What Titanic Passengers Were Served For Their Final Meal
One of the greatest maritime accidents in modern history occurred in 1912 when the "unsinkable" ship Titanic struck an iceberg and sank to the bottom of the sea within hours. Due to a series of failures before and during the ship's first and only voyage, only 700 of the 2,200 passengers and crew on the vessel survived, as Britannica notes.
In addition to being something of a metaphor for uncontrolled hubris, the sinking of Titanic also serves, a century later, to illustrate the profound differences between how the wealthy and how the poor were treated in those days, particularly when several hundred of them were put together in a confined space. And in one particular area — that of food — recently-uncovered documents reveal what the First Class passengers aboard the ill-fated ship ate for their last meal. To no one's surprise, it was filled with top-tier haute cuisine, the likes of which the steerage passengers down below decks could have only dreamed of.
The final First Class Titanic meal was multiple fancy courses
If you've ever eaten on a high-class cruise ship, or at an extremely fancy restaurant, you may know that meals at this level are handled differently than more mundane ones. A meal in this context is an event: multiple courses (as many as a dozen or more), each paired with a wine, and between each course a small palate cleanser. What's more, the meal could last hours.
As History notes, the last meal on Titanic, at least for the First Class passengers, was just that. Thanks to menus that have been unearthed from the event, we know that the meal started with a course of raw oysters, followed by a choice of soups, then salmon, followed by choices that included lamb, chicken, filet mignon, and more. For dessert, choices included peaches in chartreuse jelly, chocolate and vanilla éclairs, Waldorf pudding, and French ice cream, all followed later by coffee, port, cigars, and cordials.
The second-class passengers would likely have been served some of the same first-class food as well, according to History, albeit without the expensive wine pairings, although So Yummy claims that those passengers would have eaten the same meal as the third-class passengers. As for them, their final meal was the much simpler rice soup, fresh bread, sweet corn, and mashed potatoes.