The Titanic was one of the most famous ships ever built, primarily because of her tragic end. But she was not the only ocean liner launched by the White Star Line at that time.
How similar were these ships, what were the differences, and why did the Titanic become more famous? Let’s take a look…
Was the Olympic identical to the Titanic?
The Olympic and the Titanic were not identical ships, but they were very similar. The Olympic came first, and some tweaks were made to the design to improve the Titanic, making her a slightly more luxurious ship. They were identical in length and width, but Titanic was bigger due to a marginally larger gross tonnage.
The ships are often referred to as twin sisters because they were so similar, but they weren’t identical.
Olympic and Titanic Side Sy Side
Here’s a look at the two ships side-by-side. You can see how they look almost exactly the same.
The Main Differences Between Olympic and Titanic
Here’s a look at the main differences between the two ships:
1. The Titanic was slightly larger than the Olympic
In terms of length and width, Titanic and Olympic were very similar. However, due to some changes made to the design of the Titanic, her gross tonnage was slightly larger at 46,329. This made Titanic the biggest ship in the world at the time.
When the Olympic launched, she had a gross tonnage of 45,324, so she regained the ‘biggest ship in the world’ title after her sister ship sank in 1912. She didn’t hold it for much longer though, as in 1913 she was overtaken by the German ship SS Imperator.
You can’t really tell by looking at side-by-side pictures that Titanic was slightly bigger, as they seem to be identical.
2. The Titanic was more luxurious than the Olympic
Technically, the Titanic was slightly more luxurious than the Olympic. This had not been the intention, since both ships were designed to be luxury ocean liners. But some design changes, following lessons learned from the Olympic, made Titanic more appealing to guests.
When the Olympic launched, she was in some ways a guinea pig for the new class. One of the features that didn’t quite work was a secondary promenade on B deck. Most people preferred to use the promenade on the higher A deck.
So when the Titanic was being built, the designs were modified. The secondary promenade was replaced with more first-class cabins and a couple of extra features, to make the ship a more luxurious proposition.
First Class Cabin on Titanic
3. The Titanic is more well known because of the tragic sinking
The reason that the Titanic is more famous than the Olympic is purely down to her sinking, when she hit an iceberg on 14th April 1912.
The sinking of the Titanic was a genuine tragedy, with so many lives lost at sea. It sparked huge changes in the safety standards of shipping around the world. It also became a famous story, thanks to the many books written about her, the museums telling Titanic’s history and the Hollywood blockbuster movie.
The Olympic never sank, and was in operation for much longer. She survived the First World War as a troopship, then returned to civilian service. She sailed in total for 24 years before becoming unviable as a profitable ship, and was retired and sold for scrap.
The Titanic Musem, Belfast
4. The Titanic was more sheltered on the Promenade Deck
Another design change made for the Titanic, following lessons learned from the Olympic, was the design of the promenade on A deck. On the Olympic, the forward section of this deck was wide open, but it was sheltered by windows on the Titanic.
This was because people walking along the promenade on the Olympic were being hit by sea spray, and getting wet a lot of the time. It was a relatively simple change to add windows to the Titanic design, to better protect those who were walking around the promenade.
5. In theory, Titanic was a safer ship
You might assume that the Titanic was a less safe ship – after all, she was the one that sank. However, the Olympic began life with exactly the same flaws as the Titanic, including a severe lack of lifeboats.
But there was one key difference which actually made the Titanic safer. Her bridge extended out on both sides, giving the senior crew a better view around the sides of the ship. On the Olympic, the bridge was flush with the sides.
So it is purely the circumstances of that particular sailing that caused the Titanic to sink and not the Olympic. Put the Olympic in the place of the Titanic, and she would have met the same fate.
This did, of course, all change after the loss of the Titanic. Olympic’s bridge was widened to make it safer, and more lifeboats were added so that passengers had a greater chance of survival if the ship was in trouble.
6. The Titanic had more dining options
The changes made to the Titanic’s design included the addition of two new dining venues. When the B promenade was removed from the design, there was space on the starboard side of that deck to add a new restaurant.
Cafe Parisien was introduced, an a la carte restaurant serving upmarket French-style cuisine. The rest of the dining venues remained the same. So for its brief tenure, Titanic had more options available to the guests who could afford to eat here.
Cafe Parisien on Titanic
7. The Titanic had more irregular windows
One of the few differences you can spot by looking at pictures of Titanic and Olympic is that the Titanic had more irregular port holes on B deck.
This is because of all the design changes that were made to that part of the ship during construction. It meant that the windows were spaced out less evenly.
On the Olympic, because the plans were unchanged during construction, the windows are evenly spaced across that deck.
8. The Olympic wasn’t just an ocean liner
The Titanic sank so quickly after launch that she will forever be known solely as an ocean liner. The Olympic had a much longer life, and was able to contribute to the war effort.
