Luxury Cruising Editorial

Most people have heard of the Titanic. But far fewer know the story of the Lusitania.

Both were famous ocean liners from the early 1900s. Both were symbols of luxury and ambition. And both ended in tragedy.

Yet one became the most famous shipwreck in history, while the other is often forgotten.

So what really separates the stories of Titanic and Lusitania… and why did one become legendary while the other didn’t?

The Similarities Between These Two Ill-Fated Ships

The Titanic and the Lusitania were both the largest ships in the world when they first launched, and both were designed for luxury travel across the Atlantic Ocean. Both ships sank in the 1910s and in each incident, there was a severe loss of life.

The ships were not identical, and they weren’t sister ships despite some people thinking so. In fact, they could be considered rivals.

Lusitania was built in 1906 for Cunard Line (yes, the same cruise company that exists today) while Titanic was built five years later for the competitor White Star Line.

Both were British companies, looking to establish a dominant position to ferry guests from Europe to the US and back. And they tried to do so by building the biggest ships in the ocean at the time. Lusitania came first, but she was later surpassed by Olympic, the sister ship of Titanic.

Size of the Ships

Titanic was the bigger of the two ships. Lusitania launched as the biggest ship in the world in 1906 Lusitania launched as the largest ship in the world in 1906, but Titanic later took that record when she entered service in 1912, a few years later.

This means that Titanic sank as the biggest ship in the world, but Lusitania sank when other larger ships were still sailing.

Let’s look in more detail at the statistics of both ships:

By every measurement, the Titanic was a bigger ship. She was 12% longer and almost 6% wider. But more importantly, she was over 45% larger in total when you consider gross tonnage, which measures the internal volume of the ship.

That stat becomes even more interesting when you realise that she was only around 9% larger in terms of total capacity. While yes, Titanic did carry more passengers, she also had more space for passengers to enjoy, as there was a higher ratio between passengers and volume of the ship.

We of course know that lifeboat capacity was one of the major issues of the Titanic, and I’ll touch more on her legacy below.

But an interesting final note is that, despite being launched six years later, Titanic was actually slower than Lusitania. Lusitania could complete a transatlantic crossing between 12-24 hours faster than the Titanic could.

This was a conscious decision when building Titanic. The aim was to focus on luxury in lieu of speed, and Lusitania’s fuel costs were apparently very high due to the amount of coal needed to reach those speeds.

Sinking Incidents

Here’s a quick look at the sinking of both ships:

The sinking of both ships was monumental and catastrophic, primarily for the sheer number of lives lost. These were huge disasters.

But there are differences between them too.

The Titanic sank in 1912 on her maiden voyage across the Atlantic. She never completed a single sailing. And there was a huge uproar at the time of her sinking too because of the lack of lifeboats on the ship.

The cause, too, was natural – an iceberg that hadn’t been seen. But also look at the time it took for Titanic to sink – hers was a drawn-out affair, lasting the best part of three hours before she completely sank.

Compare that to Lusitania. From the moment she started to sink, she was under the water completely within just 18 minutes. That’s a seriously fast amount of time for a ship her size. And yet, a higher percentage of people survived the Lusitania than did the Titanic.

The story of the Lusitania is a concerning one, for a number of reasons.

Firstly, she was a civilian ship and yet she was sunk without warning by the German navy. However, she was carrying munitions for the British army, which gave the Germans more incentive to sink her. 

Then there are the conspiracy theories around Britain trying to put the ship in danger – more on that below.

And finally, there was a higher percentage of women and children who lost their lives in the Lusitania sailing compared to the Titanic.

It’s believed that this was due to the time it took for the ship to sink. With everything happening in just 18 minutes, there was no time for the sense of self-preservation to calm down within the passengers.

Whereas with the Titanic, experts believe that there would’ve been enough time for that initial panic to calm down, and for the men to help the women and children into the lifeboats first as a priority (source).

The Ships’ Legacies

Both the Titanic and Lusitania had major impacts on world history, but for very different reasons.

When the Titanic sank, she famously was not a safe ship, primarily due to the lack of lifeboats. The huge loss of life led to a massive inquest that lasted for years, ultimately overhauling the safety standards of shipping going forward.

If it wasn’t for the sinking of the Titanic, then who knows how long it would’ve taken for shipping safety to be looked at under such a microscope and how many more, smaller tragedies could’ve taken place?

