The Last Supper: What Passengers Ate On The Titanic's Final Day

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The Titanic’s wreck has been documented to varying degrees ever since it was found in 1985, but this is the first time that digital imaging technology has made it possible for the general populace (and experts) to see it in full, in 3D. Over 200 hours of surveying the length and breadth of the wreck were required to generate more than 7,00,000 images of the Titanic from every possible angle, finally enabling an exact 3D reconstruction, the BBC reported.

Amid all the attention-grabbing details that emerged when the scans were shared with the press, one quote from the expert who led the planning for the expedition stood out. The expert, Gerhard Seiffert, spoke about the debris around the Titanic that was also captured in the scans: there were, he said, lots and lots of shoes — and unopened champagne magnums. 

It is difficult to say just how much of the non-perishable component of the food and drink that was carried aboard the Titanic on its ill-fated voyage survives on the ocean bed, whether whole or in fragments. The provisions it carried as it set off on its maiden journey were meant to feed over 2,200 people, including the 709 passengers in third class — who typically would be expected to carry their own food on board other passenger liners. These provisions included:

34,000 kg of meat

Nearly 5,000 kg of fresh fish

40,000 kg of potatoes

40,000 eggs

7,000 heads of lettuce

4,500 kg of sugar

250 barrels of flour

1,000 loaves of bread

36,000 apples

5,600 litres of milk

15,000 bottles of ale and stout.

Meals were included in the price of the ticket for all passengers. (The only exception was any dining that occurred at the a la carte restaurant on board.) The dining room for the first class was resplendent, the second class' was well-appointed, while that for the third was functional. Similarly, while the third class meals were hearty but plain fare, second class did dine well, and of course, the first most luxuriously so. (Historians observe that the Titanic had peaches flown in from Africa and quail imported from Egypt, for its wealthy first class passengers.) And of course, there would have been those numerous champagne magnums that Seiffert’s team found on the ocean floor.

Some years ago, menus for the meals served to passengers of all classes on the final day of the Titanic’s existence — 14 April 1912 — were widely circulated. The difference between the first and third class menus — or for that matter even second class, which by its very definition should not have been at too great a remove from those bookending it — is a study in the wealth and privilege gap, and what it entitled a passenger to. Let's take a look:

THIRD CLASS

FOR BREAKFAST: Oatmeal porridge and milk, jacket potatoes and smoked herrings, ham and eggs, fresh bread and butter, marmalade, Swedish bread, with a choice of tea or coffee. 

FOR DINNER: Rice soup with fresh bread and cabin biscuits, roast beef with brown gravy, boiled potatoes and sweet corn, followed by plum pudding with a sweet sauce, and fruit.

TEA: A spread of cold meat, cheese and pickles, with plenty of fresh bread and butter, stewed figs and rice, and hot tea.

FOR SUPPER: Gruel, cabin biscuits and some cheese.

Contrast this homely fare with what second class passengers were being served for their dinner simultaneously:

Consommé with tapioca, baked haddock with sharp sauce, curried chicken and rice, spring lamb in mint sauce, roast turkey in cranberry sauce, green peas and puréed turnips, potatoes (boiled and roasted), boiled rice, plum pudding, wine jelly, “cocoanut” sandwich, American ice cream, assorted nuts, fresh fruit, cheese, biscuits and coffee.

And while that certainly sounds like a choice repast, here’s what first class was dining on, that very same day: 

FOR BREAKFAST: Baked apples, fresh fruit, stewed prunes, oats, boiled hominy, puffed rice, fresh herrings, haddock and smoked salmon, grilled mutton/ham/sausaged, kidneys and bacon, lamb collops, vegetable stew, eggs (fried, shored, poached and boiled), plain and tomato omelettes made to order, sirloin steak and mutton chops made to order, cold meat, Vienna and Graham rolls, soda and sultana scones, cornbread, buckwheat cakes, black currant conserve     Narbonne honey, Oxford marmalade, and watercress.

FOR LUNCHEON: Consommé fermier and cock-a-leekie, fillets of brill, eggs à l'argenteuil, grilled mutton chops, potatoes (mashed, fried or baked), custard pudding, apple meringue; a buffet selection encompassing salmon mayonnaise, potted shrimps, Norwegian anchovies, soused herrings, plain and smoked sardines, roast beef, spiced beef, veal and ham pie, Virginia and Cumberland ham, Bologna sausage, galantine of chicken, corned ox tongue, lettuce, beetroot, tomatoes; a selection of cheeses including Cheshire, Stilton, Gorgonzola, Edam, Camembert, Roquefort, St. Ivel and Cheddar; and to drink, iced draught Munich Lager Beer.

FOR DINNER: Hors-d'œuvre variés, oysters, soups (Consommé Olga and Cream of Barley), salmon with mousseline sauce and cucumber, filet mignons lili, sauté of Chicken Lyonnaise, vegetable marrow farci, lamb in mint sauce, roast duckling in apple sauce, sirloin of beef with chateau potatoes, green peas, creamed carrots, boiled rice, Parmentier and boiled new potatoes, Punch Romaine, roast squab and cress, cold asparagus in a vinaigrette, pâté de foie gras, celery, Waldorf pudding, peaches in Chartreuse jelly, chocolate and vanilla eclairs, French ice cream.

First class passengers also had the option of skipping their meals in the dining saloon altogether and heading over to the “Ritz”, the Titanic’s restaurant run by Luigi Gatti. They also had access to the Veranda Café and Café Parisien for lighter meals or a sip of something during the day.

All that extravagance now lies at the bottom of the ocean, like the 1,500 passengers (including Gatti and the Ritz's staff) who went down with the Titanic.