Thanks so much for watching and for the wonderful feedback! oceanlinerdesigns.com/titanic-alternate ^By popular demand I have created a page for you to get a closer look at the profile images I created for this video, as well as penning some notes on how I arrived at certain conclusions in making this alternate history. Enjoy! ~Mike
@@DerpyPossum Its true. They called britannic gigantic until the titanic sank and then they thought that it was to close to the name titanic so they changed it to britannic
My Great-uncle Albert served aboard the Titanic during the war. He always said that no U-Boat would risk wasting torpedoes on the Titanic because everyone knew she was "unsinkable".
Yes I thought the irony of that title in this awesome contractual story was hilarious 😆. Maybe in an alternate universe I might not hit the subscribe button but I definitely did so in this one.
Great video. As a young man, my great grandfather worked as an electrician aboard Titanic. He said that First Officer Moody once said that the ship’s compliment had trouble working as a team until that 1912 iceberg incident. After that humbling experience communication improved vastly.
Lusitania wasn't a new ship, though - with a 9-year career, a speed record, Mauretania and the war background, a 3-hour movie isn't out of the question.
@@danijelujcic8644 If the film took in the last voyage it would work. Two versions of the end could be made available; one including all the character event lines and an 18 minute version of the sinking.
Or James Cameron's "Olympic" where the collisions with the Hawke in 1911 means the first of 2 crew members who are lovers is killed, and the 1934 Nantucket collision results in the death of the 2nd main character who is then reunited with their lover and as they are dying they get a dream sequence at the Grand Staircase of them embracing.
This is so uncomfortable to watch in the best way possible. Something like an uncanny valley of historical documentaries! Lovely renditions of Titanic, and the Olympic class as a whole as always
I've read Captain Edward Smith's autobiography, The Northern Sea. It's a blast to read as it shows what an adventurous life the old skipper led. His sober acount of what could have happened had Titanic been sunk by that iceberg is haunting.
James Cameron's Titanic now makes sense where he told the fictional tale of the maiden voyage had it gone wrong. He used real interviews with the ships crew as to what they would have done had Titanic had a fatal blow. Its amazing to see his interpretation in film. Glad that didnt happen to the real Titanic.
You mentioning titanic glancing off the iceberg, made me realise the immediate worry the crew would have felt. It puts into perspective how gutted they would have felt after knowing the ship would sink.
Wait, what are you talking about? You must be from that alternate reality he was talking about where it hit the iceberg harder than it actually did. I'm guessing in your world, people know about Titanic because it sank. Crazy world you must live in. What else, you're gonna tell me the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in 1975 instead of the Arthur M Anderson? 😜😁😁
I love this point of view, even though it makes me uncomfortably emotional. As someone who has tried to absorb as much info on Titanic as possible since I was a kid, I had to seriously focus to put myself in this timeline. But the way you just jumped into it as if THIS was the real story of Titanic instead of saying out loud “What if…” just drove the emotions and the “realism” of it home for me. Very well done.
Fell asleep & woke up in the early hours to this on the autoplay. Video hits different when you're tired & confused, I thought I'd slept into alternative universe 🤣
@OceanlinerDesigns Here's another alternative scenario. What if the lusitania hit the iceberg instead of the Titanic? Basically, what if cunard suffered all the bad luck instead of the White Star Line?
Arguably I'd say that if Titanic hadn't of sunk, the loss on the Britannic probably would've been worse. Firstly she probably wouldn't of had the use of the electrified davits to launch boats quicker and be able swing out to launch those on the port side as the list became severe to use the regular davits, whilst her sinking rate would've been quicker given the design change in upping her bulkheads wouldn't of been a feature as this was only considered following the loss of the Titanic. So the damage caused by the mine no doubt would've caused her to of sunk quicker than 55 minutes.
Titanic almost rescuing personnel from the doomed Carpathia was a really great touch to the story. In fact, the story as a whole was well written. It didn't seem overdone or campy at all. On the contrary, it seemed like a genuine telling of real history.
My great great grandmother served as a nurse on the Titanic in both calls to war. She said it was a vessel unlike any she'd ever seen, she etched her initials into some of the decking and after it was decommissioned our family inherited it. Unfortunately my uncle Harold sold it in 1993 for beer money. But it's out there somewhere, full of memories of quite a journey at sea.
This take on Titanic and her sister ships evokes a different emotion, one I can't place, but it's like a melancholy vibe over having another ship written about and remembered as legendary vessel, when the reality of what happened has been etched so deeply in our minds and way of life since that fateful night. Splendid writing and recreation of this alternative story that never was, may your work prosper my friend.
Viewing this video gave me the feeling of peaking into an alternate reality in a way I’ve never quite experienced before; the way you spoke of Titanic as “the unlucky and less famous sister of Olympic” really helped sell it. All in all, this was an awesome video to view and has genuinely become one of my favourite piece of worldbuilding media. I wish you good luck in your future endeavours!
I have to agree. Perhaps it's me, but this piece of alternate history seems to hit a bit different than others. Maybe I just need to read more alt-history...
There's a small exhibit on Titanic at the Britannic Belfast museum. It's pretty interesting as not many people remember her. Lots remember Olympic for her military career and Britannic for her sinking. But I find Titanic fascinating too. I wish there was more content about her career!
This video honestly left me speechless. It's amazing how real you made this 'history' feel and surprising in hindsight that if not for that incident there is very little to draw attention to her. Hell for too many years I didn't even realise she had sister ships to begin with and I believe most of t he general public didn't either. That incident alone is enough for people to point at any old ocean liner with her livery and call it a titanic regardless of how big or small or accurate the ship is to that description.
I showed a friend a picture of Carpathia, he still asked me: "is that the Titanic?" I always wondered why the Titanic is so well known, even though her sinking is by far not record breaking in any way
@@Williamslamaeiland especially considering the fact that Carpathia apparently took longer to sink than Titanic did (Titanic's sinking took 2 hours, 40 minutes. Carpathia's sinking apparently took a little over 3 hours!) then there's the fact that Titanic certainly wasn't the most brutal sinking in history at the time (with ships like the SS Pacific of the Collins Line taking all 300 people onboard down with her. not to mention the much more recent to Titanic's sinking, the loss of another White Star Liner, SS Naronic, which disappeared with the loss of everyone aboard)
@@WilliamslamaeilandI think it's becuase of the irony that it was her maiden voyage and was deemed unsinkable, yet she still sunk and maybe becuase of the notable figures on the Titanic
So refreshing to finally see the third sister ship get some of the spotlight! She may not have had such a star-studded career but she will always be one of my favorites. Well done!
funny how Olympic was called the safest ship made and yet she was the only ship out of all three to not sink so yeah she must have been really safe or atleast very very lucky
Mike is so serious, convincing and professional, he seriously has me second-guessing reality. Mike could do a video about how in 1939 Poland single-handedly conquered Nazi Germany and then invaded Soviet Russia and I’d probably think it’s true.
Mike could even convince me that the US has free and universal healthcare and is a country free of gun violence. He especially has to apply Titanic and Britannic not sinking into it
Titanic truly was the middle child. It’s a shame she could never best her older sister, or have a dignified, heroic end in wartime service as her younger sister did.
I thought the exact same thing lol! I've always been fascinated by the Titanic and even though there isn't much about her on official record (thanks in part to her relatively lacklustre career) I still find myself coming back to the question, what if she did sink that night? in true middle-child fashion, that tragic event would've cemented her in history and in our minds forever.
@@possums154 And what's really interesting about that is that if she had met her fate that night, she's likely the one ship out of the trio that everyone could name. Billed as unsinkable, sinking on her maiden voyage, striking an iceberg while traveling at nearly full speed...it would probably have made for one of, if not the most, the most memorable sinkings in history.
I truly appreciate that you gave Titanic the attention she deserved. I know Olympic was more popular, even gaining the name “Ol’ Reliable”, but it’s nice to hear the history about Olympic’s sister ship as well. It’s quite interesting to learn that the White Star Line gave the A-OK to a filmmaker named James Cameron to use the same name for his movie “Titanic” starring Gwyneth Paltrow. With the movie was being based on Morgan Robertson’s novella “The Wreck of the Titan or Futility”, which was basically a “what if” scenario for what could’ve been the Titanic if she actually sank after hitting that iceberg. I kinda wish Titanic remained around, at least converting the ship into a museum of some sort for tourists. But nevertheless, a great history lesson about a glorious sister ship to the Olympic.
Titanic was such an interesting ship with a long and fruitful career, despite oftentimes getting less attention than the Olympic. Super scary to think she could have sank right on her maiden voyage! Props to the crew for being able to avoid such a tragedy.
Hi John yes further to the other commenter's point, the Olympic class used a hybrid propulsion system with triple expansion steam engines, powering the outboard propellers, feeding their low-pressure steam into a turbine which drove the central propeller. ~Mike
My great grand father was amongst those who scrapped The Titanic in 1930. My grandpa would tell me stories of her majestic interiors and how his father brought home a few of Titanic's souvenir items. He once even showed me a pair of binoculars that were originally used on the ship that he had with him for years (which currently stay with my cousin at his estate in New York). He always believed that these were the same binoculars which were used to locate that iceberg the night you talked about in this video. Guess the ship would have easily foundered without these binos!
My great great grandfather was an officer of the Titanic during ww1 he said to my grandfather that he would usually oversleep as he stayed long awake to have tea in the grand staircase
No way. Your great grandfather was probably secretly sad scrapping the Titanic, unless it was mothballed at the time your grandfather began scrapping already.
