Why has the titanic

[yassa]

Been called the biggest ship of her time, when the Olympic was sailing a year before the Titanic launch and was slightly bigger? I was always lead to believe the world had never seen such a big ship.

[kempie]

RMS Olympic and RMS Titanic (being sister ships) shared physical dimensions in regard of length (882' 9'') and beam (92' 6'') and had the same draught (34' 7'').

At launch on October 20, 1910, Olympic had a GRT of 45,324 tons and a displacement of 52,067 tons. These are lower figures than those for Titanic when launched on May 31, 1911; namely 46,328 and 52,310 respectively.

Six months after Titanic sank White Star withdrew Olympic and returned her to her builders (Harland & Wolff) at Belfast to have her bulkheads raised higher and install her with a double skin, At the same time alterations and additions to her passenger cabins were carried out and, more importantly, extra lifeboats were added so there were places for all passengers and crew. With these changes her gross tonnage rose to 46,359 tons, 31 tonnes larger than Titanic's.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Olympic

[yassa]

Cheers dude. But she wasn't that much bigger?

[toffee-pie]

there was a documentaryy a few years ago about a conspiracy that the titanic was actually the olympic. apparently the olympic crashed into a navy ship and the insurance company refused to pay out so the owners took her back in and made her look like the titanic. the plan was that it was to sail out and claim engine trouble and a ship that 'happened' to be nearby would rescue them and the 'titanic' would be taken back and repaired by the insurance company. they didnt bank on the iceburg blocking the other ships view and crashing into the 'titanic'. the olympic dissapeared while it was supposedly in for repairs while the titanic sailed out. this seems to be why the main owner, who went on all maiden voyages of his ships, pulled out at the last minute.(well theres no point if its coming back again anyway) not sure if this is true but its very interesting and i think answers a few more questions. sorry if it just opens up more for you.

[spudqueen]

I saw that documentary toffee-pie and I'm sure at the end they had discredited this claim and that the Titanic was really the Titanic.

[dlr]

The Titanic crashed into the iceburg not the iceburg into the Titanic, or more precisely scraped the iceburg.