Where was Olympic headed when Titanic foundered

[Matthew R. Boswell]

I was just wondering, was Olympic headed to New York or Southampton when the Titanic struck the iceberg? I know she was one of the ships that responded to the distress call, but I'd like to know what date she set sail, and from where, and when she docked at her destination. Thanks in advance.

 

[Matthew R. Boswell]

Also, were any notable people aboard?

 

[John Clifford]

Olympic was heading to Southampton; she was about 500 miles away from Titanic.
Her captain offered to retrieve the survivors, but that was deemed unwise, as the sight of Olympic would probably have disturbed many, since she was identical to Titanic in much of her appearance. Even Bruce Ismay agreed with the "keep away" directive.

 

[Samuel Halpern]

Actually it was headed to Southampton via Plymouth and Cherbourg.

 

[Jon Meadows]

500 miles...would she have made it in time to save more people? I have no concept of speed/time on water.

 

[Jon Brockman]

put it this way Carpathia was only 58 miles away from the Titanic when she received the calls for help and she didnt get to the scene till nearly 2 hours after Titanic went down!

 

[Jon Meadows]

Ah, ok. Understood. With a lookalike ship speeding onto the scene, I can imagine some initial "freak out'edness" occurring.

 

[Jon Brockman]

All Olympic would of been able to do is transfer the survivers onto her from Carpathia, and as you say this was deemed unwise due to the "freak out'edness" so she stayed well out of sight.

 

[Dave Gittins]

The depressing truth is that even if Olympic had been following Titanic, say five miles behind, there would still have been many deaths. Transferring 2,208 people to Olympic could not have been done in the available time. Murphy works overtime at sea.

After the disaster it was proposed that liners should travel in pairs, in case of accidents, but it didn't come to pass.

Funny how that 58 miles survives!

 

[Jason D. Tiller]

Funny how that 58 miles survives!

Yep, along with all the other ones. If I recall correctly, she was actually 50 miles away.

Happy New Year!

 

[Dave Gittins]

About that. As long ago as 1965, Peter Padfield got close to the truth, though he didn't have the benefit of knowing the wreck position.

In 1998 I published a revised account of Carpathia's mission online. I refined it a little in my e-book in late 2005.

 

[Michael H. Standart]

>>Murphy works overtime at sea.<<

And Davy Jones get's the paycheque.

>>After the disaster it was proposed that liners should travel in pairs, in case of accidents, but it didn't come to pass.<<

Sensible actually. Merchent vessels aren't all that swift at running in formation and with all the speed differences between liners, it would be quite a trick to match up two like vessels for this sort of thing.

 

[Jason D. Tiller]

In 1998 I published a revised account of Carpathia's mission online. I refined it a little in my e-book in late 2005.

Sounds good, Dave. I look forward to reading it when I can get around to purchasing your e-book.

 

[Dave Gittins]

When you get round to it, Jason, you'll be given access to the Corrections and Updates page, which now includes even more on Carpathia.

 

[Jason D. Tiller]

That's brilliant, Dave! Thanks for letting me know.