Salaries and Duties: Officers and Quartermasters

Officers

Every officer had his own cabin but he shared a bathroom with other officers.  

The Captain had a suite with a living room and a bathroom next to a bedroom. The officers had their own smoking room and a private officers' promenade which prevented passengers from gaining access to the bridge.  

The officers also had their own mess hall near the third smoke stack. Meals were delivered by a dumb waiter from the First-and Second-class kitchen.

The Captain's steward was responsible for procuring and serving Officer meals.

Quartermasters

These were veteran seamen who were employed as helmsmen on the bridge - they drove the ship. 

Two seamen always stood watch with the Officers on the bridge at all times; one drove the wheel while the other was standby. They worked 4 hour shifts in the wheelhouse and split their time: one stood for 2 hours at the telemotor, while the other was standby for running errors and taking over the rudder at any time. At the end of two hours, they swapped duties. 

Quartermasters were always paid an extra 5 shillings over seamen rate. Their monthly rate was £5, 5 shillings. 

Typically there were six quartermasters on every luxury ship. Because of the officers and seamen who had abandoned their posts on Titanic, they reshuffled the other officers and ended up with seven quartermasters on Titanic. 

The seventh on Titanic was Sidney James Humphreys whose assignment was changed from the Olympic to the Titanic in April 1912. 

All Quartermasters survived the sinking.  

They were:

• Arthur John Bright
• Robert Hichens
• Sidney James Humphreys
• Alfred John Oliver
• Walter John Perkis
• George Thomas Rowe
• William Wynn

Quartermasters were divided into two watches: Port Watch (Bright, Perkis and Wynn) and Starboard Watch (Hichens, Olliver, Rowe) and one stayed on the bridge. 

Quartermaster George Thomas Rowe was alone on the bridge at the time of Titanic's collision with the iceberg because the second Quartermaster was called away by Boatswain Alfred Nichols to handle a crew problem.

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The Duties and Salaries of Officers

- Chief Officer, Senior Officer

On April 9, 1912, Chief Officer David Blair abandoned his assignment on Titanic and left the ship at Southampton.  A shuffling of employees placed William Murdoch as Chief Officer. 

However, two more seamen and one officer left their ship posts in Cherbourg and Queenstown so there was another shuffling of employees.  Outcome: Henry Tingle Wilde became Chief Officer. His salary was £25 per year. 

Duties: to alert the captain of errors in navigation, supervise loading of freight, take turns with first and second watch officers to stand watch, take over command of the ship when the captain was not available or not able. 

Working Hours:  02:00 to 06:00 and 14:00 -18:00 hours

First Officer, Senior Officer

When David Blair left the ship at Southampton, his replacement was Henry Tingle Wilde.  A reshuffling of staff placed Wilde as Chief Officer and William McMaster Murdoch was made First Officer and was paid about £17, 10 shillings per year.  

Duties: The same as Chief Officer when the Captain and Chief Officer were both unavailable. Stand watch twice a day.  

Working Hours: 10:00 to 14:00 and 22:00 to 02:00 hours. He relieved Charles Lightoller for evening meal from 19:00 to 198:30 hours.

Second Officer, Senior Officer

In the reshuffle after David Blair left the ship on April 9, 1912, Charles Herbert Lightoller moved from First Officer to Second Officer. He was paid £17 per year.  

Duties: the same as the Chief and First Officer above him when they were both unavailable. Stand watch twice a day.  

Working Hours:  06:00 to 10:00 and again from 18:00 to 22:00 hours. He relieved Charles Lightoller for his mid-day meal from 12:30 to 13:00 hours.

When Junior Officers stood watch, they worked 10 hours on one day and 14 hours the next day.  At sea, they never rested for more than 3 hours. 

Third Officer, Junior Officer

Herbert John Pitman was paid £1, 9 shillings per month (or £9, 10 shillings per year)

Fourth Officer, Junior Officer

Joseph Groves Boxhall was paid slightly less than £1 per month (or £9 per year)

Fifth Officer, Junior Officer

Harold Godfrey Lowe was paid £8, 10 shillings per year.

Sixth Officer, Junior Officer

James Paul Moody was paid £8, 10 shillings per year.

Examples of the Cost of Living in Great Britain in 1912

10 percent of the population lived below the poverty level.  15 percent lived within poverty.

The average monthly income for a household of four people was £6. 

A skilled tradesman earned about £8.

Unskilled workers earned about £4.

A small house for four people rented for £1 5 shillings per month.

Conversion link - British pounds to US dollars.   In today's dollars, 1 British pound equals $1.28 US dollars. Use the link to convert pounds to dollars so you can see other crew salaries.  I have the converter set at £2 but you can change the number of pounds. 

Keep in mind the results you see will show the value of money on the day you are using the link, not the year 1912.