Olympic was originally withdrawn from service in 1912 to be modified following the Titanic disaster. In 1914 she was given some cosmetic adjustments due to the war, blocking out portholes and painted a new colour. She entered service in 1915, transporting troops where needed.
Olympic returned to commercial passenger duties in 1919, and was restored to include more modern interiors and repair damage from a torpedo strike.
Final word
Despite the ships being twins, there are a lot of differences in the designs of Titanic and Olympic, and sadly in their legacies too. The Olympic was able to see her story to the end, while the Titanic’s was cut short, along with the lives of many who sailed on her.
The Olympic was one of the first ships to learn the lessons of the Titanic with her refit in 1912. It’s a good thing that she isn’t as famous. Another major tragedy like the sinking of the Titanic could have ended the cruise industry before it really got going.
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Jenni Fielding is the founder of Cruise Mummy. She has worked in the cruise industry since 2015 and has taken over 30 cruises. Now, she helps over 1 million people per month to plan their perfect cruise holidays.
The Titanic is one of the most famous cruise ships to have ever existed – as briefly as it did. While Carnival is one of the most famous cruise lines of the modern era.
But how do they compare? We know Titanic was the biggest ocean liner of her time, but do all modern cruise ships make her look small, or would Titanic still hold her own in current times?
Let’s take a look…
Even the smallest Carnival ships are bigger than Titanic, but…
In terms of gross tonnage – the measurement of the total internal volume of a cruise ship – all Carnival ships are bigger than the Titanic. However, the Titanic was longer than two Carnival ships, and had a higher passenger capacity than seven of the ships in the Carnival fleet.
As a quick guide, here’s a look at how the Titanic compares to the smallest ship still sailing for Carnival (Carnival Elation), a mid-sized ship in the Carnival fleet (Carnival Magic), and the largest ship sailing for Carnival (Carnival Jubilee).
Ship
Length
Width
Gross Tonnage
Passenger Capacity
Crew capacity
Guest-to-crew ratio
Decks
Titanic
269 metres / 882 feet
28 metres / 92 feet
46,329 GT
2,453
874
2.8:1
9
Carnival Elation
261 metres / 855 feet
32 metres / 105 feet
70,367 GT
2,052
900
2.28:1
13
Carnival Magic
306 metres / 1005 feet
37 metres / 122 feet
128,048 GT
4,724
1,386
3.41:1
17
Carnival Jubilee
344 metres / 1130 feet
42 metres / 137 feet
183,521 GT
6,500
1,735
3.75:1
19
Length
When the Titanic was built, she was the largest ocean liner in the world, and that’s primarily down to her length. She did have a lot of decks too, but it was the length of the ship that was the most impressive.
So it may not be a complete shock that she would still have been longer than two ships in the Carnival fleet – Carnival Elation and sister ship Carnival Paradise. And not by a hair either – by a good 4% or so.
But most of the Carnival fleet is longer than the Titanic, and the biggest ships, including Carnival Celebration, are longer by around 250 feet, so the difference is significant.
Width
The Titanic was not a narrow ship when she launched, but most modern cruise ships are wider than she was, except for those designed to offer a small-ship experience.
And so every ship in the Carnival fleet is wider than the Titanic, with the newest Excel-class ships such as Carnival Celebration being exactly 50% wider than she was.
Carnival Celebration
Gross tonnage
Gross tonnage is one of the best measurements for determining the size of a cruise ship. It tells you the internal volume, taking into account the height, the width and the length. And the Titanic may have been huge in her day, but her 46,329 gross tonnes doesn’t hold up against Carnival’s fleet.
The smallest ship in the fleet, Carnival Elation, is around 50% bigger in total volume compared to the Titanic. And the Carnival Celebration, the biggest ship in the fleet, is almost four times the size of the Titanic. That’s some size difference.
Passenger capacity
The Titanic may not compare too well in physical size against the modern ships of the Carnival fleet, but she still managed to have a large capacity – up to 2,453 passengers would have sailed on her when she was at maximum occupancy.
That’s larger than the Carnival Elation and Carnival Paradise, and the five ships in the Spirit Class too – Carnival Spirit, Carnival Pride, Carnival Legend, Carnival Miracle and Carnival Luminosa.
The rest of the Carnival ships are capable of carrying a lot more passengers, and in more comfort too.
Crew
Titanic’s crew of 874 isn’t too far away from the smallest crew numbers on Carnival’s fleet, which stand at 900 crew on the Carnival Elation and Carnival Paradise.
As you would expect, the largest ships in the fleet have a much larger crew than the Titanic – double the size, on the newest ships like the Carnival Celebration or Carnival Jubilee.
But the interesting stat is in passenger to crew ratio. In theory, the lower the ratio, the more attention each crew member can give passengers. And while Carnival Elation outperforms the Titanic, the larger ships don’t. The crew numbers don’t scale up in the same ratio, so in theory, there was a better percentage of crew on the Titanic.
