Haddock sure took the few days aboard Titanic in Belfast to make him a little familiar and had also the other bridge officers on Olympic.
I made some notes ages ago about the officers assigned to both ships in April 1912. Going from memory, Titanic's officers - certainly at the senior level - had more experience.
Olympic had a new commander, new chief officer, and new second officer. (Her former second officer, Hume, was promoted to first). Her third, fourth, fifth and sixth officers had all served her before. Of the top four:
- Olympic had one officer with existing experience of the ship (Hume) and three new officers including her new commander;
- Titanic had three officers with existing experience of Olympic and one new officer (Lightoller).
We therefore have Olympic with three new men out of eight; and Titanic with five new men out of eight. However, the experience of the commander, chief, first and second officers was very much better on Titanic.
I need to check whether Murdoch missed a voyage. If he did, then he likely had the same amount of voyages on Olympic as Wilde and less than Smith.
Best wishes
Mark.