's different.
They have keystones on either side.
The design on the Reception Room side, I believe,
still matches the design that would be seen
Olympic.
Certain elements are repeated; some of the
Jacobean decor is still around these arches
because the arches are similar to other arches
around the room, and the side for the Dining
Room is similar to the other photographs of
Olympic.
Not much has changed besides just the openings.
The only people studying the this are all
people who weren't there.
Who never walked the ship.
The closest any of us have ever come is diving
there and looking at footage.
And without any other documentation of this
wall, there's no plans of it that existed,
there's no other photograph of it apart from
this one that has it in the far background,
there's really no way to actually uncover
this except just by the sheer dumb luck that
we had.
No one should hold it against anyone for depicting
it how it was originally accepted to be based
on the Olympic.
There were a lot of differences between the
Titanic and the Olympic because when the Olympic
had its maiden voyage, there were some passenger
complaints.
The designer took the voyage and evaluated
different things that should be changed.
Things like that.
So, a lot of those changes have some sort
of justification behind it.
The enclosement of the A-Deck Promenade part
ways, the additional cabins being put in,
the Cafe Parisian being inserted.
Everything kind of has a reason behind it
and I think if we're going to put this forward
and say that this bulkhead is the Titanic's
design, which I feel confident enough to say
this is what that bulkhead on the Titanic
was.
We still need to be able to at least put forward
some hypotheses about why they changed it.
And, I was talking this over with Bill Sauder,
and he and I think that it's quite possible
that they opened it up for additional light
to come through; a better circulation of light.
And also, if you're in one of the two rooms,
either the Reception Room looking into the
Saloon, or the Saloon looking back into the
Reception Room, it just seems bigger, because
you barely even notice that bulkhead's there.
You just seem to be able to see right through,
and it looks like one giant room which is
almost, what, a third the length of the ship
when you put the two together?
Maybe a Quarter?
But still, that's huge; that's significant.
That's like 200 feet.
And almost from a modern design point today,
it just feels a lot more modern, you know?
Instead of the round arches.
They both seem to fit the design of the style
of the period, yet that openess- everything
today is more open- and it just seems like
they realized on Olympic that eventually Titanic
should just have this more open feel for the
two spaces.
That's right.
That's right.
It's kind of funny that here they are on D-Deck
making it more open, while they are actually
enclosing other areas on the ship, so, it
was really more like fine tuning that balance
with the Titanic.
Like I said earlier, I do feel confident enough
to say that this is the design of Titanic's.
Now, some people might debate that with us,
however-
Well they can look at the photograph too.
Yeah, the photograph's out there, people can
certainly look at it.
The photograph's been out there for years;
it can be just looked at anywhere.
Yeah, and they can look at that.
I believe the evidence is right there.
They might have some other ideas, but, you
know, I'd love to hear them.
However, I feel confident enough to say that
this how it's going to be included in the
game.