The Lusitania’s legacy is very different but arguably even more important. It was one of the factors that led to the US joining the First World War.

In fact, there have been some, including an intelligence officer in Britain, who believed that Britain had purposefully endangered the Lusitania in order to provoke the Americans into joining the war.

He wrote that Britain purposefully chose not to give the ship an escort, and gave orders which put it more at risk of being attacked by the German navy (source).

Why Titanic Is More Famous

There are a number of reasons why Titanic is more famous than Lusitania. She was the biggest ship in the world when she sank, she was billed as unsinkable, and it sank with natural causes combined with human error, instead of in wartime conditions.

Remember that Lusitania was the biggest ship in the world when she was built, but by the time she was sunk, she had surrendered that title.

And she was hit by a torpedo during the First World War. Yes, she was the biggest maritime loss during that war, but millions lost their lives due to the conflict in general.

Whereas the Titanic was lost because human mistakes were made. Mistakes that could’ve been avoided, and that were later rectified for all future sailings. It was her maiden voyage too, which makes it more of a dramatic event.

And there was the hubris too – the fact that Titanic was declared to be unsinkable, yet didn’t even complete a single sailing. Both ships were major disasters but there are a number of reasons why Titanic became more famous, even before the 1997 movie was made.

There are more than 10 Titanic Museums in the world. While there is also a Lusitania Museum in Ireland, it’s not to the same scale.

One Man Survived Both

A man named George Beauchamp is believed to be the only person who survived both the Titanic and Lusitania disasters. An urban legend names another man, Frank Tower, as a survivor of both but his existence has not been proven.

George Beauchamp’s story is more well-known and has been told by his family. He was a coal stoker on the Titanic who helped to get people into the lifeboats when she started to sink. He later switched to work for Cunard Line on the Lusitania and was onboard when she sank three years later (source).

There are rumours of a Frank Tower who survived both, but his tale is considered to be an urban legend. A ‘Frank Tower’ is listed as a passenger on Lusitania, but never as a worker on either ship (source).

Final Word

There are a startling number of similarities between the Lusitania and Titanic tragedies, but even more differences. They were different ships, sailed by rival cruise lines, and sank under very different circumstances.

Titanic will always be the more famous disaster, and more lessons were learned from her sinking too. And yet the victims of the Lusitania disaster deserve to be remembered equally.

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Almost everyone knows the story of the Titanic.

But far fewer people realise she wasn’t alone. The Titanic was actually one of three nearly identical sister ships, all built by the same company around the same time.

One became the most famous shipwreck in history. But the other two had dramatic stories of their own.

So what really happened to Titanic’s sister ships… and why don’t we hear about them nearly as often?

About Titanic’s Sister Ships

The Titanic had two sister ships. She was preceded by the Olympic (1911 to 1935) and she was followed by the Britannic (1914 to 1916). The Britannic also sank, but the Olympic had a long life until she was retired.

All three ships were built for the White Star Line by the shipyard Harland & Wolff, and they were designed to be the largest and most luxurious ocean liners in the world.

Unfortunately, for various reasons, they didn’t really get to see out their lives as intended.

The Olympic sailed for 24 years after she was first launched, serving primarily in her intended role as a luxurious passenger liner, although she was commandeered for the war for a few years.

The Britannic didn’t do as well – she was used as a ship for the war too, and was sunk during it.

Let’s look at the story of each ship in a little more detail.

Olympic

The RMS Olympic was the first of the new Olympic-class ships to launch, making her debut in 1911. After departing Belfast following her sea trials, she arrived in Liverpool for her public debut. She then sailed to Southampton to prepare for her real maiden voyage.

She was designed to follow a similar route as the Titanic would later attempt – travelling across the Atlantic Ocean with calls first at Cherbourg and Queenstown. She arrived safely in New York after 7 days. She was captained by Edward Smith, who would sadly lose his life on the Titanic a year later.

Because the Olympic was, at the time, the largest ship in the world, this maiden voyage attracted a lot of attention from the press and the general public.

8,000 people came onboard the ship to look around while she was docked in New York, and it’s believed 10,000 people watched her leave the port on the return leg, according to ‘The Olympic Class Ships’, a book by Mark Chirnside.

Olympic’s first real negative incident of note took place on her fifth voyage. While sailing alongside the British cruiser HMS Hawke, the ships collided, tearing a couple of holes in the Olympic’s hull. She was able to return to Southampton under her own power and nobody was injured.

