The Titanic, on its first voyage, hit an iceberg at 2340hrs on the 14th of April, 1912. Within 3 hours it sank and some 1500 people were killed, frozen to death or drowned. About 800 were saved.
The position of the squash court on the Titanic is shown in red. The floor of the court was on G deck and part of the upper part of the court was on F deck. F deck also held the viewing gallery. The drawing shows why the squash court played an important part during the disaster. The watertight bulkheads projected from the keel up to F deck. When the watertight doors were closed, these bulkheads contained any of any water that got into the individual compartments. It had been calculated by the builders, Harland and Wolff of Belfast, Northern Ireland that if four compartments were flooded the ship could still continue. However 5 were initially flooded and it was known very soon after hitting the iceberg that the ship was doomed. This was because the weight of water would tilt the ship and make matters worse.
The squash court was a convenient place to monitor the rise of the water (it was below the bridge) and this was done presumably from the viewing gallery. This periodic viewing is featured in the ship's log.
Was the squash court used? We know that it cost 50 cents a session and there was even a "Racquet Professional" aboard a Mr. F Wright. Colonel Archibald Gracie, who survived, writes in his book that he told Wright shortly after the collision "perhaps we had better cancel our match for tomorrow morning". This gives the impression that they had probably already played on a previous occasion.
The court was 30ft long and 20ft wide as against 32 and 21ft of a now-a-days court. This was due to the structural layout of the ship. Again, due to the structure, the court height could not have been more than 15ft 8inches as against the current 18ft 6inches. Lobs would have had to be low ones. The door was in the left side of the back wall.
