Michael Findlay
Member
For many years, I was always interested to learn just how many Titanic survivors chose to sail on the Olympic, Titanic's sister ship. A good number of surviving Titanic crew served aboard the Olympic afterward, and some even joined the Britannic but how many passengers made this brave decision to "drop a few pounds and try" the Olympic after their 1912 experience.
Here's what I've been able to find so far:
To date, the winner is first-class passenger Henry Blank. I know of at least two voyages that he made on the Olympic in the 1920s. One voyage was made in May 1921, and the other in June 1924. Although he traveled alone on the Titanic, his wife Phoebe accompanied him on the 1924 Olympic voyage. Unfortunately, Blank's impressions of both crossings have yet to be found but he didn't mind traveling by White Star after the disaster. He favored the Majestic, but decided to try the Mauretania in March 1913.
I know of four other first-class survivors who made journeys on the Olympic as well:
Miss Helen Ostby - sailed June 1920
Mr. William Sloper - sailed in 1926
Mr. & Mrs. Elmer Taylor - sailed September 1924
It would be interesting to wonder what thoughts may have gone through Helen Ostby's mind when she boarded the Olympic in Cherbourg in 1920 - she lost her father aboard the Titanic eight years earlier.
While checking over others, it seems that a vast majority of the surviving first-class passengers
abandoned the White Star Line and traveled only by Cunard for future crossings. At least one exception - Dickinson Bishop and his third wife sailed with White Star on many occasions but never tried the Olympic for some strange reason.
Edward Calderhead traveled extensively by the Rotterdam, the Greenfields sailed almost exclusively on the Kaiser Wilhelm II (at least one voyage on the Rotterdram), and the Cardezas switched to the Lusitania and Mauretania. Marian Thayer also favored the Lusitania - crossing back to the U.S. in February 1914 with Jack. Mahala Douglas also enjoyed the Mauretania - crossing almost exclusively on her after losing her husband on the Titanic.
Reports claim that Emma Bucknell was so emotionally destroyed by her Titanic experience that she never again took an ocean voyage. She apparently recovered enough to try to a journey on the Kaiser Franz Josef I in May of 1913 after a visit to her daughter in Italy.
If anyone else has information pertaining to other survivors who sailed on the Olympic, I would be interested to hear. You have to wonder if some of these folks slept with one eye open every night during the voyage.....
Regards,
Mike Findlay
Here's what I've been able to find so far:
To date, the winner is first-class passenger Henry Blank. I know of at least two voyages that he made on the Olympic in the 1920s. One voyage was made in May 1921, and the other in June 1924. Although he traveled alone on the Titanic, his wife Phoebe accompanied him on the 1924 Olympic voyage. Unfortunately, Blank's impressions of both crossings have yet to be found but he didn't mind traveling by White Star after the disaster. He favored the Majestic, but decided to try the Mauretania in March 1913.
I know of four other first-class survivors who made journeys on the Olympic as well:
Miss Helen Ostby - sailed June 1920
Mr. William Sloper - sailed in 1926
Mr. & Mrs. Elmer Taylor - sailed September 1924
It would be interesting to wonder what thoughts may have gone through Helen Ostby's mind when she boarded the Olympic in Cherbourg in 1920 - she lost her father aboard the Titanic eight years earlier.
While checking over others, it seems that a vast majority of the surviving first-class passengers
abandoned the White Star Line and traveled only by Cunard for future crossings. At least one exception - Dickinson Bishop and his third wife sailed with White Star on many occasions but never tried the Olympic for some strange reason.
Edward Calderhead traveled extensively by the Rotterdam, the Greenfields sailed almost exclusively on the Kaiser Wilhelm II (at least one voyage on the Rotterdram), and the Cardezas switched to the Lusitania and Mauretania. Marian Thayer also favored the Lusitania - crossing back to the U.S. in February 1914 with Jack. Mahala Douglas also enjoyed the Mauretania - crossing almost exclusively on her after losing her husband on the Titanic.
Reports claim that Emma Bucknell was so emotionally destroyed by her Titanic experience that she never again took an ocean voyage. She apparently recovered enough to try to a journey on the Kaiser Franz Josef I in May of 1913 after a visit to her daughter in Italy.
If anyone else has information pertaining to other survivors who sailed on the Olympic, I would be interested to hear. You have to wonder if some of these folks slept with one eye open every night during the voyage.....
Regards,
Mike Findlay