Decks
Modern cruise ships have continued to build up and up, and so it’s no surprise that the Titanic has fewer decks than any ship in the Carnival fleet.
It may be surprising that she has fewer than half the decks of the Carnival Celebration though – that shows you just how far modern cruise ships have come.
Safety features
When comparing the size of the ships, it’s worth doing a quick comparison between other features, such as the safety measures onboard.
The Titanic obviously sparked huge changes in safety after the disaster, and part of that was down to the lifeboat numbers – there were only 20, capable of holding around 30% of the ship at maximum capacity.
Modern passengers can be reassured in knowing that, as well as improved protocols and safety awareness, the Carnival fleet all have enough lifeboats for >100% capacity on the ship.
The onboard experience
Carnival ships offer a very different onboard experience to that which was offered on the Titanic. But while the Titanic was formal, it still had entertainment features, including a swimming pool, a gym, a squash court and a Turkish bath.
Of course, it doesn’t quite rival the 20+ dining venues, the roller coasters at sea, the VR experiences and more that ships like Carnival Celebration have to offer…
Final word
The Titanic was a huge ship, and compared to some of the smaller ships in the Carnival fleet she’s not hugely different. But the bigger ships do still make her seem quite small in comparison. Cruise ships have really come a long way.
And of course, there are even bigger ships than the Carnival fleet. Why not check out my guide on Icon of the Seas vs the Titanic?
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Jenni Fielding is the founder of Cruise Mummy. She has worked in the cruise industry since 2015 and has taken over 30 cruises. Now, she helps over 1 million people per month to plan their perfect cruise holidays.
Titanic is such an epic movie, that it brings questions to our minds about how they managed to film it. After all, a huge cruise ship sinking in the Atlantic Ocean isn’t your typical movie set!
One question that comes to mind is whether Titanic was filmed in a swimming pool or the ocean.
I wondered this too, so I dug deep into the research to bring you all the info about how Titanic’s watery scenes were filmed.
Yes, it is true!
Much of the 1997 movie, Titanic, was filmed in a pool. Baja Studios in Rosarito, Mexico had several massive water tanks that were specifically designed to replicate the North Atlantic Ocean. The water tanks were used to shoot many of the film’s water scenes, including the ship’s sinking.
Below, you can see Kate Winslet and Leonardo Dicaprio receiving instructions from director, James Cameron…
A full-sized replica of the Titanic was built on a gimbal to simulate the sinking, and miniatures were also used for certain shots. This combination of practical effects, models, and early digital effects created the illusion of the Titanic’s journey and tragic end.
Titanic replica in the pool at Baja Studios
In addition to the scenes shot in Mexico, other scenes were filmed on location in Halifax, Nova Scotia (where many Titanic victims are buried) and at the actual wreck site in the North Atlantic Ocean.
About the pools used to film Titanic
Baja Studios was a completely self-contained production facility that was built specifically for the Titanic movie. Although it has been used for other projects since, it has now been abandoned.
At Baja Studios, four separate water tanks were used in the Titanic movie, with a combined volume of over 75 million litres (20 million gallons). That’s as much water as 30 Olympic swimming pools!
The water tanks were cleverly built next to the ocean, to create an infinite horizon with a seamless join between the pool and the sea. Let’s take a closer look at each of them…
Tank 1
Tank 1 was a big, irregularly shaped pool made of concrete, covering more than 360,000 square feet (imagine a space about the size of 6 football fields).
Most of it was 3.5 feet deep, like the shallow end of a swimming pool. But there were two special deeper parts. One part was 130 feet by 200 feet, and it could be filled up to 40 feet deep. The other part was like a long, narrow channel, 30 feet wide and 300 feet long, and it could be filled up to 15 feet deep.
The two deeper sections could be filled separately before filling the whole pool. When the pool was full, there was a part on the side facing the ocean where the water overflowed. This made it look like the pool went on forever, blending in with the Pacific Ocean in the background.
Tank 1 could hold up to 17 million gallons of water. Filling it up or draining all the water took about 40 hours. There was also a tall tower crane, about half as tall as the Statue of Liberty, next to the pool. This crane could move around and was used for things like setting up lights, placing cameras, and building sets.
Filming of “Master and Commander” at Baja Film Studios Comisión Mexicana de Filmaciones, CC BY-SA 2.0
Tank 2
Tank 2 about as big as a basketball court and was 29 feet deep. It could hold over 4.3 million gallons of water. The distance from the bottom of the tank to the lighting setup at the top was 75 feet.
You could get into the tank through four large roll-up doors or a 20-foot wide ramp that led to the bottom of the tank.
The tank’s water system was adjustable, allowing it to be filled to any depth over two feet. Inside the tank, there was a huge steel platform that was controlled by a special system. This platform could move up and down and tilt by up to 30 degrees. It could carry really heavy stuff, up to 600,000 pounds (that’s like 100 elephants!). However, if anything heavier needed to be lifted, it had to be balanced out by using floating devices.