To OP. Really? He first got to dismantle the interior and *then* scrap the ship too several months later at the ship breaker's?? He must have been a charlatan or you're a liar. I also wonder why he spoke so highly of the interior for this particular ship when there have been several others even more luxurious. You sure he worked at the ship breaker's? He surely must have worked on a dozen ships so what exactly made this one so special? It doesn't make any sense. "My grandpa would tell me stories of her majestic interiors and how his father brought home a few of Titanic's souvenir items." So he was a thief too? Well, like I said he seems like a charlatan at best and an old liar at worst. The shipping line owns everything they want to sell or auction off. No "souvenirs" other than what you thief great grandfather stole. "He once even showed me a pair of binoculars that were originally used on the ship that he had with him for years" Why would he take some useless old binoculars and not something valuable or beautiful? Why would he even know this story nobody outside the crew ever knew? This is utterly obscure knowledge. "(which currently stay with my cousin at his estate in New York)" Lunacy obviously runs in your family. Collecting useless trinkets from utterly obscure stories where nothing happened. Must be a new low. "He always believed that these were the same binoculars which were used to locate that iceberg the night you talked about in this video" Wait a minute here... he has a firm belief this were the same binoculars used in something *which didn't happen??* . Who cares? Whatever next, he collects the dismantled Roman and Egyptian set-pieces from the aborted 20th Century Fox epic "Cleopatra" because he knows the movie would have been a huge success if it had been released? Who cares? We will never know because the studio "Cleopatra" stopped production. For all we know it might have been a huge flop instead. We'll never know whether the movie would have flopped or been a huge hit so why would anyone collect anything relating to an even which never happened? "Guess the ship would have easily foundered without these binos!" And now I know you're either insane or plain stupid. Are you even listening to yourself? You're claiming mere *binoculars* saved an entire ship from sinking? Not the crew, the first mate, the rapid communication or the design of ship itself? What about the speed of the ship and the currents? And what's this bizarre speculation had the look-out NOT had the binoculars? What a strange speculation. He did have them so why speculate if he didn't have them? You might as well speculate what if somebody with worse eye sight was in the crow's nest or what if it had been fog? What if the captain had gone around the ice-field like he was supposed to? Far more believable. Second of all suppose the ship actually hits he iceberg? So what? It was designed with several water tighter compartments and could survive a collision with a large ocean liner slicing into her size but you know this iceberg would undoubtedly had sunk this ship in a collision? Right. You somehow know this even if this never occurred. So how do you know the ship would undoubtedly sink and even worse how do you know the binoculars made all the difference in that dark night? Did they also have night-vision back in 1912? So let's summarize this highly bizarre events. 1. Your great grandfather loved the interior or one particular ocean liner even if he worked as a scrapper on ships which already had had theirs sold-off and removed. 2. Your great grandfather was in the habit of stealing things, but not something of monetary worth, but obscure trinkets. 3. Even though your great grandfather was a mere scrapper he knew all about the non-events of this particular ship. Must have eaves-dropped at quite a few sailor's bars. 4. He then left this useless trinket to your cousin who kept it for some strange reason. 5. YOU believe these binoculars saved an entire ship from sinking *out of all factors which played a part* and also somehow seem certain the ship would sink had it hit the iceberg? How do you know this?? This whole story is bizarre. Are you serious?
Very well thought out and clever alternative reality. It bears repeating that had "Titanic" not been destroyed on her maiden voyage, there'd likely be less interest in all ocean liners today. Furthermore, she'd have steamed on until the 1930's and simply been broken up as scrap and designer relics. "Ever hear of the "Titanic"? "What's that?"
In this timeline, James Cameron would have had to be content with telling the true tale of the Lusitania, Brittanic, or the Hindenburg or maybe adapting Morgan Robertson's 1898 novella "The Wreck of the Titan: Or Futility" which had eerie similarities to the Titanic tragedy its publication predated, including the similarities of the ships' names, a collision with an iceberg in the North Atlantic, and a shortage of lifeboats that her designers had deemed ultimately unnecessary for an "unsinkable" ship. When asked if he had some sort of psychic predictive powers, the author simply replied, "I know what I'm writing about, that's all."
The Hindenburg? Why that one? It was smaller and less glamorous than the Graf Zeppelin and was scrapped in Hamburg in 1939 after only a few circumnavigations. I think the Zeppelin program failed because they were too safety conscious and couldn’t fly anywhere near stormy weather, sometimes going hundreds of miles off course to avoid any kind of thunderstorms and resulting winds and static charges
@@dangerouslytalented Hitler's preoccupation with safety and prestige might have hurt the Hindenburg and the zeppelin service, but it came back to bite the Allies early in the war: German tanks were notoriously difficult to knock out thanks to their thick armor, and German planes were so well built they could perform maneuvers that would cause allied planes to break up in midair from the stress. of particular note was the Focke-Wulf Fw-200 "Condor" an airliner turned Patrol bomber, whose airframes were so resilient they could keep flying even after huge chunks had been blown out of the fuselage and wings. (wink wink)
He made it seem so real, for a 100th of a spilt second, my mind accidentally literally mistook thus as real history because he told the story invredibly realistically and well. Props to him.
In another universe, the Titanic survived as above and became a troopship or hospital ship as above in WW2. It was sent to help with operation downfall (the invasion of Japan) in late 1945, only to be sunk by kamikaze attacks off Kyūshū.
Damn, that's true. In almost any example that isn't the Titanic, this _is_ the reality in which "she didn't sink." Kinda puts things in perspective in a way.
There should be awards for UA-cam videos this good. My mother was a piano player. The bit at the end with photos set to Chopin was breathtaking and poignant, it brought a tear to my eye. Excellent job, sir 👍🏻💖⭐️🚢
“Futility: or The Wreck of the Titan” is a pretty good read. It’s fun to discover the historical similarities between the fictional Titan and the actual Titanic, and the story gives a pretty convincing account of what would’ve happened had the Titanic hit that iceberg hard enough to sink her.
Lol, imagine if she had. The book is so similar and came out in 1898 when the Titanic would’ve sank decades later. That would be another one for the conspiracy nuts. 😂
To send further chills down your spine, the author had a novel of a war between the US and Japan, which was ended when the US employed "Sun Bombs" on the Japanese
@@Pixel22-fs3tt That's so disrespectful in my opinion. Both to the author and to the people involved with the Titanic. Atleast that's just my opinion though. I'm probably being a bit sensitive.
I've always wondered why everyone talks about ships involved in huge tragedies like Britannic, Empress of Ireland, and Eastland. I'm glad you decided to shed some light on Titanic, since no one seems to remember her nowadays (AUs aside, I'd love to see more videos like this, as no one seems to touch on this sort of thing)
In this alternate universe, James Cameron's Titanic still got made and swept the Oscars, being the only film in the alternate history genre to win the Oscar for Best Picture.
I swear I thought I was the only one that knew about this ship!!! Whenever anyone brings up the Olympic and Britannic, I’m always in there like “there was a third ship too… Titanic.” I always get looks and laughs… they say things like, “yeah…. And the Queen Mary had a sister ship, the Queen Maryl.” Loved this video!!! Titanic finally getting the respect it deserves!!!
I get that all the time, it's kind of annoying. My great-grandfather even served on the Titanic during its first call to action. He told me once that he could still smell the paint, it was so fresh. Then again, he also said that the Olympic and the Titanic were swapped out for each other once or twice, so I'll take it with a grain of salt.
@@possums154 Ehhh... if that would've happened the ships would've had interchangable steel hull plates AND interchangable ship numbers! I mean it isn't likely because why wouldnt you want to show off the unsinkable beauty of the seas first debut!
My great great grandfather was an officer of the titanic during ww1 he would always stay up late cuz he wanted to have some tea he actually was on all three of them on olympic in the dock when he accidentally thgout she was the titanic and on britannic to see his wounded brother R.I.P gre great grandfather Stanley
I'm sure I'll keep hyperfixating on the sinking of the Queen Mary forever, but learning about these older Edwardian liners has been pretty interesting.
I didn't even know there was a third ship until recently. I'd heard of the sinking of Britannic, and everyone knows about 'Old Reliable' obviously, but it was only earlier this year - when I was visiting a shipping museum in Scotland - that I found about Titanic. They didn't cover it in much detail so I'm very grateful that your video was able to clear up a couple of questions for me. And I did appreciate your bit at the end with a "what if" scenario where the Titanic had actually hit the iceberg. Crazy to imagine...
Yeah, if it actually hit the iceberg, the loss of life would be unbelievable. Although it would make for a pretty good movie, I'm thinking of a tragic 'Romeo and Juliet' style romance, he dies, she survives, that sort of thing. Who would direct it, though...?
@@possums154 I like your idea. Sounds like it could work. As for directors, maybe Steven Spielberg? He does a lot of large-scale disaster stuff. I asked the same question to a friend and she suggested the guy who did Terminator and Aliens ... James Campbell or something. Can't see it myself: killer aliens and time travelling robots don't exactly mix with tragic period pieces.
@@eccentrikhat3863 I think the guy you're thinking of is James Cameron, and yeah I do see your point. Although, the sinking of the Titanic seems like something he could do considering he directed Avatar as well. I think he would have a good eye for the tragic aspects of it, but I could be wrong. Spielberg might dramatize it a little too much, even though it's a fictional event it would still need to be treated with respect.
As notable as Olympic and Titanic's long careers were, I've always had a soft spot for their unfortunate little sister Britannic. She died long before her time and never had a proper chance to shine.
"A Night to Remember" Very nearly caused a scandal when White Star threatened to sue the filmmakers for making a "mockery" of their service and portraying the ship's crew as a crop of incompetent buffoons. Titanic, renamed "Gigantic" for the film, was run more akin to a circus than a ship, despite the portrayal of Captain "Walter Lord" as a totalitarian taskmaster who had his sailors performing such minutiae as scrubbing floor tiles with toothbrushes to meet his demands for "adequate shine." the Climax of the film was a parody of the Titanic's famous near-miss in April 1912, where the Crew, so exhausted from the captain's non-stop work details, falls asleep at the helm, and the ship is steered clear of the iceberg by the Comedy hero played by Buster Keaton while the engines are managed by the Chorus Girls from the ship's theater. Captain Lord is thrown overboard by the impact and is left stranded on the iceberg, giving orders to a group of curious polar bears, and the ship arrives in New York in celebratory style, the crew finally managing to get some sleep.
It was a meh flick. I hear it’s got a cult following. But I’ll take The Missing Mountain over that any day. Man eating mammoths and cavemen are better entertainment.
Wow... I left the living room for a while with a different video playing. That one must have ended and this one was next in line. I came back in and sat down on the couch with some laundry to fold, not really paying attention to the tv... After a while I realized what I was hearing, and looked quickly at the tv like whaaat??? Honestly freaked me out until I clicked on the video to see the title. This video was a surreal experience for me because I wasn't expecting it. That line about a night to remember being a comedy actually made me cry a little. Very well done, but for whatever reason made me very emotional
I really love the ends of these videos, it's gives me chills when the edits are revealed and the alternate ship fades back into the wreck in our world. No need to break character and have some monologue at the end about how tragic the real sinking was, when all you need is a silent shot hanging on wreck to remind us what happened... It's absolutely bone chilling in such a subtle way, I love it.
Not even gonna lie, the transition from Titainic splitting waves in her striking White Star Line colors to the corroded wreck in the cold and dark honestly cut like a blade.
I noticed he forgot to mention that despite the Titanic clearing the iceberg, the near by Californian actually struck an iceberg head ongoing full speed into the ice field. The Californian desperately sent up signal flares but the Titanic did not understand them and mistook them for a celebration. By the time the titanic was informed (ironically by the Carpathia) that the Californian was in danger, she had already broken in two and her stern had dipped beneath the waves. Such an important event in the ships career, the crew were even accused of abandoning the Californian to its fate. It just seems like something you should mention.
I gotta say. Even as a kid, I always thought the Titanic's crew were a bunch of dicks for doing that. I don't know how true to life that is, but childhood me feels pretty damn vindicated by this! (I hope the sarcasm made it through, though I do actually believe this about the crew of the Californian)
the mere fact that she SPLIT IN HALF despite being considerably smaller than Olympic, Titanic, and Britannic, is genuinely disturbing (also, i love how everybody in the comment section and the replies to each comment all seem so genuine because of how well worded they are, such as this your comment)
Probably didn’t help that any Telegraph message being sent was blocked by Titanic’s flood of personal messages from the passenger. Down to telling the Californian to “shut up” because they were busy, a lot of passengers made up for more work for the Telegraph operator. Apparently it was ways for the Telegragh operators to get extra earnings from their small salary, they were not part of the White Star Line per se but employed by the Telegraph company Macroni. Apparently, Titanic’s new Telegraph system was a state of the arts in that it had a new pitch that we are familiar today with but the Californian and other ships theirs were more static, thus the Californian signal for help got lost behind a loud and clear message from the Titanic. Apparently passengers bragging being on boarding a ship was more important than the ice warnings. At least the Californian didn’t have full capacity of passengers, if so, it’s likely this story would have been brought up more as a lesson about the consequences of not assisting a ship in distress.
