Olympic Percentage Occupancies 001 & 257

Mark Chirnside

Mark Chirnside

Member
I thought that it would be interesting to post these statistics on Olympic, and I certainly hope that somebody finds them of interest.

On Olympic's maiden round trip voyage -- '001' as it's designated -- she averaged over 55% in first class, 75% in second class and over 80% in third class. The first class figure seems dissapointingly low because her 'registered first class capacity' was utilising the biggest possible first class occupancy, and so her first class registered total of 1,054 passengers compared to her third class registered total of 1,020 passengers. A more usual maximum first class capacity would be some 700, with second class making up 675 or so, rather than 510 as the 'registered' figures assume. These (or rather, 'similar') figures were given as the 'registered capacity' per the British Registry following 1913.

By '257' in March and April 1935, although Olympic's totals were suddenly starting to increase as the depression began to fade, it was hardly high season, and her highest *percentage* class capacity was over 32% for Tourist Class (second class in 1911). That said, she carried more first class passengers as a smaller percentage of capacity, because of course her first class capacity was one-third larger than Tourist class.

Best regards,

Mark.
 
Always filled with interesting information. Good to know that Mark is around to give us this info.

So was the conversion to the use of a "tourist class" actually the combining of second and third class??
 
Hi Erik!

It is confusing, but basically:

In 1928 rather than 'tourist third cabin' -- introduced in 1925 I think -- where people had the best of third and lowest of second class, Olympic's accommodation was changed.

Second class became 'second class' and 'tourist' for one year; the third class areas aft became 'tourist' class, whose passengers also had access to tourist class facilities in previous aft second class areas. Third class public rooms to replace those now tourist aft were constructed elsewhere, including new facilities.

So during 1928 Olympic had first, second, 'tourist' and third. After 1928, the second and tourist was combined to just become 'tourist class.'

Best regards,

Mark.
 
Further interesting info. (to me anyway!) is this rough calculation of the total number of passengers Olympic ever carried by round trips:

<table border=1>[tr][td]466000[/td][td] = 200 round [/td][/tr][tr][td]47000[/td][td] = 57 round*[/td][/tr][/table]

*Assuming 35% of previous totals due to the depression. Some years like 1934 were catastrophic, but 1931, 1933 and 1935 (projected) were somewhat better.

The final 57 round trips assume dates of around 1931 to 1935, although 1930 still saw levels resembling that of pre-October 1929.

<table border=1>[tr][td]Total Projected Passengers Carried:[/td][td] 513000[/td][td] = 257 round[/td][/tr][/table]

If we include Olympic’s war service then the total number of people she carried during her life would rise to over 715,000. Furthermore, the crew statistics — if included — would presumably increase the figure to at least 1,100,000 people.

The passenger figures for the two hundred round trips are based on actual data for 150.

Best regards,

Mark.
 
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