The platform was designed to carry weight only in one direction – downwards. It could handle weights of up to 1.2 million pounds, such as people, furniture, or parts of the set.
Tank 3
The third tank was an outdoor pool that could be filled with either fresh or salt water. The inside of the tank was painted black, which made it great for certain types of filming like special effects, underwater scenes, and green screen photography.
There was a 10-foot wide ramp with grooves for grip, which made it easy to move equipment and machines in and out of the tank, whether it was full of water or dry. Above the tank, there was a big steel platform, about as big as a small house, that could tilt up to 90 degrees. This made it super flexible for different kinds of filming needs.
Tank 4
The final tank was about as big as a tennis court and almost 4 feet deep. There was also a special part near the middle of the tank that was a bit bigger than a car and 12 feet deep.
Two sides of the tank had a special design called an overflow weir. This is like a little waterfall where the water can flow over the edge. The walls behind this waterfall part could be covered with special materials or a green screen. This way, they could make it look like the water in the tank went on forever, like a never-ending horizon.
See how Titanic was filmed
If you’d like to see exactly how Titanic was filmed, and the pools that were used, I recommend that you take a look at this behind-the-scenes video…
During filming, the cast members spent a lot of time in the water tanks. They were discouraged from urinating in there, but apparently it happened.
“It was so awful because Leo would sometimes say to me, ‘Sweetie I gotta pee…’ It was terrible. It was awful. “
“And you always felt awful doing it. It took too long getting out, with the wet clothes. I confess. It happened. It happened.”
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Jenni Fielding is the founder of Cruise Mummy. She has worked in the cruise industry since 2015 and has taken over 30 cruises. Now, she helps over 1 million people per month to plan their perfect cruise holidays.
Whether you’re someone interested in maritime history, or you’re a little worried about taking a cruise for the first time, you might want to learn more about the number of times that cruise ships have sunk.
It’s a very rare occurrence and even when it does happen, modern safety protocols mean that most if not all passengers and crew will be perfectly safe.
So, let’s sate that interest (or quell those fears).
Cruise ships have sunk, but very rarely
Cruise ships have sunk in the past, but the instances are very rare.
Including the Titanic, 26 ships have sunk since 1912, if you include river cruise ships and ocean liners. Almost 2,000 people have died in these incidents but over half of those can be attributed to ships sinking before 1940. Many of the incidents involved no loss of life at all.
Sadly, there were some larger tragedies that occurred slightly over 100 years ago, including the Titanic and the slightly less well-known Empress of Ireland.
Lessons learned from these disasters have helped to keep people much safer in more recent times.
Arguably the most famous cruise ship sinking in the last 100 years is that of the Costa Concordia. She sank in 2012 and is the only modern major ocean cruise ship serving passengers from around the world to have sunk during a cruise.
Cruise ships very rarely sink, and when they do it is often when they don’t have passengers on board. Just over one cruise ship every 5 years has sunk in the last 100 years. Regarding sinking with casualties, that’s only one every 7 years.
In the last 50 years, there have been 15 cruise ships that have sunk. Of these, 5 occurred when no passengers were on board, and in another, there was an engine fire during a cruise but all passengers and crew were safely evacuated.
Only nine times since 1956 have passengers lost their life during a cruise, and of these, some were due to human error and one was a river cruise that hit a freak storm.
The most recent was in 2020
The last cruise ship to sink was the Orient Queen. This ship was berthed in Beirut during the massive ammonium nitrate explosion of 2020 at the port. The ship suffered damage due to the explosion and sank that night. Two crew members were killed.
The last time a cruise ship sank with passengers on board was a Chinese river cruise ship in 2015, which hit an unexpected and severe storm that capsized the boat.
List of all sunken cruise ships since 1912
For the sake of this list, I’ve looked back at the last 110 years or so, so that we cover everything from possibly the most famous cruise ship sinking ever.
Important – I’ve also decided to keep this list to cruise ships (both ocean and river), and ocean liners that served as cruise ships.
I’ve omitted passenger ferries, since this is specifically about cruise ships. I’ve also chosen not to include ships that served as a cruise ship for a small part of their life but were being usedfor other purposes when they sank. But, if the ship was mainly a cruise ship and then was commandeered for war efforts, I’ve kept it in.
Just wanted to clarify those in case you felt I’d missed any – but let me know if I have still within those rules!
1. Titanic – 1912
Titanic
Arguably the most famous cruise ship sinking in history and also one of the worst in terms of deaths, the Titanic sunk on her maiden voyage across the Atlantic Ocean after colliding with an iceberg.
The ship was not equipped with enough lifeboats to be able to hold everyone on board, which is one of the main reasons why it’s one of the deadliest maritime incidents in history too.
The fact that the ship sunk in such cold waters also played a part, as those not in lifeboats had almost no chance of survival.