I remember listening to a BBC interview with Thomas Andrews Jr (Recorded in 1942) where he states: "That night was one of the tensest of my entire career, I spent many hours pacing in my cabin worried we would lose her on her first trip out, and even when I was assured that the damage was minimal, I could stop myself from thinking What If?". His wife Helen, before her death in April 1939, said in an interview with the Daily Express: "He was never quite the same after that night, he would worry about the Olympic, almost daily every time she left Belfast for a voyage however, he was at his worst after the Brittanic sank during the Great War, he constantly battled with periods of Depression and Alcoholism, which, as we are aware made the depression worse".
The idea of Titanic surviving is a amazing one and you just topped the cake. From the idea of the changes that Titanic herself brought to the shipping industry instead now brought by her less iconic sister Britannic. Maybe a alternate history where all 3 survive where the changes instead come from Empress of Ireland or Lusitania?
It's highly unlikely that the Empress or Lusitania would've brought about those changes. Not with how fast they sank and their capsizing. The Titanic disaster was perfect in the sense that the ship went down on an even keel, and took long enough for people to realize that there wouldn't be enough lifeboats for everybody. Just to name two factors. Imo, it would take either another ship - possibly Britannic and during her passenger career - to sink in a way that would fit the above criteria, or one of the two you just mentioned - presumably the Empress; I just don't see it happening with the Lusitania for some reason, even if U-20 never got her - to do the same thing, which would be vastly different from the way they actually sank.
@@Kaidhicksii Likely it'd be any of the super liners having the same incident the _Titanic_ did. Most likely we'd have to go a little further back in time and see the Kronprinz Wilhelm strike that iceberg harder than in reality.
It’s amazing to think just how much bloodier world war one on the seas would’ve been without the tragedy of the titanic to teach people the importance of having enough lifeboats just in case the ship sinks faster than expected, thanks.
Very neat, alternative history. The weaving and reversal of real events makes it almost ‘ dangerously’ believable. Your right about Board of Trade regulation changes being delayed and one wonders about some SOLAS regs being implemented. By now, though, I suspect that the only real difference would be that a number of people currently working in certain maritime museums might be alternatively employed.
@@zoepaulastrassfield2664 He did wind up finding the Yorktown at Midway, as well as the Bismarck. Given the significance of those ships, his career would be notable, but not to the same extent as in OTL.
Very creative. Thank you! My grandfather was a propulsion engineer for Harlan and Wolff and designed the triple expansion engines for Titanic. I’m certain he would have preferred your version!
I remember hearing a story on the news maybe 5 or 6 years ago about a first class Titanic dinner menu from 1929 selling at some charity auction for almost 10 million dollars. I'd heard about the Olympic and the Britannic, but up until then I had no idea there was another member of the Olympic class. Since then I've been curious to find out as much as possible about this overlooked ocean liner. This video was super informative and filled in a lot of the blanks, along with a History channel documentary series from around 2007 that I just recently found, going into detail about all 3 of these sister ships. It's kind of a shame how the middle sibling had so many mishaps, but still it sounds like she had quite the illustrious life and career.
You left out some key points in your alternate timeline: - In June 1914, Isidor Straus was in Sarajevo to meet Archduke Franz Ferdinand when he noticed a suspicious person in the crowd and yelled "look out," thus avoiding what could've been a huge international incident - While visiting Poland in September 1914 on a hunting trip, John Jacob Astor IV accidentally shot a Russian that was trying to poach Astor's prey. Vladimir Lenin died of his wounds three days later. Joseph Stalin, who was visiting his friend Lenin, died the following day of alcohol poisoning. - In July 1921, John B. Thayer visited Shanghai to oversee the building of a railroad when a large explosion severely injured a group of men attending a meeting held by Mao Zedong. Mao and other that survived the blast died later due to infection or other complications. - In May 1922, Benjamin Guggenheim visited Paris where he discovered a struggling artist from Vienna named Adolf Hitler. He tried befriended Adolf and tried to become a patron, but the artist became enraged when he found out Guggenheim was Jewish and ran into the street where he was struck by a motor car. He succumbed to his injuries a week later.
You're right rager, how could I forget! I suppose I was distracted since I live in a perfect harmonious utopian society which hasn't seen war since the late 19th century. :) ~Mike
It's funny but also eerie the impact of Titanic's sinking in world history. We will never know what would've happened if things were different, the world could be better or worse, but the possibilities are very interesting.
Well, I do remember the bid for the R.M.S Queen Mary the port of Long Beach California being rejected, with Cunard accepting the bid from a Japanese scrap merchant.
What I find most realistic about your alternate reality is that Titanic would have retired into relative obscurity and that Olympic would have been the most famous ship of the two. If Britannic had survived the war it would also most likely be preferred over Titanic because it would have been perceived as more modern.
I think had titanic had never sunk it would have definitely been refitted and served as a troop/hospital ship during ww1. No doubt in my mind about that. Your story sounds very realistic.
This is truly fascinating, I feel as if I have been teleported to another reality in my sleep. The detail you included makes it seem so real. Excellent work!
It would be cool to do a prank where everyone in a certain area play along that a certain known fact is just a bit different from the way just a couple people would know them, the ones pranked. Something along the lines of this video.
Poor Titanic is a true posterchild of middle sibling obscurity. It's a shame she wasn't known for anything noteworthy like her sisters Olympic and Britannic. Side note - this is my favourite episode yet. Brilliant idea.
Interesting premise that I don't think I've ever seen fleshed out before quite the way you've done it. Most alternate-Titanic histories still have Titanic as the star ship, even though as you point out she would probably have lived her life in the shadow of her eldest sister. Well done!
@@OnionChoppingNinja Yes indeed. Had World War I not happened, and had a 500,000 year old glacier not calved an iceberg that drifted into the shipping lanes, history would have been very much different. The White Star Line's gigantic trio would have been a commercial success, at least for a period of time, and Olympic would always have been the star of the show. Today few people, except for ship buffs such as ourselves, would even know that there HAD been sisters to her, let alone what their names were.
My great grandfather purchased some of the luxurious furniture and woodwork from the breakers where titanic was scrapped. He lined his office in Inverness with it. It was there he wrote the definitive account of HMS Hoods victory over the German battleship Bismarck. Gramps was part of the group that saved Hood and preserved her as a museum ship in portsmouth.
Back in high school I was very close with this girl who had British and Irish ancestry. She once told me that her great grandfather was employed as a steward aboard the Titanic in the 1920s. I really wish at least one of the Olympic-class liners were preserved, as they were my favorites.
Absolute perfection, it took me a few times to realize this wasn’t real but as an Olympic fan, I wish the Old Reliable got the respect she deserved instead of just being “Titanic’s sister”
It's a shame they scrapped Titanic. If we had just had one of the Olympic class ocean liners turned into a floating museum (I prefer Titanic's staying faithful to the early 1910's style) that would have been so neat to see first hand.
This is uncomfortably satisfying, if that makes sense. Everything inside this video goes against what I know, yet this was kinda what I want to happen subconsciously. There are some curious parts in the video where the events told are so familiar, yet also so unfamiliar. For example, the Britannic sinking is a very well known event, but the very subtle differences between what happened and what could’ve happened makes the whole thing so alien to me. The Carpathia sinking actually happened, but add in Titanic trying to save her and it feels like the whole thing was a different story. I know about a Titanic film called “A Night to Remember”, but in this alternate reality, that title belonged to a flop comedy film. You did a really great job with this one. Maybe you could do another one about Britannic. She could’ve had served in WWII like Aquitainia, and maybe her connection with Titanic could’ve brought her more fortune.
I’ve always imagined the ‘what if she hadn’t sunk’ scenario. You delivered so well on making it seem as though she hadn’t. This is the second video of your’s I’ve seen and I gotta tell you, the vest, tie and slicked back hair suits you very well. Your dapper appearance compliments your well spoken, enticing voice that makes the English language sound its best! I feel like I’m sipping a nice scotch or a glass of champagne listening. Well done man..
You did a great job laying out an alternate history. At one point, I almost forgot that the story was fictional. It really is fascinating to think about why something becomes popular. Without the tragedy, Titanic probably would have just been a small footnote in history.
I love how this story actually makes a lot of sense and is not just a “alls well that ends well” story where the ship goes on to have a long successful career. Great video!
This makes me think of the alternate universe theory, in which there would be alternate earths, in which at least in one alternate earth Titanic would have survived and gone on to a long but less than memorable career, ending her life in a scrap yard 20 years later. One could only image the lives lead by those who would survive, but who didn't in our universe.
My great uncle jack served on the titanic on her maiden voyage, he always worried that it would sink, but it never did. He served until it was scrapped. He died in 1980, I never got to meet him.
This... Is the best fanfiction ever. All the characters we know and love. I was constantly pausing it and checking Wikipedia for the real-life events referenced, this was super fun and informative.
Fascinating, I never know the Olympic had a third sister. Just think that she was almost lost on her maiden voyage, and how may lives could have been lost if she sank. A chilling thought that is indeed.
This was fascinating, and it's crazy that there could easily be a "universe" where this is how things went. Only small thing to note, which a lot of people do tbh. But Britannic, if she never had the gantry davits, wouldn't have had those "indented" areas at the end of A-deck, as they were only there to support the weight of said davits.
I agree, then you might find Everett's many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics cool to browse over. The math is beyond me, but the concepts are clear. The implications extremely bizarre.
@@OceanlinerDesigns I saw your website. And if the titanic actually did not sunk. The britannic look different, and there's a 3 Olympic class liners as intended to run the transatlantic route. The britannic did not need the electric davits if titanic didn't sink
The Titanic falling into obscurity while Olympic and Britannic go down in history is a pretty interesting take, I kind of like it. Also, shout out to that great line "a flop comedy called "A Night to Remember" that got me rolling also I love how Titanic came to Carpathia's aid in this timeline, thats a nice touch
Simple answer: if titanic never sank i wouldn't be watching this video simply because the 1997 titanic movie would obviously not exist and i wouldn't be addicted to the history of ocean liners
My great great great grandfather booked passage on Titanic’s return voyage. He was running away with a maid back to Ireland. The damage from the iceberg collision wasn’t enough to scare him off though. He left America and our family wouldn’t return to America for nearly a century. If Titanic had actually sunk the story of my family would be very different today.
