For first time visitors - Welcome

Sauder Drafting is pleased to present a new and original set of general arrangement plans prepared for the famous RMS Titanic as she was configured at the time of her maiden voyage.

If the plans are new to you, we suggest you browse this introductory page for an overview of what the Sauder Titanic Plans have to offer. If you want to proceed to the main web site, just click Continue.

The Sauder Titanic Plans are unique because they are drafted directly from documents and artifacts used in the creation, demolition, or salvage of the RMS Titanic or her sister ships, the Olympic and Britannic.

No part of the plan has been traced from another plan - the entire drawing is a "fresh work" prepared to professional standards and carefully researched and executed. Tracing earlier plan sets is a common drafting dodge to save time and money. However tracing is only an advantage to the drafter, not the purchaser of the plan since it introduces errors in scale that are seldom corrected. Also, many cases, tracing fossilizes earlier errors because "that's what the original plans show."

The creator of this set, Bill Sauder, is a professional draftsman who has been researching the mechanical details of British ocean liners since 1973, and has seen literally hundreds of plans and specifications for a wide variety of steamships. He served as acting curator on board the RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach, consulted with Dr. Ballard in his explorations of the Titanic and Lusitania, and has been to the Titanic wreck site to help in the recovery of artifacts from the wreck. While at the Titanic, Bill arranged for the salvage of important and previously unrecovered artifacts, such as water closets and water tight door components. These components were brought up from the wreck for the first time and have added enormously to the accuracy of these plans.

An important feature of the Sauder Titanic Plans is that they are correctly documented and sourced. Unlike other plans, the sources for most design points are fully spelled out right on the plan, with citations to which page of an Auction Catalogue, Hull Specification, or Testimony provided the relevant detail. This website will provide additional documentation not possible on the plans themselves because of space limitations.

Another point of interest in the Sauder Titanic Plans is that where an educated guess was needed for undocumented areas of the ship, those "hypothetical reconstructions" are clearly indicated. In cases where the source material is in outright conflict and no choice can be made the alternate interpretations are presented in small satellite drawings and it is left for the reader to decide.

Our plans come in two sizes. The standard scale is 1/8" = 1' (1:96) and is suggested for ordinary use. At this scale, the plans size at 18" wide and 12 1/2 feet long, which is as large as the plan can be and still be comfortably read and handled. A larger size is available at 1/4" = 1' (1:48) but at 36" wide and 25 feet long, the larger plans can be difficult to use without access to a professional drafting table to read at.

Both plans have identical content, but a magnifying glass is recommended for reading some of the footnotes for the standard scale drawing.

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