Titanic: From Paper to Steel
006 • Drawing Office No. 1
Harland & Wolff’s No.1 Drawing Office was built in 1885, and between that date and 1985 over 1,500 ships were designed either in this office, other offices built around it.
Titanic’s designs where drawn, redrawn, corrected, and copied; the painstaking work that went into drawing each aspect of designing such a complex ship by hand. Here, men designed thousands of ships including the White Star Olympic Class Liners—Olympic, Titanic and Britannic and naval warships such as HMS Belfast.
In this photograph taken in 1900 by Robert Welch, the official shipyard photographer, the arched windows at the back are still fully open to the sky. By 1912 the office behind had been extended, and the new building blocked the light from these windows.
In the foreground in shirtsleeves is Roderick Chisholm1, the chief draftsman who drew the blueprints for Titanic. A member of the Guarantee Group2 Chisholm was called upon at the last minute to accompany Thomas Andrews to oversee the smooth running of Titanic’s maiden voyage.
The possibility of being part of the Guarantee Group for Titanic was motivation for workers at Harland and Wolff to work hard and prove their abilities to the company. Originally a group of nine was planned but in the end just eight were aboard. They included: Thomas Andrews, Artie Frost, Roderick Chisholm and Alfie Cunningham. The others in the group were William Campbell (apprentice joiner), Frank Parkes (apprentice plumber), William Parr (assistant manager in the Electrical department) and Ennis Watson (apprentice electrician).
Roderick Chisholm was last seen heading into the engine room and, like all his counterparts, died in the sinking; his body, if recovered, never identified.
Behind him looking directly at the camera is apprentice draughtsman Samuel James Donnelly. The eldest of 12 children, Sam started on March 12, 1900 aged just 15 and rose to become assistant manager at the Govan yard during the Great War. He then returned to Belfast and became chief ship draughtsman. He died in service on January 4, 1948. His son Gilbert, also a ship designer, worked on the last cruise ship built in Belfast, the Canberra.
Referred to as the ‘Main Offices’ on many of the maps of the shipyard, the two Drawing Offices were designed to capture as much natural light as possible. They were unique for shipyard drawing offices as they were usually temporary wooden structures that could be easily moved around the site. But as Harland and Wolff began to establish themselves on Queen’s Island they had plenty of land to expand into, and the Drawing Offices served as a physical example of what they could produce in their client’s ships.
Preliminary designs began in the Harland and Wolff Drawing Office in June, 1907. On July 29, 1908, the design for the Titanic was approved.
The original design accepted for the Olympic and Titanic, known as "Design D," had a number of major differences from the two ships that were eventually launched in Belfast. (There are no known drawings of Design A, B, and C).
Design D, however, shows 14 full-size lifeboats with two smaller cutters at the front. This, at least, matches the initial compliment on Olympic and Titanic save for the additional four Engelhardt collapsible boats. All 16 boats, however, are placed aft on the boat deck, with the cutters being just abaft the second funnel and each followed by seven evenly-spaced regulation lifeboats. This would have drastically changed the appearance of the new ships compared to that seen in the Big Four.
Adriatic's boats were situated after just as Design D shows them for the Olympic-class ships. A more radical change in the design, however, would be the omission of a mainmast, and shows only a foremast. This design would have completely altered several aspects of the Olympic-class ships including arrangements for their wireless aerial, which could no longer be suspended between two masts.
Wireless was still in its infancy in 1907 and 1908 when these designs were coming together and was likely not a primary concern to Harland and Wolff, but if followed through on, it could've had an important impact on the Titanic during her ill-fated maiden voyage.
At the beginning of the turbulent 20th century, Harland and Wolff Shipyards employed in total close to 15,000 workers. The H&W workforce was rotated on ships of this size and it’s likely more than 12,000 worked on the ship.
Provision for shipbuilding, as well as trade and commerce, had been provided throughout many decades by the Belfast Harbour Commissioners. Without this investment made, it's unlikely that the Titanic would have even been built in Belfast.
Skilled craftsmen from all over Europe, including Italian stonemasons and Portuguese draftsmen, were directly involved in constructing the nine-deck high, four-city-block-long ship. Stood on end the Titanic would be as tall as the Empire State Building.