Often referred to as Canada’s Titanic – unsurprising considering how recent this was after the Titanic sank – the Empress of Ireland was a large passenger liner carrying almost 1,500 people. She sank after colliding with the Storstad, a Norwegian collier ship, during foggy conditions.
Both ships were aware of each other’s presence, having been sighted during clear conditions, but with fog rapidly surrounding the ships, they could only rely on whistles to communicate.
It wasn’t enough and the Empress of Ireland sank when struck, causing the deaths of 1,012 people, a mix of passengers and crew. This was the worst maritime disaster in Canada’s history.
Sinking of the Lusitania from The Illustrated London News, May 15, 1915
Lusitania was a cruise ship that was launched for Cunard Line in 1906 – the same Cunard Line that still operates cruise ships today. She was a British ocean liner that, for a few brief months, held the distinction of being the largest passenger ship in the world.
Unfortunately, she was a victim of the First World War. She sailed successfully for nine years and in that time completed 201 transatlantic crossings. However on her 202nd, travelling from New York to Liverpool, she was hit by a torpedo from a German U-Boat submarine off the south coast of Ireland.
Due to the size of the explosion and the speed of listing, only six lifeboats could be launched, and in total 1,198 passengers and crew lost their lives, with 764 survivors.
Sister ship of the Titanic, HMHS Britannic was the third of White Star Line’s Olympic Class of ocean liners and she was originally intended to serve as a passenger ship. However, just as she was due to launch, the First World War broke out.
In 1915, she began service as a hospital ship – the largest in the world. In 1916 she struck a German naval mine off the coast of a Greek island which caused her to sink just 55 minutes later.
Of the 1,066 people on board, 1,036 made it into lifeboats or the water and were rescued. 30 people sadly lost their lives.
The SS Principessa Mafalda was an Italian cruise ship built in 1909, regularly making sailings between Genoa and Buenos Aires in Argentina.
She sank in 1927 off the coast of Brazil when a propeller shaft broke and damaged the hull of the ship. She sank slowly, but there was some confusion on board which meant that 314 people died of the 1,252 passengers and crew on the ship.
Her sister ship, Principessa Jolanda, actually sank earlier and would be on this list if I’d gone back slightly further, but she capsized and sank as she was launched in 1907. There were no causalities but, despite being brand new, the ship couldn’t be retrieved.
The Saint-Philibert was a small cruise ship that would offer summer sailings around the Loire River and the French coastline. It’s unclear when she was first launched, but tragedy struck in 1931 when she sank.
There are multiple reasons for her sinking – the weather was extremely stormy, and the ship was way over capacity, with twice the expected load onboard. As passengers stood on the starboard side to view the storm, a freak wave combined with the weight of the passengers to capsize the ship. Almost 500 people died and only 8 survivors were accounted for.
Georges Philippar Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
A French ocean liner, the Georges Philippar sank on her maiden voyage due to an electrical fault. She had sailed successfully to Yokohama, but on the return leg sank near Italian Somaliland.
The high voltage wiring used throughout the ship sparked from a malfunctioning light switch in one of the luxury cabins, setting the wood panel alight. 54 lives were lost.
There had been concerns about the quality of the ship before she sailed, but these were ignored due to worries about delay penalties to the build. Changes were made due to the sinking of the ship to make electrical wiring onboard much safer, including using an AC current and more modern circuit breakers.
The SS Morro Castle was an ocean liner that was designed to make regular sailings between the US and Cuba. She launched in 1930, but just four years later would sink in tragic circumstances.
The cause of her sinking was a fire, which would gradually disable the ship as it burned through electrical cables and hydraulic lines used for steering the ship. 137 people lost their lives, with the blame placed at the feet of the crew who handled the emergency badly.
Empress of Britain. Photo: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The Empress of Britain was another ship owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway Company to sink, and like the Lusitania, she was a victim of war, although this time it was the Second World War that caused her demise.
She first launched in 1930 and was formally completed in 1931, and served as an ocean liner sailing from Canada to Europe for nine years.
In October 1940, off the coast of Ireland, the ship was bombed from above, hit by two 250kg bombs. On board were 416 crew, 2 gunners and 205 passengers, consisting of military personnel and their families. 45 people died but most survived.
While still a tragic event in which 46 passengers and crew lost their lives, the sinking of the Andrea Doria demonstrated the impact that safety improvements had made to ships since the sinking of the Titanic.
Andrea Doria was struck by another ship, the Stockholm, and immediately began to list heavily which made many of the lifeboats inaccessible.
However, the ship sank slowly, and the crew made use of the improved communications systems and training and successfully got 1,660 passengers and crew to safety.
The lost lives were a direct result of the collision and not the sinking, which occurred the day after the initial impact.
The Bianca C is a unique entry on this list as it has somehow been sunk not once, but twice. The ship started life as a passenger ferry and was scuttled by the Germans during the Second World War. The hull was raised from the water and the ship was refitted as a cruise ship.