Titanic is the ship of close calls. It seems silly to think of her as unlucky when in the end nothing happened and no one was hurt. Out of all historic ships, you didn't even hear ghost stories of it! Now, if you had to pick a ship, wouln't you think it best the one where disaster was always averted? My great grandpa got to see her before she was scrapped, said it was magnificent!
I love thinking about things like this. "What would have happened if this didn't happen?" Great job. Really enjoyed it. Also Titanic in her dazzling camo looks so cool!
A fascinating imaginary, yet realistic insight into what her career might have been if things turn out slightly differently. Not many people commented about this, but the epilogue scene at the end of the video reminds us solemly that the alternate timeline was never meant to be.
Absolutely loved the alternate history photos, incredibly well done. This video really goes to show what a huge part of our culture we would be missing had the Titanic not sunk.
This was very well done, and a subject many Titanic fans have long considered. I even did a painting of Titanic being scrapped, years ago. I think the most important big event in Titanic's later career would be White Star's decision to build Oceanic in 1930, and possibly a sister, to create a TWO ship weekly service to compete with Bremen and Europa. This could have doomed all the Olympic class to the scrap heap in perhaps 1933-35. I would be surprised to see Titanic gone as early as 1930, but I doubt she'd make it to WW2 to become a trooper again. My compliments on a wonderfully entertaining and well considered video!
Olympic? Scrapped? I don’t think so. Hotel off the coast of France. ( and the Queen Mary, the Japanese scrap merchant actually got to scrap her. The port of Long Beach California didn’t win. )
@@ayoutubechannel8925 indeed. sadly, when she showed up intent on offering to assist the evacuation of the Carpathia, HMS Snowdrop simply pushed her aside and to told her to resume her original course... Titanic's captain, who quite evidently did not want to anger Snowdrop's crew, let alone the royal navy, obeyed the destroyer's order for him to resume his original course and thus Titanic left the scene having failed to be of any help to the doomed Carpathia...
Masterfully done, sir - In particular, I love how you altered as little of the actual events of the sinking as possible! One of my pet peeves with a lot of 'alternate history' is how much they change, or how significantly they change it. Also... 14:23 Totally was not expecting that - Truly haunting. Well done.
Olympic is always my favorite. This interesting take on history actually highlights her amazing story even more. Well done! I'm still shocked a tv special on RMS Olympic hasn't been done yet.
I'm a bit of a sucker for alternate histories that parallel reality in poetic ways, and that the Titanic here is able to pay homage to the Carpathia is just beautiful. Honestly, this whole video is just amazing. Its presented in such a matter of fact way that you get transported to that world. That you're clearly an expert in this field and are able to inform the scenario with that expertise really helps ground the video in teaching us about typical practices during this era in British shipping. Huge props for making it easy for a layman to understand, too.
I'm surprised that you didn't mention the famous rendezvous between RMS Titanic and German Zeppelin Hindenburg in the Mid-Atlantic Ocean on May 8th 1937; as both were headed east (to Southampton and Bedfordshire respectively) to ferry passengers to the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth the following week. It's too bad that they didn't go through with the plan of mooring Hindenburg to Titanic's stern mast so its passengers could visit the ship for the day - but at least we got to see Hindenburg moored to the Empire State Building a few times over the following years.
This is an amazing alternate history vid. I saw a Titanic forum once which featured an alternate history where Titanic and Britannic survive and White Star becomes the dominant line on the Atlantic, even buying out Cunard in the 30’s.
agreed but Cunard would still be the one who would buy out white star because white star would still have loss more ships than Cunard because on the original timeline only "8" number of ships that the white star had over Cunards "15" ships with titanic and britannic it would have been 10 Cunard still wins on ship number's for that Cunard would still be the dominant company.
@@mr.juniii5523 Cunard also had an agreement with the Royal Navy that their ships would be converted during wartime in exchange for federal funds. There is no way a company that involved with the state wouldn’t be dominant
This is one of my favorite UA-cam videos of all time. Incredibly well done, and a perfect addition to this channel. And some of the comments just add to the magic.
A thoroughly entertaining video - and the epilogue is sobering and almost haunting; the shot of Titanic proudly above the waves giving way to the reality of her final resting place on the bottom of the Atlantic was simple but oh so powerful. Excellent work!
Years ago, I met this older lady, Rose Hockley, she talked about having a bit of an adventure on Titanic, apparently getting into a row with her betrothed, just barely patching things up before they went on to New York and joined their place in high society.
This is such a cool video and the way you tell it like it WAS history (as opposed to saying "she would have...") made it all that much better. Your videos in general are fascinating, but this one may be one of my favorites.
I really enjoyed how fact and fiction have been intertwined nicely done. Reminds me of a book in my library called Celitic Queen, that portrayes the life and death of a four stacker
A few years ago on a trip to the U.K. I had the pleasure of dining at the White Stag Hotel in Warkworth, which features a dining room constructed with fixtures from Titanic's first class dining saloon. I'm sure you're all familiar with the similar Olympic Suite at the White Swan Hotel in nearby Alnwick, which is much better known. But the White Stag has a dedicated following from our small, but tight knit community of Titanic enthusiasts. Every year on April 14, with which my trip fortunately aligned, they feature a menu based on the first class dinner served on Titanic on April 14, 1912. Recalling the close shave with the iceberg that night, the event has a morbid fascination with us, who feel as if we are sharing with those passengers what nearly became the last meal for many of them.
I love the amount of people scolding others in the comments when they get into the roleplaying of alt universe, they think they're so smart but actually can't understand fiction
Thanks so much for watching and for the wonderful feedback!
oceanlinerdesigns.com/titanic-alternate
^By popular demand I have created a page for you to get a closer look at the profile images I created for this video, as well as penning some notes on how I arrived at certain conclusions in making this alternate history. Enjoy!
~Mike
Hey if the Titanic wouldnt have sank there wouldnt be enough life boats on Britannic resulting in more deaths.
@Keenan Hoang Also if the titanic wouldn't have sank, the britannic would be called gigantic:)
@@edwardianlinersdead7864 untrue
@@DerpyPossum Its true. They called britannic gigantic until the titanic sank and then they thought that it was to close to the name titanic so they changed it to britannic
@@edwardianlinersdead7864 that’s a myth with no factual basis or evidence
My Great-uncle Albert served aboard the Titanic during the war. He always said that no U-Boat would risk wasting torpedoes on the Titanic because everyone knew she was "unsinkable".
I'm glad the Germans didn't become more confident after how unlucky Britannic was, though.
On a alternate universe
Is your name Damien by any chance?
@@Titan604 awesome what you did there 😁😉🤣✌🏻👏👏💯💎👍
@@Reaglesracing44_ its a fictional story dumb nut
"A flop comedy called, A Night to Remember" This line alone deserves 100,000 likes.
What can I say, the name just came to me! :)
~Mike
"Correction. You got the name wrong. It was the flop comedy , a "Night to Forget" And you did.........
In an alternate reality , Cameron may have taken the 1890 or so book about The Titan and turned it into a movie
Lmao!!! Mike is a genius.
Yes I thought the irony of that title in this awesome contractual story was hilarious 😆. Maybe in an alternate universe I might not hit the subscribe button but I definitely did so in this one.
Great video. As a young man, my great grandfather worked as an electrician aboard Titanic. He said that First Officer Moody once said that the ship’s compliment had trouble working as a team until that 1912 iceberg incident. After that humbling experience communication improved vastly.
Do you mean 6th Officer Moody or 1st Officer Murdoch, even in this AU Murdoch was the 1st Officer.
I'm trying to imagine James Cameron's "Lusitania". It'd be a lot shorter I guess!
Or maybe even "Britannic".
Lusitania wasn't a new ship, though - with a 9-year career, a speed record, Mauretania and the war background, a 3-hour movie isn't out of the question.
@@danijelujcic8644 If the film took in the last voyage it would work. Two versions of the end could be made available; one including all the character event lines and an 18 minute version of the sinking.
Or James Cameron's "Olympic" where the collisions with the Hawke in 1911 means the first of 2 crew members who are lovers is killed, and the 1934 Nantucket collision results in the death of the 2nd main character who is then reunited with their lover and as they are dying they get a dream sequence at the Grand Staircase of them embracing.
James Cameron's Concordia
This is so uncomfortable to watch in the best way possible. Something like an uncanny valley of historical documentaries!
Lovely renditions of Titanic, and the Olympic class as a whole as always
agree. feels like something out of an ARG.
Ditto, this AU is painful, because I subconsciously WANT Titanic to be important.
Hooray, exactly the tone I was going for! "Uncanny valley" I think it is called.
Thanks for watching!
~Mike
My head hurts thinking about what would be worse or better in history.
I was the same way as well.
I've read Captain Edward Smith's autobiography, The Northern Sea. It's a blast to read as it shows what an adventurous life the old skipper led. His sober acount of what could have happened had Titanic been sunk by that iceberg is haunting.
I love how the titanic saved the carpathia in this timeline it’s so ironic
Or at least tried to. I loved that touch. :D
But the titanic is sunk first than the carphatia and the carphitia sunk in ww1 bro
they are talking about the section in 7:45
@@hometv5319 did you even watch the video?
@@hometv5319 it’s an alternative story of wat if Titanic didn’t hit the iceberg and sink. Should’ve watched the video before commenting
James Cameron's Titanic now makes sense where he told the fictional tale of the maiden voyage had it gone wrong. He used real interviews with the ships crew as to what they would have done had Titanic had a fatal blow. Its amazing to see his interpretation in film. Glad that didnt happen to the real Titanic.
I think he took inspiration from the book The wreck of the Titan or futility, so his sinking looked possible.
Let's not forget Walter Lord's great work of Titanic fiction, A Night To Remember....
This is fake, genius. The Titanic sank.
@recessional5560 someone didn't read the fracking title.
r/wooosh
what are you talking about? the video clearly states the Titanic was retired from service in 1930.
Ugh this is so nostalgic, James Cameron's "Carpathia" was my favorite move as a kid 🥲
I watch titanic
same the bromance between to soilder jack and what's his name riely truly moving
I know James and Rachel are the best love story known to man 🥰🥰🥰
You mentioning titanic glancing off the iceberg, made me realise the immediate worry the crew would have felt. It puts into perspective how gutted they would have felt after knowing the ship would sink.
Wait, what are you talking about? You must be from that alternate reality he was talking about where it hit the iceberg harder than it actually did. I'm guessing in your world, people know about Titanic because it sank. Crazy world you must live in. What else, you're gonna tell me the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in 1975 instead of the Arthur M Anderson? 😜😁😁
They should have been looking at the sea ahead and not at the young couple on deck
@@mkepioneet is nobody talking about the fact that the thumbnail is britannic not titanic
@@user-cr1bs4lm9j The thumbnail depicts the _Titanic_ as one of His Majesty's hospital ships.
Ironically in 1913, Teutonic narrowly escaped the same fate as Titanic, when she dodged an iceberg by about 20 yards.
I love this point of view, even though it makes me uncomfortably emotional. As someone who has tried to absorb as much info on Titanic as possible since I was a kid, I had to seriously focus to put myself in this timeline. But the way you just jumped into it as if THIS was the real story of Titanic instead of saying out loud “What if…” just drove the emotions and the “realism” of it home for me. Very well done.
