So, I've just started watching the documentary
Titanic: The New Evidence and in there they have uncovered a bunch of "new" photos of the Titanic taken by one of the ship's crew members. The photos reveal a mark on the hull that according to them fits with the fact that there was a fire blazing in boiler room 6.
Apparently, the usual practice was to scrape out the coal already burning, so as to preclude the fire from spreading - something which was not done (one of long list of ineptocratic moves in the ship's brief life - remember them opening one of the hatches on the side of the ship in the movie (actually happened, and they didn't close the door behind them, so still more water could get in that way)) with the Titanic, and the fire, which started when the ship left Belfast, was still burning merrily along when they arrived in Southampton for departure.
To me, this seems like a pretty stupid move (like I say, they were many and large on Titanic - must have something to do with the male preoccupation with size, as Rose terms it in the movie). Especially, considering that there was a
shortage of coal due to strikes that were going on at the coal mines just before Titanic left. Why was this fire never dealt with appropriately? Apparently, there were only eleven men put to dealing with it, in a coal scuttle that stood three storeys high! The officers
knew about the blaze and ordered these engineers and firemen to keep their mouths shut. How/why was it that they didn't manage to get the fire under control between Belfast and Southampton? I'm not even gonna think about asking if they can delay the departure date, since that would be a massive blow to the image both of the ship, the White Star line and (probably) the shipyards - all of which would've been counting on Titanic to catapault them to the front of the cue (against Cunard).
Calling
@SsgtC and all others knowledgeable on Titanic.