Eventually sold to Costa Line, the forerunner company of Costa Cruises, she was given the name Bianca C. She sank for a second time in 1961 after an explosion in the engine room. The explosion killed one crew member but everyone else made it off the ship.
The Angelina Lauro is a ship with a storied history. She spent most of her life as a passenger ferry under the name MS Oranje, having first launched in 1939. As with many ships at the time, she was commandeered for the war, serving as a hospital ship. In 1965 she joined Lauro Lines and in 1972 she was refitted as a cruise ship.
In 1979, whilst being chartered to Costa Lines, the ship caught fire in port at Saint Thomas. The fire burned for several days and the ship was declared a total loss. While being towed to a scrapyard she sank later that year. No lives were lost.
MS Mikhail Lermentov U.Gomez, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
The MS Mikhail Lermentov was an ocean liner that was operated by the Baltic Shipping Company out of the Soviet Union. She entered service in 1972 and was later converted into a cruise ship, being fully converted in 1982.
In 1986, the ship was operating a cruise from Sydney, exploring New Zealand on a two-week itinerary. While sailing past Cape Jackson, around 30 miles northwest of Wellington, the ship hit rocks.
Of the 372 passengers and 348 crew onboard, most were able to make it into a lifeboat, although it was a close call – only 20 minutes after the last passenger was recused, the ship completely sunk. One person lost their life – a crewmember who remained with the ship, Pavel Zagladimov.
Remember when I said Bianca C was unique because she had sunk twice? That’s still true, but SS Admiral Nakhimov actually beats her, since this ship sunk three times in total. Originally a hospital ship for the Nazis, the ship was given to the Soviet Union according to reparations, even though she was underwater. She was raised, sank again, and then raised once more.
Her final sinking occurred in 1986 while operating cruises around the Black Sea. She collided with a freighter, despite the freighter’s Captain radio-ing to say they would make sure to avoid the collision. 423 people out of the 1,234 on board died in the incident.
The MV Jupiter was a Greek-registered ship that offered cruises around the Mediterranean. In 1988, she sank just 40 minutes after leaving Piraeus, and on board were 391 British schoolchildren and 84 adults taking part in a study cruise. There were also 110 crew.
The cause of the incident was a collision with an Italian freight ship. Sadly, four people died in the sinking – one pupil, one teacher and two crew members.
MS Achille Lauro. Photo: D. R. Walker, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The MS Achille Lauro was a cruise ship that was originally built for a Dutch company but eventually ended up being in the hands of StarLauro, which would go on to form part of MSC Cruises.
The ship underwent a number of incidents in a storied life, including a hijacking in 1985, two serious collisions with other ships, and four onboard fires.
The last of these sunk the ship off the coast of Somalia. There were 979 passengers and crew on board and of those, two, unfortunately, died during the evacuation of the ship.
The MTS Oceanos was another ship sailing from Greece that sank, only three years after the MV Jupiter. The cause was excessive flooding, which was believed to have been caused by freak waves breaking apart a ventilation pipe that had been insufficiently repaired.
All 581 passengers and crew survived, but with no thanks to the captain and some of the crew, who were later convicted for abandoning the ship. It was the ship’s entertainers who sounded the alarm and helped get every passenger to safety.
Originally launched as the SS Galileo Galilei for the Lloyd Triestino line, the Sun Vista actually sailed as the Meridian for Celebrity Cruises for 7 years (the first ship for the cruise line) before being transferred to Sun Cruises and being renamed the Sun Vista in 1997.
She sank just two years later due to an engine room fire on 20th May 1999 which cut all power, resulting in the ship going down the following morning at around 1 am. With modern safety procedures in place, the entirety of the ship’s passengers and crew (1,090 total) were evacuated with no casualties.
The SeaBreeze was a cruise ship originally owned by Costa Cruises, first launching in 1958. She was then owned by Premier Cruises from 1983 until she sank in 2000, after the cruise line had already gone out of business.
The cause of the sinking was the boiler breaking off, which caused sufficient damage to sink the ship. There was a lot of controversy at the time, as some believed it was an intentional incident (the scrap value of the ship was around $6 million but it was insured for $20 million). Only 34 crew members were on board when she sank, and all were rescued.
One of the less dramatic incidents on this list, the Britanis had been a cruise ship for Chandris Lines, under the Fantasy Cruises brand. She was then sold to AG Belofin Investments when Chandris decided to focus on its Celebrity Cruises brand instead.
The ship was renamed Belofin-1 but never cruised. Instead, in 2000, she was towed towards shipbreakers in India where she was to be scrapped, but she began to take on water and list.
As there was nobody on board to correct the list, the only option was for the tugboat to cut the ship free and allow it to capsize and sink off the coast of Cape Town.
The MV Explorer was a small cruise ship that had many owners in her life, launching first in 1969. She has the honour of being the first cruise ship specifically used for cruises to the Antarctic Ocean. Unfortunately she also has the record of being the first ship to sink there too.