+1
Fell asleep & woke up in the early hours to this on the autoplay. Video hits different when you're tired & confused, I thought I'd slept into alternative universe 🤣
Sorry for the confusion and welcome to the alternate reality 😂
Why do I agree with this
Add in a massive migraine to your list and you’ve got the perfect recipe for having to call in to work sick 😂
Maybe you did 😎
@OceanlinerDesigns Here's another alternative scenario. What if the lusitania hit the iceberg instead of the Titanic? Basically, what if cunard suffered all the bad luck instead of the White Star Line?
Arguably I'd say that if Titanic hadn't of sunk, the loss on the Britannic probably would've been worse. Firstly she probably wouldn't of had the use of the electrified davits to launch boats quicker and be able swing out to launch those on the port side as the list became severe to use the regular davits, whilst her sinking rate would've been quicker given the design change in upping her bulkheads wouldn't of been a feature as this was only considered following the loss of the Titanic. So the damage caused by the mine no doubt would've caused her to of sunk quicker than 55 minutes.
Yeah If it did not sink. I think it be the empress of ireland that get all the attention then.
That's mentioned in the video, with a total of 564 fatalities instead of 30.
Well said Tony.
It always comes down to sealing those damn bulkheads.
very true
Titanic almost rescuing personnel from the doomed Carpathia was a really great touch to the story. In fact, the story as a whole was well written. It didn't seem overdone or campy at all. On the contrary, it seemed like a genuine telling of real history.
I saw this comment before I watched the video. It made me think "OK I HAVE to see this now."
I feel like I'm gonna cry by the time I get to it lol.
My great great grandmother served as a nurse on the Titanic in both calls to war. She said it was a vessel unlike any she'd ever seen, she etched her initials into some of the decking and after it was decommissioned our family inherited it. Unfortunately my uncle Harold sold it in 1993 for beer money. But it's out there somewhere, full of memories of quite a journey at sea.
Very funny 😂😂😂😂
My great great grandfather served on the titanic on ww1 he was one of the newest officers sadly he passsed away in 1978
@@stanisawstanczyk5526 A salute to your grandfather, I'm sure he and my grandmother ate many a fine meal in the mess hall together.
@@coastercreature9695was your grandmother named Agatha by any chance because you might have met my great uncld
@@TV-ly3dp OMG Uncle GARY?!!!
This take on Titanic and her sister ships evokes a different emotion, one I can't place, but it's like a melancholy vibe over having another ship written about and remembered as legendary vessel, when the reality of what happened has been etched so deeply in our minds and way of life since that fateful night.
Splendid writing and recreation of this alternative story that never was, may your work prosper my friend.
Thanks for the kind words! I was going for an eerie, melancholic vibe!
@@OceanlinerDesigns well you certainly achieved it with flying colours, that's for sure
Viewing this video gave me the feeling of peaking into an alternate reality in a way I’ve never quite experienced before; the way you spoke of Titanic as “the unlucky and less famous sister of Olympic” really helped sell it. All in all, this was an awesome video to view and has genuinely become one of my favourite piece of worldbuilding media. I wish you good luck in your future endeavours!
*Olympi- *C*
@@DerpyPossum *Autocorrect strikes agains*, thanks for telling me of the typo =D
Thanks for the kind words!
~Mike
I have to agree. Perhaps it's me, but this piece of alternate history seems to hit a bit different than others. Maybe I just need to read more alt-history...
There's a small exhibit on Titanic at the Britannic Belfast museum. It's pretty interesting as not many people remember her. Lots remember Olympic for her military career and Britannic for her sinking. But I find Titanic fascinating too. I wish there was more content about her career!
@Jean Kreamer they know that. they're playing into the alternative universe the video established
@drewpeacock69what do you mean? You’ve watched too much of James Cameron’s fictional tale.
@drewpeacock69 r/woooosh
Yea titanic was a very intresting ship hey have you heard that britannic 2 might be sadly cancelled ?
@@stanisawstanczyk5526What? I was really excited to travel in the same waters as Britannic. It really is a shame. Hopefully they build a Carpathia 2
This video honestly left me speechless.
It's amazing how real you made this 'history' feel and surprising in hindsight that if not for that incident there is very little to draw attention to her. Hell for too many years I didn't even realise she had sister ships to begin with and I believe most of t he general public didn't either. That incident alone is enough for people to point at any old ocean liner with her livery and call it a titanic regardless of how big or small or accurate the ship is to that description.
Yes, it's amazing how much of a cultural impact the sinking has had even after all these years!
I showed a friend a picture of Carpathia, he still asked me: "is that the Titanic?" I always wondered why the Titanic is so well known, even though her sinking is by far not record breaking in any way
@@Williamslamaeiland especially considering the fact that Carpathia apparently took longer to sink than Titanic did (Titanic's sinking took 2 hours, 40 minutes. Carpathia's sinking apparently took a little over 3 hours!) then there's the fact that Titanic certainly wasn't the most brutal sinking in history at the time (with ships like the SS Pacific of the Collins Line taking all 300 people onboard down with her. not to mention the much more recent to Titanic's sinking, the loss of another White Star Liner, SS Naronic, which disappeared with the loss of everyone aboard)
@@WilliamslamaeilandI think it's becuase of the irony that it was her maiden voyage and was deemed unsinkable, yet she still sunk and maybe becuase of the notable figures on the Titanic
@@TV-ly3dp Her splitting in 2 probably also helped
So refreshing to finally see the third sister ship get some of the spotlight! She may not have had such a star-studded career but she will always be one of my favorites. Well done!
funny how Olympic was called the safest ship made and yet she was the only ship out of all three to not sink so yeah she must have been really safe or atleast very very lucky
@@raven4k998Luck was the culprit. Olympic was eventually scrapped.
Mike is so serious, convincing and professional, he seriously has me second-guessing reality. Mike could do a video about how in 1939 Poland single-handedly conquered Nazi Germany and then invaded Soviet Russia and I’d probably think it’s true.
Agreed! But only if they managed to do it with ocean liners! ;)
Hoi4 games be like
Mike could even convince me that the US has free and universal healthcare and is a country free of gun violence. He especially has to apply Titanic and Britannic not sinking into it
Titanic truly was the middle child. It’s a shame she could never best her older sister, or have a dignified, heroic end in wartime service as her younger sister did.
I thought the exact same thing lol! I've always been fascinated by the Titanic and even though there isn't much about her on official record (thanks in part to her relatively lacklustre career) I still find myself coming back to the question, what if she did sink that night? in true middle-child fashion, that tragic event would've cemented her in history and in our minds forever.
@@possums154 And what's really interesting about that is that if she had met her fate that night, she's likely the one ship out of the trio that everyone could name. Billed as unsinkable, sinking on her maiden voyage, striking an iceberg while traveling at nearly full speed...it would probably have made for one of, if not the most, the most memorable sinkings in history.
@@kaythulucrewe I know it's morbid, but I'd love to see the universe where that happened. The irony of it would be astounding.
@@possums154 I bet you would also like to see the universe where that spectacular static discharge actually did set Hindenburg aflame, eh?
@zidanesautasticworld283 She probably would've had the same fate as Olypmic.
I truly appreciate that you gave Titanic the attention she deserved. I know Olympic was more popular, even gaining the name “Ol’ Reliable”, but it’s nice to hear the history about Olympic’s sister ship as well.
It’s quite interesting to learn that the White Star Line gave the A-OK to a filmmaker named James Cameron to use the same name for his movie “Titanic” starring Gwyneth Paltrow. With the movie was being based on Morgan Robertson’s novella “The Wreck of the Titan or Futility”, which was basically a “what if” scenario for what could’ve been the Titanic if she actually sank after hitting that iceberg.
I kinda wish Titanic remained around, at least converting the ship into a museum of some sort for tourists. But nevertheless, a great history lesson about a glorious sister ship to the Olympic.
Visble confusin
@@shelty3178 He’s playing along with the story ;-;
@@ShipsandGames Thanks for noticing.
@@MrGojira95 Your welcome.
Cameron's movie was a chilling tale of what could have happened on April 14thn 1912. Imagine the lives lost if she had struck that burg...
Titanic was such an interesting ship with a long and fruitful career, despite oftentimes getting less attention than the Olympic. Super scary to think she could have sank right on her maiden voyage! Props to the crew for being able to avoid such a tragedy.
Brilliant! The Carpathia tie in, the Eddie Cantor - "A Night to Remember" - all the fine details...just Brilliant! Thank you!
Titanic never had a turbine engine.
Lusitania had one however.
@@johnbockelie3899 The Olympics did have a low-pressure turbine engine that drove the center propeller
Thanks Tim :)
~Mike
Hi John yes further to the other commenter's point, the Olympic class used a hybrid propulsion system with triple expansion steam engines, powering the outboard propellers, feeding their low-pressure steam into a turbine which drove the central propeller.
~Mike
I see what you did there with the Olympic photos as "hull scrapes" for Titanic, very clever
Sometimes we have to make do with what he have at hand! :)
~Mike
@@OceanlinerDesigns very impressive editing
My great grand father was amongst those who scrapped The Titanic in 1930. My grandpa would tell me stories of her majestic interiors and how his father brought home a few of Titanic's souvenir items. He once even showed me a pair of binoculars that were originally used on the ship that he had with him for years (which currently stay with my cousin at his estate in New York). He always believed that these were the same binoculars which were used to locate that iceberg the night you talked about in this video. Guess the ship would have easily foundered without these binos!
My great great grandfather was an officer of the Titanic during ww1 he said to my grandfather that he would usually oversleep as he stayed long awake to have tea in the grand staircase
No way. Your great grandfather was probably secretly sad scrapping the Titanic, unless it was mothballed at the time your grandfather began scrapping already.
To OP.
Really? He first got to dismantle the interior and *then* scrap the ship too several months later at the ship breaker's?? He must have been a charlatan or you're a liar.
I also wonder why he spoke so highly of the interior for this particular ship when there have been several others even more luxurious. You sure he worked at the ship breaker's? He surely must have worked on a dozen ships so what exactly made this one so special? It doesn't make any sense.
"My grandpa would tell me stories of her majestic interiors and how his father brought home a few of Titanic's souvenir items." So he was a thief too? Well, like I said he seems like a charlatan at best and an old liar at worst. The shipping line owns everything they want to sell or auction off. No "souvenirs" other than what you thief great grandfather stole.
"He once even showed me a pair of binoculars that were originally used on the ship that he had with him for years" Why would he take some useless old binoculars and not something valuable or beautiful? Why would he even know this story nobody outside the crew ever knew? This is utterly obscure knowledge.
"(which currently stay with my cousin at his estate in New York)" Lunacy obviously runs in your family. Collecting useless trinkets from utterly obscure stories where nothing happened. Must be a new low.
