You do know that to even attack a liner in WW1 it literally would have to run over the U-boat? 21kt cruise means Titanic does not need to be convoyed , even the fastest surfaced U-boat cannot catch her. Lusitania literally crossed U-20's T and for some reason was not at proper speed ( she was not using a boiler room which dropped her top speed to 21kt and she was actually doing at most 18kt, some reports say only 15 )
WI: The Titanic doesn't hit the iceberg
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It was a giveaway torpedo shot for the sub skipper. & that the warhead hit the coal bunker equally bad luck for the passengers. The Captains decision to turn to the shore and continue at speed may have caused one or more internal bulkheads to fail from the water pressure. If he'd ordered a full stop It may have sunk far slower, or if there had not been a internal explosion from whatever was in the coal bunker bulkheads might not have failed. Either way the ship takes a lot longer to sink & more passengers survive.
She has a good chance of surviving ww1, she's quite well designed to take any damage from torpedoes or mines provided her watertight doors are closed. Britannic would've survived the mine had she not had her doors open for a shift change, the damage the mine caused warping the hull enough the doors jammed open. Unlikely to sink from damage Lusitania sank from. If Titanic survives without any serious damage she might last as long as Aquitania if she isn't scrapped around 36-37. Probably in better material condition than Majestic (Olympic was in pretty solid condition in the mid 30s) so might survive as a troop transport or cadet ship in Majestics place.
After that scrapped, very unlikely she survives as a hotel and judging by the horrendous state of the QM and the US today it may be the better fate.
IIRC Admiralty demanded lifeboat capacity for ships in its use. Not as sure for merchant ships but pre USW sub captains waited for crews to abandon ship before sinking so overall quite unlikely.
The survival of Titanic (lets say Britannic still sinks) means 3 ships capable of keeping schedule (Homeric was slower than Majestic and Olympic so screwed White Stars scheduling for weekly crossings) and allows them to be more competitive. However I believe Cunard got the majority stake because they had more ships on the books at the time of the merger so it depends when White Star scraps ships, unlikely to change with Titanic. Still have that clown in charge of White star in the late 20s it'll still be in a bad place though with better earnings perhaps.
Difficult to say, Lusitania sank so quickly and with such a list there was never a hope of getting everyone into lifeboats. What you might see is regulations regarding collapsible boats, since the type lusitania used had to be assembled prior to launch, and try doing that on a heavily listing and rapidly sinking ship. Gantry Davits might last a bit longer but they only make sense on very large ships (redundancy) and were maintainance hogs
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While that is possible, iirc in the remaining history of the transatlantic liners, only two possible catastrophes come to mind: The sinking of the Lusitania and Andrea Doria. In the case of the former, the rapid sinking kept the lifeboats form being used. In the latter, the time it took to founder more than cancelled out the inability to use half the lifeboats because of the ship's list. Had there been no increase in the minimum number of lifeboats, it is unlikely, imo, that there would have been any measurable difference in the outcomes. Once air travel comes in, the whole story of the transatlantic liners closes with no (peacetime) disaster to mar the history books, or to upset anyone's nostalgia.
I can already see a better fate hopefully for J Bruce Ismay... Hearst really screwed the man up.
And the book (ebook) is here:
Roadtown by Edgar Chambless
Free kindle book and epub digitized and proofread by volunteers.
This not succeeding likely means "The Line" gets less support but then again despite the failure of "vacuum" or "pneumatic" trains Hyperloop is still getting way to much press so ...
Randy
Kate had already gotten a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Sense and Sensability. She was already well on her way to being a big leaguer - Titanic just sped it along.
I have to agree wuth on of the above posts. Why do we assume that without Titanic more people will die because the life boats wont be updated. 1st off the laws were being questioned even then. The designer originally wanted more boats the owner said no so people were startingvto question it. So i think eventually you get most opif not all the changes it just takes longer to get them, And second. What sinkings hapoened adter Titanic and the changed rules that would have seen a much larger lose of life withoyt the changes Titanic s sinking caused?
It is not like ships have been sinking left and right in the past 110+ years,
It is not like ships have been sinking left and right in the past 110+ years,
Interesting thread. I like to point out that the iceberg hit might have been avoided if there wasn't a fire in the engines of the Titanic during the Atlantic journey. It is something that was raised during the trials by surviving workers, but has been revealed as a likely incident in the recent years.
It seems that because of this fire, workers were forced to pour coal in order to allow the fire to extinguish itself (there wasn't any other possibilities to stop it), consumming great amounts of coals. When the fire was finally stopped, it was before the warning of the icebergs presence. Captain Smith and his men were confronted to a choice : either slowing down the ship and taking the risk to stop in the middle of the Atlantic sea as there wasn't enough coal in the stocks or taking the chance and keeping the speed up. They decided to take this gamble in the hope to avoid the icebergs. When the Titanic was hit, it was near the engines that suffered fire and the security gate had been damaged by the fire. The reason why they didn't evacuate immediately the Titanic was because initially, the security gates worked. But the damaged door was unable to hold on the water pressure and broke, allowing the water to invade the engines within. It was unfortunate that this security gate was the sixth one in the area of the damage side of the ship, meaning that the water limit the Titanic could support had been overcome.
It seems that because of this fire, workers were forced to pour coal in order to allow the fire to extinguish itself (there wasn't any other possibilities to stop it), consumming great amounts of coals. When the fire was finally stopped, it was before the warning of the icebergs presence. Captain Smith and his men were confronted to a choice : either slowing down the ship and taking the risk to stop in the middle of the Atlantic sea as there wasn't enough coal in the stocks or taking the chance and keeping the speed up. They decided to take this gamble in the hope to avoid the icebergs. When the Titanic was hit, it was near the engines that suffered fire and the security gate had been damaged by the fire. The reason why they didn't evacuate immediately the Titanic was because initially, the security gates worked. But the damaged door was unable to hold on the water pressure and broke, allowing the water to invade the engines within. It was unfortunate that this security gate was the sixth one in the area of the damage side of the ship, meaning that the water limit the Titanic could support had been overcome.
Another way of avoiding the iceberg would be if RMS Olympic avoids the collision with HMS Hawke in the Solent, so Olympic doesn't need to go in for repair so delaying the completion of Titanic.
There was a program last year on ways the Titanic could have avoided hitting the iceberg, IIRC there were seven points at which it could have been avoided.......fate really did hate that ship.
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