She struck an iceberg in 2007, and everyone on the ship took to the lifeboats, including 91 passengers, 54 crew and 9 expert guides. They were rescued by the MS Nordnorge after drifting for five hours.
The MS Sea Diamond was a small cruise ship that was originally built for Birka Line, sailing as Birka Princess. After 20 years of successful operation, she was transfered to Louis Hellenic Cruise Lines, but just a year later she ran aground in Santorini.
Ultimately the ship’s Captain was blamed and jailed, although it came to light that the sea charts for the area were inaccurate and the reef the ship struck was 131 metres from shore, not 57 metres as marked on the charts. Over 1,000 passengers and crew were rescued but two French passengers went missing and were never found, presumed dead.
If the Titanic is the most famous cruise ship sinking in history, then Costa Concordia would take that title for modern history. The Costa Cruises ship sank after striking an underwater rock off the coast of Tuscany, sailing closer to the island than it should have done.
There were 4,252 people on board the ship including over 3,200 passengers. Most were rescued but 34 people did lose their lives including 27 passengers, 5 crew and 2 members of the salvage team.
Captain Francesco Schettino was found to be at fault and found to be guilty of manslaughter, and is now serving a 16-year prison sentence.
Officially named ‘Dongfang zhi Xing’, this Chinese river cruise ship would make regular sailings along the Yangtze River around the Three Gorges. In 2015, while sailing from Nanjing to Chongqing, she was caught in a storm and sank in waters just 15 metres deep.
There were 456 people on board the ship and tragically only 12 people survived – the remaining 442 bodies were all found. Most of the passengers were in their 60s or 70s and the ship capsized and sank very quickly.
Improvements have since been made to the communication of severe weather reports to river cruise ships, and the Chinese government also concluded that negligence played a part, with 43 people punished due to flaws in the management of the company.
Of all the ships on this list, few have had quite the history of the Ocean Dream. Originally ordered by Norwegian Cruise Line, and due to be named Seaward, the shipyard underwent financial troubles and cancelled the order. NCL complained, so the shipyard agreed to continue working, but then NCL sold the ship to P&O where she sailed as Spirit of London.
She later became Sun Princess for Princess Cruises, then for Premier Cruises as Starship Majestic, and was chartered by Disney. She later became New Flamenco for Festival Cruises, then Flamenco 1, then Ocean Dream for three more cruise lines. She sank in Thailand in 2016 after having been abandoned for a year, with no casualties.
Orient Queen was a cruise ship that was owned by the Abou Merhi Group in Lebanon. Sailing from Beirut it offered cruises to the eastern Med, including ports in Turkey and Greece.
While berthed in port and without any passengers on board, the ship sank in 2020 after a massive ammonium nitrate explosion at the port. There were two crew on the ship that were killed as a result of the ship sinking. There were many other ships also in port at the time that suffered damage, although Orient Queen was the only cruise ship to sink.
The odds of a cruise ship sinking – they’re super low!
Only 11 ocean cruise ships have sunk while on a cruise in the last 50 years. Assuming an average of 100 sailings per ship per year, and an average of 150 cruise ships in that time, that translates to odds of 1 in 68,000.
That’s not exact, obviously – more ships have been built more recently and there are over 300 cruise ships currently sailing, so an average of 150 for the last 50 years is probably accurate. And some ships sail longer itineraries and some sail regular 3-4 day cruises. But that’s a rough guide to your odds.
And that’s just of the cruise ship sinking. The chances of dying in a cruise ship sinking incident are even lower since most people are saved – the odds of dying as a cruise ship sinks are around 1 in 5 million.
To demonstrate how safe cruising is – the odds of dying from a lightning strike are somewhere between 1 in 84,000 and 1 in 130,000 depending on which stat you believe. There’s apparently a 1 in 2 million chance of dying falling off a chair, and a 1 in 2.3 million chance of being killed by a falling ladder – and not when you’re on it.
How verified these stats are is questionable but the point is that cruise ships are an extremely safe way of travelling. Sinkings are rare, and fatalities even rarer.
How come these massive ships don’t tend to sink?
There are so many reasons why cruise ships don’t sink. Their basic design means that they are engineered to keep them upright, with ballast tanks preventing the ship from tipping over.
Add in state-of-the-art navigation systems and safety mechanisms, the expert crew that are trained in every potential outcome, and of course the threat of insurance companies ensuring that ships are all maintained to the highest standards, and you’ve nothing to fear.
The only ocean cruise ship to sink with passengers on-board within the last 15 years was human error, and they’ve been found guilty at a criminal trial. Cruise ship captains were already vetted for their safety standards but now even more so – it’s unthinkable that anything like that could happen again.
The bottom line
If you were reading this guide because you were interested in cruise ship history, hopefully, I’ve been able to shed some light.
More importantly, if you’re someone worried about being on a cruise ship then I hope you now feel reassured that you don’t have to be. The stats show that sinkings are exceptionally rare, and even when they do happen there are plenty of safety procedures in place.