"He always believed that these were the same binoculars which were used to locate that iceberg the night you talked about in this video" Wait a minute here... he has a firm belief this were the same binoculars used in something *which didn't happen??* . Who cares? Whatever next, he collects the dismantled Roman and Egyptian set-pieces from the aborted 20th Century Fox epic "Cleopatra" because he knows the movie would have been a huge success if it had been released? Who cares? We will never know because the studio "Cleopatra" stopped production. For all we know it might have been a huge flop instead. We'll never know whether the movie would have flopped or been a huge hit so why would anyone collect anything relating to an even which never happened?
"Guess the ship would have easily foundered without these binos!" And now I know you're either insane or plain stupid. Are you even listening to yourself? You're claiming mere *binoculars* saved an entire ship from sinking? Not the crew, the first mate, the rapid communication or the design of ship itself? What about the speed of the ship and the currents? And what's this bizarre speculation had the look-out NOT had the binoculars? What a strange speculation. He did have them so why speculate if he didn't have them? You might as well speculate what if somebody with worse eye sight was in the crow's nest or what if it had been fog? What if the captain had gone around the ice-field like he was supposed to? Far more believable.
Second of all suppose the ship actually hits he iceberg? So what? It was designed with several water tighter compartments and could survive a collision with a large ocean liner slicing into her size but you know this iceberg would undoubtedly had sunk this ship in a collision? Right. You somehow know this even if this never occurred. So how do you know the ship would undoubtedly sink and even worse how do you know the binoculars made all the difference in that dark night? Did they also have night-vision back in 1912?
So let's summarize this highly bizarre events.
1. Your great grandfather loved the interior or one particular ocean liner even if he worked as a scrapper on ships which already had had theirs sold-off and removed.
2. Your great grandfather was in the habit of stealing things, but not something of monetary worth, but obscure trinkets.
3. Even though your great grandfather was a mere scrapper he knew all about the non-events of this particular ship. Must have eaves-dropped at quite a few sailor's bars.
4. He then left this useless trinket to your cousin who kept it for some strange reason.
5. YOU believe these binoculars saved an entire ship from sinking *out of all factors which played a part* and also somehow seem certain the ship would sink had it hit the iceberg? How do you know this??
This whole story is bizarre. Are you serious?
Lol😂
Very well thought out and clever alternative reality. It bears repeating that had "Titanic" not been destroyed on her maiden voyage, there'd likely be less interest in all ocean liners today. Furthermore, she'd have steamed on until the 1930's and simply been broken up as scrap and designer relics. "Ever hear of the "Titanic"? "What's that?"
In this timeline, James Cameron would have had to be content with telling the true tale of the Lusitania, Brittanic, or the Hindenburg or maybe adapting Morgan Robertson's 1898 novella "The Wreck of the Titan: Or Futility" which had eerie similarities to the Titanic tragedy its publication predated, including the similarities of the ships' names, a collision with an iceberg in the North Atlantic, and a shortage of lifeboats that her designers had deemed ultimately unnecessary for an "unsinkable" ship. When asked if he had some sort of psychic predictive powers, the author simply replied, "I know what I'm writing about, that's all."
Or the Wilhelm Gustloff.
@@griffith2995 I wonder how their lives would have been like afterwards
The Hindenburg? Why that one? It was smaller and less glamorous than the Graf Zeppelin and was scrapped in Hamburg in 1939 after only a few circumnavigations. I think the Zeppelin program failed because they were too safety conscious and couldn’t fly anywhere near stormy weather, sometimes going hundreds of miles off course to avoid any kind of thunderstorms and resulting winds and static charges
@@dangerouslytalented Hitler's preoccupation with safety and prestige might have hurt the Hindenburg and the zeppelin service, but it came back to bite the Allies early in the war: German tanks were notoriously difficult to knock out thanks to their thick armor, and German planes were so well built they could perform maneuvers that would cause allied planes to break up in midair from the stress. of particular note was the Focke-Wulf Fw-200 "Condor" an airliner turned Patrol bomber, whose airframes were so resilient they could keep flying even after huge chunks had been blown out of the fuselage and wings.
(wink wink)
@@Soundwave3591 except they were so obsessed with perfection that they built only a fraction of what they needed and were overwhelmed by sheer numbers
He made it seem so real, for a 100th of a spilt second, my mind accidentally literally mistook thus as real history because he told the story invredibly realistically and well. Props to him.
You know, to anyone that believes in the multiverse theory - this alternate reality HAS in fact happened!
Fascinating
That would mean Olympic was swapped to be Titanic at some point.
In another universe, the Titanic survived as above and became a troopship or hospital ship as above in WW2. It was sent to help with operation downfall (the invasion of Japan) in late 1945, only to be sunk by kamikaze attacks off Kyūshū.
@@craygroup yeah… if you believe in the multiverse
@@randomuser9883 Homie, look at the the original comment.
@@craygroup I personally don’t believe in the multiverse. And it would still be impossible to switch them.
This really does a brilliant job revealing what lies behind all those near-misses in history that get ignored.
Damn, that's true. In almost any example that isn't the Titanic, this _is_ the reality in which "she didn't sink." Kinda puts things in perspective in a way.
There should be awards for UA-cam videos this good. My mother was a piano player. The bit at the end with photos set to Chopin was breathtaking and poignant, it brought a tear to my eye. Excellent job, sir 👍🏻💖⭐️🚢
“Futility: or The Wreck of the Titan” is a pretty good read. It’s fun to discover the historical similarities between the fictional Titan and the actual Titanic, and the story gives a pretty convincing account of what would’ve happened had the Titanic hit that iceberg hard enough to sink her.
Lol, imagine if she had. The book is so similar and came out in 1898 when the Titanic would’ve sank decades later. That would be another one for the conspiracy nuts. 😂
Good one soniclore, yes it is amazing to think "what if"!
:)
~Mike
To send further chills down your spine, the author had a novel of a war between the US and Japan, which was ended when the US employed "Sun Bombs" on the Japanese
Fun fact if you buy a modern copy of the book some versions will say "the book that predicted the Titanic" on its cover
@@Pixel22-fs3tt That's so disrespectful in my opinion. Both to the author and to the people involved with the Titanic. Atleast that's just my opinion though. I'm probably being a bit sensitive.
I've always wondered why everyone talks about ships involved in huge tragedies like Britannic, Empress of Ireland, and Eastland. I'm glad you decided to shed some light on Titanic, since no one seems to remember her nowadays
(AUs aside, I'd love to see more videos like this, as no one seems to touch on this sort of thing)
The way you seriously narrated this gave me chills and was simply odd. Not a bad way just.....otherworldly. 👌 loved it ❤️
In this alternate universe, James Cameron's Titanic still got made and swept the Oscars, being the only film in the alternate history genre to win the Oscar for Best Picture.
Or he decided to make up a movie where a huge ship called unsinkable is sunk by ice
He won for best comedy
In this timeline it was also a loose adaptation of the novel futility which is essentially the story of the titanic before it even happened
@@Truecrimeresearcher224based on the book the Wreck of the Titan
He probably would've made a Britannic adaptation. The Britannic would be this AU's "Titanic."
I swear I thought I was the only one that knew about this ship!!! Whenever anyone brings up the Olympic and Britannic, I’m always in there like “there was a third ship too… Titanic.” I always get looks and laughs… they say things like, “yeah…. And the Queen Mary had a sister ship, the Queen Maryl.” Loved this video!!! Titanic finally getting the respect it deserves!!!
I get that all the time, it's kind of annoying. My great-grandfather even served on the Titanic during its first call to action. He told me once that he could still smell the paint, it was so fresh. Then again, he also said that the Olympic and the Titanic were swapped out for each other once or twice, so I'll take it with a grain of salt.
@@possums154
Ehhh... if that would've happened the ships would've had interchangable steel hull plates AND interchangable ship numbers! I mean it isn't likely because why wouldnt you want to show off the unsinkable beauty of the seas first debut!
My great great grandfather was an officer of the titanic during ww1 he would always stay up late cuz he wanted to have some tea he actually was on all three of them on olympic in the dock when he accidentally thgout she was the titanic and on britannic to see his wounded brother R.I.P gre great grandfather Stanley
I'm sure I'll keep hyperfixating on the sinking of the Queen Mary forever, but learning about these older Edwardian liners has been pretty interesting.
@@possums154there is evidence that suggest they were swapped.
I didn't even know there was a third ship until recently. I'd heard of the sinking of Britannic, and everyone knows about 'Old Reliable' obviously, but it was only earlier this year - when I was visiting a shipping museum in Scotland - that I found about Titanic. They didn't cover it in much detail so I'm very grateful that your video was able to clear up a couple of questions for me. And I did appreciate your bit at the end with a "what if" scenario where the Titanic had actually hit the iceberg. Crazy to imagine...
Yeah, if it actually hit the iceberg, the loss of life would be unbelievable. Although it would make for a pretty good movie, I'm thinking of a tragic 'Romeo and Juliet' style romance, he dies, she survives, that sort of thing. Who would direct it, though...?
@@possums154 I like your idea. Sounds like it could work. As for directors, maybe Steven Spielberg? He does a lot of large-scale disaster stuff. I asked the same question to a friend and she suggested the guy who did Terminator and Aliens ... James Campbell or something. Can't see it myself: killer aliens and time travelling robots don't exactly mix with tragic period pieces.
@@eccentrikhat3863 I think the guy you're thinking of is James Cameron, and yeah I do see your point. Although, the sinking of the Titanic seems like something he could do considering he directed Avatar as well. I think he would have a good eye for the tragic aspects of it, but I could be wrong. Spielberg might dramatize it a little too much, even though it's a fictional event it would still need to be treated with respect.
@@possums154
Yeah! A poor dude in the Third Class, and a lady in the First Class!
@@prorandocopier7945i have the names for the characters our man will be hmmm jack and the lady will be mmm rose yeah jack and rose
As notable as Olympic and Titanic's long careers were, I've always had a soft spot for their unfortunate little sister Britannic. She died long before her time and never had a proper chance to shine.
"A Night to Remember" Very nearly caused a scandal when White Star threatened to sue the filmmakers for making a "mockery" of their service and portraying the ship's crew as a crop of incompetent buffoons. Titanic, renamed "Gigantic" for the film, was run more akin to a circus than a ship, despite the portrayal of Captain "Walter Lord" as a totalitarian taskmaster who had his sailors performing such minutiae as scrubbing floor tiles with toothbrushes to meet his demands for "adequate shine."
the Climax of the film was a parody of the Titanic's famous near-miss in April 1912, where the Crew, so exhausted from the captain's non-stop work details, falls asleep at the helm, and the ship is steered clear of the iceberg by the Comedy hero played by Buster Keaton while the engines are managed by the Chorus Girls from the ship's theater. Captain Lord is thrown overboard by the impact and is left stranded on the iceberg, giving orders to a group of curious polar bears, and the ship arrives in New York in celebratory style, the crew finally managing to get some sleep.
I see you drew a bit of inspiration from "Aguirre" there. ;)
I would really like someone to make a remake of this fictional film lol
It was a meh flick. I hear it’s got a cult following. But I’ll take The Missing Mountain over that any day. Man eating mammoths and cavemen are better entertainment.