Two of the crew onboard during this incident were Violet Jessop (a stewardess) and Arthur John Priest, a stoker. They would work on the Titanic the following year and survive, before working on the Britannic when she also sank, again surviving.

Following repairs, the Olympic re-entered service, and she made efforts to assist the Titanic during the sinking incident. Unfortunately, she couldn’t get there in time.

The Olympic did offer to take the survivors from Cunard’s RMS Carpathia, but that ship’s captain refused, saying that asking the passengers to board a replica of the ship that had just sank would distress them.

The Olympic then returned to dock to be fitted with new temporary lifeboats.

Some of the crew would strike when the new lifeboats were deemed not to be seaworthy, and ultimately 54 of the crew were arrested for mutiny, and while they were found guilty, they were discharged without punishment. Later, the ship would have more permanent lifeboats and davits added.

In 1915 the ship was drafted into the war effort. Unlike many other privately-owned ships, she wasn’t converted into a hospital ship but served instead as troop transportation.

She did rescue crew from the battleship HMS Audacious during service, and once fitted with guns she rammed a German U-boat in the English Channel, forcing it to scuttle.

Post-war, the ship was converted back into a passenger liner and served the cruise line with minimal incidents. She was given numerous upgrades, but by her final years she was proving to be unprofitable.

She was retired in 1935, and she sailed to Jarrow in the North-East to be scrapped. She had completed 257 round trips across the Atlantic by this point.

Read more: Key Differences Between Titanic and Olympic

Britannic

HMHS Britannic was the third and final ship in the Olympic class, and work began on her construction in 1911. However, she wasn’t launched until 1914, by which point her sister Titanic had already sunk.

And so, work began on improving the safety of Britannic before she launched. She was due to have a similar design to her earlier sisters, but changes were made to double-up the hull around the engine and boiler rooms, and to enhance the water-tightness of the central compartments so that the ship could still stay afloat with six compartments flooded.

The biggest change was arguably the addition of davits – cranes that could launch six lifeboats. The ship was planned to have eight of these davits installed but only five were ready when the ship was called into action.

That’s because, in 1915 when she was fully completed, the war was well underway and the ship was needed in service. She only had four weeks’ notice from her engine trials before she went into the war.

She was repainted with large red crosses and a green stripe, so that it was clear she was to be a hospital ship, and she had over 3,300 beds installed along with several operating rooms. Common areas were changed to be able to support wounded soldiers and many of the cabins were kept to house doctors.

She first left Liverpool in December 1915 to retrieve injured troops from the island of Lemnos in the Aegean Sea, and then was moored as a floating hospital off the Isle of Wight.

She then helped to evacuate the Dardanelles in 1916 and ended her military service in 1916, returning to Belfast to be refitted as a passenger ship. Two months later though, she was recalled into service. She made a fourth and fifth trip successfully.

Her sixth mission was her last though – after stopping to refuel as normal in Naples, she struck a mine in the Kea Channel. 35 lifeboats were successfully launched, carrying most of the people onboard. Sadly 30 people were killed.

The reasons that so few people lost their lives in comparison to their sister include the higher temperatures of the water (20 degrees C compared to -2 degrees C), the huge improvement in lifeboat launches (35 were launched by Britannic compared to just 20 for Titanic), and the proximity to land and therefore aid.

Lusitania Is Often Mislabelled As a Titanic Sister, But…

The Lusitania was not a sister ship of the Titanic. She was owned by rival cruise line Cunard (the same Cunard Line that still exists today). People often mistakenly believe they were sisters just because their sinking incidents are similar and were relatively close together in years.

Cunard and White Star Line were rival companies, so it would be like asking if Carnival Celebration and Oasis of the Seas were sister ships, just because they had a similar design. 

Unfortunately, the Titanic and Lusitania are only linked because they are two of the most famous cruise ships to have sunk.

Final Word

The Titanic orphan twins led very different lives, with only the Olympic surviving long enough to really be able to learn the lessons from the sinking of the Titanic.

These three ships should have helped White Star Line to new heights, but poor safety planning and the outbreak of the war meant that only one of the three was able to enjoy the service she was designed for.

It’s also interesting to compare the Titanic to modern cruise ships because it shows you how the three Olympic-class ships would fare when side-by-side with some of the most contemporary vessels. So make sure you check that guide out!

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