What Was 3rd Class Dining Like on the Titanic?

Although the Titanic sank over 100 years ago, people are still fascinated by its story, its passengers, and what it was like to sail on this ill-fated ship.

One thing people are quite curious about is the food that was served. For starters, the ship had no shortage of it. To give a bit of an idea as to how much food was on board, when the ship departed from England, it was carrying 75,000 pounds of meat, 40 tons of potatoes, 36,000 apples, 40,000 eggs, and 10,000 pounds of cereal, just to mention a small amount of food on the ship. In addition, there were 29,000 pieces of glassware and 44,000 pieces of cutlery.

With 709 third-class guests aboard, the lowest class of passengers made up the largest number of people in a class. Unlike first-class dining, which had the largest dining saloon on the ship, and people ate at smaller tables, third-class passengers did not get to dine on individual tables. Instead, they ate on long rows of tables, with each seat having its own table setting.

3rd Class Setting

The plates in the image above are the same kind of plates that were used in the third-class dining room. In the middle is the White Star Line logo, which is the name of the company that owned the Titanic.

A typical place setting consisted of one plate, five utensils, and a mug that could be used for coffee or tea. As the meal progressed, plates and utensils were removed, with the remaining utensils being shifted to their proper table-setting positions.

There were no glasses used. This is in contrast to both the second and first-class dining areas, which each had three glasses in their table settings. Two were for wine, and one was for water.

Menu for Titanic's Last Day

As you can see from the menu above, passengers were given four servings of food a day. Breakfast was pretty hearty, and it's impressive that one of the menu items was smoked herrings, as this dish was considered to be a delicacy.

On the other hand, though, when the ship left port, it was carrying 11,000 pounds of fresh fish, including salmon, haddock, brill, and anchovies, but the only meal at which third-class passengers were given fish to eat was breakfast.

Although it says dinner on the menu, the second meal of the day was actually lunch, which consisted of three courses and really resembled more of an upscale meal rather than one served to lower-class guests.

However, for the sake of comparison, first-class guests had a choice of either a lunch entrée (which on this day was grilled mutton chops) or a buffet, which included a variety of fish, roast beef, veal and ham pie, corned ox tongue, and galantine of chicken.

The next time passengers were fed was for tea, which was served with cold meat, cheese, pickles, rice, figs, and bread. The last food of the day was dinner, which included gruel, biscuits, and cheese.

To note, passengers in this class actually had their own kitchen staff and were given their food by servers.

Here's a little trivia for you. The menus given to passengers weren't just menus. They also doubled as postcards.

Food and Drinks Onboard

You may have noticed that some kind of bread or biscuit was served at every meal. This was consistent with all three of the classes. 1,000 loaves of bread were brought on board, as well as 1,120 pounds of marmalade. In addition, fresh bread was baked daily.

Tea and coffee were the two main beverages available to third-class passengers, and upon departure, the ship was stocked with 800 pounds of tea and 2,200 pounds of coffee.

Overall, third-class passengers had plenty of food to eat and, in many cases, better food than they normally ate on a daily basis. In addition, the Titanic was quite progressive in serving food to these passengers as back in those days, most ocean liners required passengers in third-class to bring their own food to last the duration of the trip and were given no access to the kitchen or refrigeration.

(Just recently, I went to Titanic: The Artifact Exhibit at the Luxor in Las Vegas and was able to see many of the ship's artifacts, including some of the White Star plates I mentioned above. It's one thing to write about them, but a completely different experience when you come face to face with them.)

Sources and Further Reading

RMS TITANIC – Third Class or Steerage Passengers aboard the ill-fated liner | Cruise Line History

Titanic Menu & Titanic Facts

Women's Titanic Fashion – Second and Third Class | Vintage Dancer

Titanic – Food For All Classes | Titanic Belfast

What did the Titanic passengers eat? | Irish Central

Clothes of the Passengers on the Titanic | Fashion & Interior Design Experts

The Third Class Women Passengers on the Titanic | Curated Taste

Titanic Facts & Fascinating Facts and Figures