Love it
Wow... I left the living room for a while with a different video playing. That one must have ended and this one was next in line. I came back in and sat down on the couch with some laundry to fold, not really paying attention to the tv... After a while I realized what I was hearing, and looked quickly at the tv like whaaat??? Honestly freaked me out until I clicked on the video to see the title. This video was a surreal experience for me because I wasn't expecting it. That line about a night to remember being a comedy actually made me cry a little. Very well done, but for whatever reason made me very emotional
I really love the ends of these videos, it's gives me chills when the edits are revealed and the alternate ship fades back into the wreck in our world.
No need to break character and have some monologue at the end about how tragic the real sinking was, when all you need is a silent shot hanging on wreck to remind us what happened... It's absolutely bone chilling in such a subtle way, I love it.
Not even gonna lie, the transition from Titainic splitting waves in her striking White Star Line colors to the corroded wreck in the cold and dark honestly cut like a blade.
I noticed he forgot to mention that despite the Titanic clearing the iceberg, the near by Californian actually struck an iceberg head ongoing full speed into the ice field.
The Californian desperately sent up signal flares but the Titanic did not understand them and mistook them for a celebration. By the time the titanic was informed (ironically by the Carpathia) that the Californian was in danger, she had already broken in two and her stern had dipped beneath the waves.
Such an important event in the ships career, the crew were even accused of abandoning the Californian to its fate. It just seems like something you should mention.
Wow! I had not idea! I can't believe that information survives today, being so obscure.
I gotta say. Even as a kid, I always thought the Titanic's crew were a bunch of dicks for doing that. I don't know how true to life that is, but childhood me feels pretty damn vindicated by this!
(I hope the sarcasm made it through, though I do actually believe this about the crew of the Californian)
@@TuckerWhite94 thx
the mere fact that she SPLIT IN HALF despite being considerably smaller than Olympic, Titanic, and Britannic, is genuinely disturbing (also, i love how everybody in the comment section and the replies to each comment all seem so genuine because of how well worded they are, such as this your comment)
Probably didn’t help that any Telegraph message being sent was blocked by Titanic’s flood of personal messages from the passenger. Down to telling the Californian to “shut up” because they were busy, a lot of passengers made up for more work for the Telegraph operator. Apparently it was ways for the Telegragh operators to get extra earnings from their small salary, they were not part of the White Star Line per se but employed by the Telegraph company Macroni. Apparently, Titanic’s new Telegraph system was a state of the arts in that it had a new pitch that we are familiar today with but the Californian and other ships theirs were more static, thus the Californian signal for help got lost behind a loud and clear message from the Titanic. Apparently passengers bragging being on boarding a ship was more important than the ice warnings.
At least the Californian didn’t have full capacity of passengers, if so, it’s likely this story would have been brought up more as a lesson about the consequences of not assisting a ship in distress.
I remember listening to a BBC interview with Thomas Andrews Jr (Recorded in 1942) where he states: "That night was one of the tensest of my entire career, I spent many hours pacing in my cabin worried we would lose her on her first trip out, and even when I was assured that the damage was minimal, I could stop myself from thinking What If?". His wife Helen, before her death in April 1939, said in an interview with the Daily Express: "He was never quite the same after that night, he would worry about the Olympic, almost daily every time she left Belfast for a voyage however, he was at his worst after the Brittanic sank during the Great War, he constantly battled with periods of Depression and Alcoholism, which, as we are aware made the depression worse".
The idea of Titanic surviving is a amazing one and you just topped the cake. From the idea of the changes that Titanic herself brought to the shipping industry instead now brought by her less iconic sister Britannic.
Maybe a alternate history where all 3 survive where the changes instead come from Empress of Ireland or Lusitania?
It's highly unlikely that the Empress or Lusitania would've brought about those changes. Not with how fast they sank and their capsizing. The Titanic disaster was perfect in the sense that the ship went down on an even keel, and took long enough for people to realize that there wouldn't be enough lifeboats for everybody. Just to name two factors. Imo, it would take either another ship - possibly Britannic and during her passenger career - to sink in a way that would fit the above criteria, or one of the two you just mentioned - presumably the Empress; I just don't see it happening with the Lusitania for some reason, even if U-20 never got her - to do the same thing, which would be vastly different from the way they actually sank.
@@Kaidhicksii Likely it'd be any of the super liners having the same incident the _Titanic_ did. Most likely we'd have to go a little further back in time and see the Kronprinz Wilhelm strike that iceberg harder than in reality.
It’s amazing to think just how much bloodier world war one on the seas would’ve been without the tragedy of the titanic to teach people the importance of having enough lifeboats just in case the ship sinks faster than expected, thanks.
As well as having watertight bulkheads going well above the waterline and 24/7 radio communication for distressed ships.
@@1993digifan good point 👍
Fascinating. I’ve never heard of Titanic. It was great of you to shout out these lesser known ships!
Very neat, alternative history. The weaving and reversal of real events makes it almost ‘ dangerously’ believable. Your right about Board of Trade regulation changes being delayed and one wonders about some SOLAS regs being implemented. By now, though, I suspect that the only real difference would be that a number of people currently working in certain maritime museums might be alternatively employed.
And a distinct lack of a large building in Belfast.
Also, I guess Ballard serves out his navy terms and is most known for geology?
And this youtube channel would not exist!
~Mike
@@zoepaulastrassfield2664 He did wind up finding the Yorktown at Midway, as well as the Bismarck. Given the significance of those ships, his career would be notable, but not to the same extent as in OTL.
Very creative. Thank you! My grandfather was a propulsion engineer for Harlan and Wolff and designed the triple expansion engines for Titanic. I’m certain he would have preferred your version!
Hey dude thats cool.
…
I remember hearing a story on the news maybe 5 or 6 years ago about a first class Titanic dinner menu from 1929 selling at some charity auction for almost 10 million dollars. I'd heard about the Olympic and the Britannic, but up until then I had no idea there was another member of the Olympic class. Since then I've been curious to find out as much as possible about this overlooked ocean liner. This video was super informative and filled in a lot of the blanks, along with a History channel documentary series from around 2007 that I just recently found, going into detail about all 3 of these sister ships. It's kind of a shame how the middle sibling had so many mishaps, but still it sounds like she had quite the illustrious life and career.
You left out some key points in your alternate timeline:
- In June 1914, Isidor Straus was in Sarajevo to meet Archduke Franz Ferdinand when he noticed a suspicious person in the crowd and yelled "look out," thus avoiding what could've been a huge international incident
- While visiting Poland in September 1914 on a hunting trip, John Jacob Astor IV accidentally shot a Russian that was trying to poach Astor's prey. Vladimir Lenin died of his wounds three days later. Joseph Stalin, who was visiting his friend Lenin, died the following day of alcohol poisoning.
- In July 1921, John B. Thayer visited Shanghai to oversee the building of a railroad when a large explosion severely injured a group of men attending a meeting held by Mao Zedong. Mao and other that survived the blast died later due to infection or other complications.
- In May 1922, Benjamin Guggenheim visited Paris where he discovered a struggling artist from Vienna named Adolf Hitler. He tried befriended Adolf and tried to become a patron, but the artist became enraged when he found out Guggenheim was Jewish and ran into the street where he was struck by a motor car. He succumbed to his injuries a week later.
You're right rager, how could I forget! I suppose I was distracted since I live in a perfect harmonious utopian society which hasn't seen war since the late 19th century.
:)
~Mike
Hey , Careful, old chap! Please make sure you dont go anywhere near my Grand Dad or you will have one less like recorded on your statistics !
It's funny but also eerie the impact of Titanic's sinking in world history. We will never know what would've happened if things were different, the world could be better or worse, but the possibilities are very interesting.
That last one, always sad to see an artist perish before his prime -AND A FORMER SOLDIER, NO LESS!
Well, I do remember the bid for the R.M.S Queen Mary the port of Long Beach California being rejected, with Cunard accepting the bid from a Japanese scrap merchant.
What I find most realistic about your alternate reality is that Titanic would have retired into relative obscurity and that Olympic would have been the most famous ship of the two. If Britannic had survived the war it would also most likely be preferred over Titanic because it would have been perceived as more modern.
I think had titanic had never sunk it would have definitely been refitted and served as a troop/hospital ship during ww1. No doubt in my mind about that. Your story sounds very realistic.
This is truly fascinating, I feel as if I have been teleported to another reality in my sleep. The detail you included makes it seem so real.
Excellent work!
Thanks so much!
~Mike
It would be cool to do a prank where everyone in a certain area play along that a certain known fact is just a bit different from the way just a couple people would know them, the ones pranked. Something along the lines of this video.
Poor Titanic is a true posterchild of middle sibling obscurity. It's a shame she wasn't known for anything noteworthy like her sisters Olympic and Britannic.
Side note - this is my favourite episode yet. Brilliant idea.
I agree
So true
I agree
Agreed Endeavourist!
Thanks for watching :)
~Mike
As a middle child myself, the moral seems to be die young and people will remember you 😆
I loved the detail about the Titanic being present for the Carpathia's sinking. Nice little Easter Egg there.
Interesting premise that I don't think I've ever seen fleshed out before quite the way you've done it. Most alternate-Titanic histories still have Titanic as the star ship, even though as you point out she would probably have lived her life in the shadow of her eldest sister. Well done!
Agreed. The sister ship(s) usually only become more famous then the lead ship of the class if something tragic happens to them.
Case and point...
@@OnionChoppingNinja Yes indeed. Had World War I not happened, and had a 500,000 year old glacier not calved an iceberg that drifted into the shipping lanes, history would have been very much different. The White Star Line's gigantic trio would have been a commercial success, at least for a period of time, and Olympic would always have been the star of the show. Today few people, except for ship buffs such as ourselves, would even know that there HAD been sisters to her, let alone what their names were.
My great grandfather purchased some of the luxurious furniture and woodwork from the breakers where titanic was scrapped. He lined his office in Inverness with it. It was there he wrote the definitive account of HMS Hoods victory over the German battleship Bismarck. Gramps was part of the group that saved Hood and preserved her as a museum ship in portsmouth.
Flexus, brilliant! Thank goodness Hood caught Bismarck when she did - I have been meaning to visit for some time now.
:)
~Mike
No way! My great grandfather's fairy godfather's dog who was secretly my lost sister was on the Titanic!
Back in high school I was very close with this girl who had British and Irish ancestry. She once told me that her great grandfather was employed as a steward aboard the Titanic in the 1920s. I really wish at least one of the Olympic-class liners were preserved, as they were my favorites.
Absolute perfection, it took me a few times to realize this wasn’t real but as an Olympic fan, I wish the Old Reliable got the respect she deserved instead of just being “Titanic’s sister”
It's a shame they scrapped Titanic. If we had just had one of the Olympic class ocean liners turned into a floating museum (I prefer Titanic's staying faithful to the early 1910's style) that would have been so neat to see first hand.
Yeah - I guess they’re just like any old liner. Lucky we have QE2, shame about what happened to Queen Mary tho.