No quarter of Belfast, a city of 390,000 at the time, was untouched by the behemoth vessel’s construction. Cabinetmakers, tile setters, steamfitters, riveters, riggers, millwrights, and subcontractors including suppliers of English cutlery and crockery, Belfast linen makers and provisioners were all abuzz with the business of catering to the R.M.S. Titanic.
Her sister ship, the R.M.S. Olympic (launched October 20th 1910), and other vessels were also under construction at the shipyards. The web of industry at Harland and Wolff spun off good times throughout Belfast, at the time the fastest growing industrial city in the world. Barkeeps, milliners, innkeepers, grocers, bakers, hackney drivers, accountants, doctors, lawyers and more savored the boom times.
Teams of riveters, platers and caulkers would have met in the pub every Saturday lunchtime to get their share of the teams’ wages from the charge hand.
Titanic was built in Belfast by tradesmen who took pride in their work and delivered the uncompromising vision of its owners. Men labored from 6 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. and were docked if late for any reason, or if they broke or lost equipment. If they went to watch the launch of a ship on which they had worked, they lost a day’s pay. They brought their own lunch and ate in the shadow of the ship, not in the dining room with the Homburg-hatted shipyard management, known to the boys as the "Hats.” Workers were granted one week's vacation a year; two days at Christmas and Easter; and were paid the sum of two pounds per week.
Working on the ship was dangerous and at least two men—and possibly as many as eight—died before she was completed.
Two of these deaths were riveters, a treacherous trade highly respected by other tradesmen, for their work required both skill and courage. Riveters were required to work in risky parts of the vessel: the darkest, the highest, the windiest, for the steel of Titanic was held together only by a simple rivet—three million of them.
As the shipbuilding industry began to decline, the HQ Building & Drawing Offices had to adapt to suit the needs of the shipyard and by the 1980s Harland & Wolff had diversified into oil rigs and platforms. The building was vacated in 1989 remained and unoccupied for almost 30 years.
The Drawing Offices were constructed with the same battleship quality steel as Harland and Wolff’s ships.
In 2002 the building was listed, confirming its unique historical and architectural significance, though it was considered ‘at risk’ for more than a decade. The southern wing, which was the former Administration block, was renovated in 2007 as Titanic House, housing the offices of Titanic Quarter Limited.
In 2016, a partnership between the Titanic Foundation, Heritage Lottery Fund and Harcourt Developments were awarded £5 million by the Heritage Lottery Fund towards its restoration, transforming the once derelict landmark into a unique boutique hotel and giving the public access to a heritage building that had been neglected for decades.
Located within the Titanic Hotel Belfast, Drawing Office Two has been transformed into a bustling hub of activity, featuring a stunning three-storey high barrel-vaulted ceiling beneath which many of the world's most famous ocean liners, including the RMS Titanic, were meticulously designed.
The bar is decorated with 342 octagonal and 378 diamond original Villeroy and Boch tiles. These tiles were discovered on the first floor of the H&W building prior to refurbishment, and are from the same batch as the ones on the famous liners. The fine plasterwork in this room crafted by the same skilled craftsmen who worked on the great liners.
Also restored are the old Harland & Wolff bathrooms and the room that received the news by telegram that Titanic was in trouble…the office of Thomas Andrews.
006.1 Drawing Office No. 1, built c.1885. Harland and Wolff glass plate negative.
006.2 Olympic and Titanic plans known as "Design D."
006.3 Postcard showing 'The Day's Work O'er.' Harland & Wolff's workmen leaving off, Queen’s Road, Belfast, 1912.
006.4 Virtual tour of Drawing Office No.1 in the main office building of Harland & Wolff, 2008.
006.5 Titanic Hotel Belfast, Drawing Office No.2.
Roderick Chisholm, Titanic Draftsman, Guarantee Group (December 20, 1868 - April 15, 1912).
Titanic Guarantee Group. The Belfast team sent by shipbuilders Harland & Wolff to accompany the Titanic on her maiden voyage.
CORRECTION: There is actually a "Design A" at the Ulster Transport Museum. The "Design D" as it is posted above is the promotional drawing that was shown to the press in order to promote the new to be build ships at H&W. There are parts with tracing paper where the alterations for Titanic where made on. There's also a 33ft long profile plan on display at the Titanic Experience in Belfast which was made for the British Inquiry.