You must be fun at parties.
Yes Gearhead if only!
The good news is of course that today Titanic artifacts are plentiful and cheap on eBay.
:)
~Mike
@@OceanlinerDesigns I don't think that there cheap
@@craigstenning1975 alternate universe mate
I loved that you had the Titanic coming to Carpathia’s rescue. Great stuff!
This is uncomfortably satisfying, if that makes sense. Everything inside this video goes against what I know, yet this was kinda what I want to happen subconsciously. There are some curious parts in the video where the events told are so familiar, yet also so unfamiliar. For example, the Britannic sinking is a very well known event, but the very subtle differences between what happened and what could’ve happened makes the whole thing so alien to me. The Carpathia sinking actually happened, but add in Titanic trying to save her and it feels like the whole thing was a different story. I know about a Titanic film called “A Night to Remember”, but in this alternate reality, that title belonged to a flop comedy film. You did a really great job with this one. Maybe you could do another one about Britannic. She could’ve had served in WWII like Aquitainia, and maybe her connection with Titanic could’ve brought her more fortune.
Thanks for the kind words! I was aiming for the uncanny valley :) Britannic’s “What If” is on the way… stay tuned!
~Mike
@@OceanlinerDesigns Is it in the works?
I’ve always imagined the ‘what if she hadn’t sunk’ scenario. You delivered so well on making it seem as though she hadn’t. This is the second video of your’s I’ve seen and I gotta tell you, the vest, tie and slicked back hair suits you very well. Your dapper appearance compliments your well spoken, enticing voice that makes the English language sound its best! I feel like I’m sipping a nice scotch or a glass of champagne listening. Well done man..
Thankyou David that is very kind! I'll join you for that scotch!
~Mike
You did a great job laying out an alternate history. At one point, I almost forgot that the story was fictional. It really is fascinating to think about why something becomes popular. Without the tragedy, Titanic probably would have just been a small footnote in history.
I love how this story actually makes a lot of sense and is not just a “alls well that ends well” story where the ship goes on to have a long successful career. Great video!
This makes me think of the alternate universe theory, in which there would be alternate earths, in which at least in one alternate earth Titanic would have survived and gone on to a long but less than memorable career, ending her life in a scrap yard 20 years later. One could only image the lives lead by those who would survive, but who didn't in our universe.
My great uncle jack served on the titanic on her maiden voyage, he always worried that it would sink, but it never did. He served until it was scrapped. He died in 1980, I never got to meet him.
This... Is the best fanfiction ever. All the characters we know and love.
I was constantly pausing it and checking Wikipedia for the real-life events referenced, this was super fun and informative.
Fascinating, I never know the Olympic had a third sister. Just think that she was almost lost on her maiden voyage, and how may lives could have been lost if she sank. A chilling thought that is indeed.
The transition and fade out at the very end were absolutely chilling, well done
This was fascinating, and it's crazy that there could easily be a "universe" where this is how things went. Only small thing to note, which a lot of people do tbh. But Britannic, if she never had the gantry davits, wouldn't have had those "indented" areas at the end of A-deck, as they were only there to support the weight of said davits.
I agree, then you might find Everett's many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics cool to browse over. The math is beyond me, but the concepts are clear. The implications extremely bizarre.
Correct
Thanks Oh Lawdy, you're right. I missed those on the first pass :)
~Mike
@@OceanlinerDesigns I saw your website. And if the titanic actually did not sunk. The britannic look different, and there's a 3 Olympic class liners as intended to run the transatlantic route. The britannic did not need the electric davits if titanic didn't sink
This is a fantastic look at an alternative reality. I wonder what "sliding doors" events would have happened had Titanic not sank? Just brilliant 👏
Thanks Aidan, glad you enjoyed it!
The Titanic falling into obscurity while Olympic and Britannic go down in history is a pretty interesting take, I kind of like it.
Also, shout out to that great line "a flop comedy called "A Night to Remember" that got me rolling
also I love how Titanic came to Carpathia's aid in this timeline, thats a nice touch
Very interesting looking at it from some kind of alternative perspective. Chilling also. Great video Mike
Simple answer: if titanic never sank i wouldn't be watching this video simply because the 1997 titanic movie would obviously not exist and i wouldn't be addicted to the history of ocean liners
That also perfectly sums me up too in a paragraph!
There would likely be a Britannic movie, or a movie adaptation of "The Wreck of the Titan"
Well, maybe there would still be a 1997 movie but it would focus mainly on her service as a troop ship or her grazing of the berg in 1912
@@BAKU2K2 probably yeah or something with Lusitania
My great great great grandfather booked passage on Titanic’s return voyage. He was running away with a maid back to Ireland. The damage from the iceberg collision wasn’t enough to scare him off though. He left America and our family wouldn’t return to America for nearly a century. If Titanic had actually sunk the story of my family would be very different today.
Titanic is the ship of close calls. It seems silly to think of her as unlucky when in the end nothing happened and no one was hurt. Out of all historic ships, you didn't even hear ghost stories of it! Now, if you had to pick a ship, wouln't you think it best the one where disaster was always averted? My great grandpa got to see her before she was scrapped, said it was magnificent!
I love thinking about things like this. "What would have happened if this didn't happen?" Great job. Really enjoyed it.
Also Titanic in her dazzling camo looks so cool!
A fascinating imaginary, yet realistic insight into what her career might have been if things turn out slightly differently. Not many people commented about this, but the epilogue scene at the end of the video reminds us solemly that the alternate timeline was never meant to be.
I can't believe no one has made a movie about Carpathia! Her sinking and Titanic's attempted rescue would've made for a fascinating wartime drama!
Absolutely loved the alternate history photos, incredibly well done. This video really goes to show what a huge part of our culture we would be missing had the Titanic not sunk.
This was very well done, and a subject many Titanic fans have long considered. I even did a painting of Titanic being scrapped, years ago. I think the most important big event in Titanic's later career would be White Star's decision to build Oceanic in 1930, and possibly a sister, to create a TWO ship weekly service to compete with Bremen and Europa. This could have doomed all the Olympic class to the scrap heap in perhaps 1933-35. I would be surprised to see Titanic gone as early as 1930, but I doubt she'd make it to WW2 to become a trooper again. My compliments on a wonderfully entertaining and well considered video!
Great! Is your painting viewable online anywhere?
~Mike
Olympic?
Scrapped?
I don’t think so.
Hotel off the coast of France.
( and the Queen Mary, the Japanese scrap merchant actually got to scrap her. The port of Long Beach California didn’t win. )
This time the Titanic saved the Carpathia, good one 😄
tried*
@@ayoutubechannel8925 indeed. sadly, when she showed up intent on offering to assist the evacuation of the Carpathia, HMS Snowdrop simply pushed her aside and to told her to resume her original course... Titanic's captain, who quite evidently did not want to anger Snowdrop's crew, let alone the royal navy, obeyed the destroyer's order for him to resume his original course and thus Titanic left the scene having failed to be of any help to the doomed Carpathia...
7:59 nobody:
Titanic : *PULLS OUT AN UNO REVERSE CARD 🔄*
Masterfully done, sir - In particular, I love how you altered as little of the actual events of the sinking as possible! One of my pet peeves with a lot of 'alternate history' is how much they change, or how significantly they change it. Also...
14:23
Totally was not expecting that - Truly haunting. Well done.
Olympic is always my favorite. This interesting take on history actually highlights her amazing story even more. Well done! I'm still shocked a tv special on RMS Olympic hasn't been done yet.
I'm a bit of a sucker for alternate histories that parallel reality in poetic ways, and that the Titanic here is able to pay homage to the Carpathia is just beautiful.
Honestly, this whole video is just amazing. Its presented in such a matter of fact way that you get transported to that world. That you're clearly an expert in this field and are able to inform the scenario with that expertise really helps ground the video in teaching us about typical practices during this era in British shipping.
Huge props for making it easy for a layman to understand, too.
I'm surprised that you didn't mention the famous rendezvous between RMS Titanic and German Zeppelin Hindenburg in the Mid-Atlantic Ocean on May 8th 1937; as both were headed east (to Southampton and Bedfordshire respectively) to ferry passengers to the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth the following week. It's too bad that they didn't go through with the plan of mooring Hindenburg to Titanic's stern mast so its passengers could visit the ship for the day - but at least we got to see Hindenburg moored to the Empire State Building a few times over the following years.
This is an amazing alternate history vid. I saw a Titanic forum once which featured an alternate history where Titanic and Britannic survive and White Star becomes the dominant line on the Atlantic, even buying out Cunard in the 30’s.
Saw that one too. Not very realistic in my opinion, but it was epic nonetheless. :D
agreed but Cunard would still be the one who would buy out white star because white star would still have loss more ships than Cunard because on the original timeline only "8" number of ships that the white star had over Cunards "15" ships with titanic and britannic it would have been 10 Cunard still wins on ship number's for that Cunard would still be the dominant company.
Where is that I would like to watch the video
@@mr.juniii5523 Cunard also had an agreement with the Royal Navy that their ships would be converted during wartime in exchange for federal funds. There is no way a company that involved with the state wouldn’t be dominant
@@Tempusverum agreed
This is one of my favorite UA-cam videos of all time. Incredibly well done, and a perfect addition to this channel. And some of the comments just add to the magic.
I stand all amazed!!! Last scene make my eyes weep. Magic is on details... and you make a lot of them!! Congrats!
Very kind words, thankyou! It is impossible not to be moved by the story I feel!
A thoroughly entertaining video - and the epilogue is sobering and almost haunting; the shot of Titanic proudly above the waves giving way to the reality of her final resting place on the bottom of the Atlantic was simple but oh so powerful. Excellent work!
Years ago, I met this older lady, Rose Hockley, she talked about having a bit of an adventure on Titanic, apparently getting into a row with her betrothed, just barely patching things up before they went on to New York and joined their place in high society.
This is such a cool video and the way you tell it like it WAS history (as opposed to saying "she would have...") made it all that much better. Your videos in general are fascinating, but this one may be one of my favorites.
I really enjoyed how fact and fiction have been intertwined nicely done. Reminds me of a book in my library called Celitic Queen, that portrayes the life and death of a four stacker
I'm glad to learn that someone else has read "The Celtic Queen'! I read it many years ago and it was a great story.
A few years ago on a trip to the U.K. I had the pleasure of dining at the White Stag Hotel in Warkworth, which features a dining room constructed with fixtures from Titanic's first class dining saloon. I'm sure you're all familiar with the similar Olympic Suite at the White Swan Hotel in nearby Alnwick, which is much better known. But the White Stag has a dedicated following from our small, but tight knit community of Titanic enthusiasts. Every year on April 14, with which my trip fortunately aligned, they feature a menu based on the first class dinner served on Titanic on April 14, 1912. Recalling the close shave with the iceberg that night, the event has a morbid fascination with us, who feel as if we are sharing with those passengers what nearly became the last meal for many of them.
I love the amount of people scolding others in the comments when they get into the roleplaying of alt universe, they think they're so smart but actually can't understand fiction