So, now nothing’s stopping you from enjoying an amazing cruise holiday.
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Jenni Fielding is the founder of Cruise Mummy. She has worked in the cruise industry since 2015 and has taken over 30 cruises. Now, she helps over 1 million people per month to plan their perfect cruise holidays.
Royal Caribbean’s newest ship is the incredible Utopia of the Seas – but how does she compare to one of the most famous ships of all time, the Titanic?
One ship was designed for elegant crossings of the Atlantic Ocean, while the other aims to provide the ultimate weekends – they really couldn’t be much different in their aims!
Let’s take a look at just how different these ships really are!
Size Comparison
Utopia of the Seas is around five times the size of the Titanic when you’re looking at Gross Tonnage – a measurement of the internal volume.
That’s the typical measurement used for comparing ship sizes, because it takes into account length, width, height and more.
Indeed, Utopia’s only around 33% longer than Titanic, but she’s more than twice as wide, and she has nearly double the number of decks. That’s a serious upgrade in terms of the space available for everyone onboard!
Of course, there are a lot more people onboard Utopia – over twice as many passengers and over twice as many crew too.
Utopia of the Seas is not the biggest ship in the world – that’d be Icon of the Seas, part of Royal Caribbean’s Icon Class. But she’s not far off, so it’s no surprise that she’s so much bigger than Titanic.
Titanic
Utopia of the Seas
Gross Tonnage
46,328 GT
236,860 GT
Length
882 feet
1,188 feet
Width
92.5 feet
211 feet
Guest Decks
9
16
Guests
2,435
5,668
Crew
892
2,290
Which is faster?
Surprisingly, not much has changed in the 110+ years between Titanic and Utopia of the Seas when it comes to sailing speed. Titanic would’ve cruised somewhere between 21 and 22 knots on average which is the same as Utopia of the Seas. That works out at around 25 mph.
That’s because speed doesn’t really matter for modern cruise ships. As long as they can get to the next port in time for the next day, that’s enough – there’s no need to invest in turbo-charged engines which would be super expensive to run.
Even the fastest cruise ship – Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 – only has a top speed of 30 knots and it rarely pushes the limits on that.
Utopia of the Seas has WAY more facilities (obviously!)
Life onboard the Titanic was not dull – the ship did have some leisure facilities that guests could use. However, compared to modern ships like Utopia of the Seas, it really was nothing – the difference in modern ships is crazy!
Activities
Utopia of the Seas has loads of exciting things for guests to enjoy including a zip-line, mini-golf, rock climbing, surfing simulators, a carousel, and an AquaTheater.
Titanic had a squash court, a gym and some deck games such as quoits and shuffleboard, but to pass the time guests would’ve spent more time playing games such as chess, dominoes or card games.
Swimming pools
You might not realise that Titanic did have a swimming pool onboard – although it was only for the use of guests in first class, and it had set times for men and women to use it. Here’s what it looked like:
Utopia of the Seas has a pool too. And another one. And another one. And… well, there are 10 in total! It also has a water park with lots of slides.
So you really shouldn’t struggle to find one to relax in, though strangely none of them are really suited to proper swimming, unlike the Titanic’s was.
Where to eat on board
Titanic had four restaurants onboard for guests to enjoy – the A la Carte restaurant, the Dining Saloon, the Verandah Cafe, and Cafe Parisien. Not a bad amount of choice for a ship back then.
Cafe Parisien on Titanic
Utopia of the Seas offers slightly more flexibility though with a huge 20 dining venues, including some debuting concepts such as the immersive train car dining experience and an omakase-inspired restaurant. Plus every cruise will visit Perfect Day at CocoCay with another 5 dining venues to choose from.
Izumi sushi on Utopia of the Seas
Considering how Utopia of the Seas is marketed as the ultimate weekend getaway, you’re going to need several weekends to try everything!
Accommodation
Utopia of the Seas has a huge range of accommodation options to suit all budgets, from comfy Inside cabins through to the very best suites. As an Oasis-class ship, there are some balcony staterooms which overlook the internal promenade or Central Park, instead of facing the sea.
The top suites include the Ultimate Family Suite, a vibrant two-storey room aimed squarely at kids (and big kids) with its own slide from the bedroom to the living area!
Titanic had suites too, with the top suites being the two-bedroom Deluxe Parlour Suites. These had two spacious bedrooms, two walk-in wardrobes, a sitting room with a fake fireplace and a private bathroom.
First Class cabin on Titanic
Of course, a private bathroom was a luxury then, and the vast majority of passengers onboard would’ve used shared facilities.
Third-class cabins were pretty basic with many not even having a washbasin, but they were seen as being relatively more comfortable than third-class rooms on other ships at the time.
Huge advances in safety
I don’t think it’s a surprise to anyone these days that the Titanic was not the safest ship in the world – the fact that it sank on its maiden voyage, despite being branded as “unsinkable”, is a testament to that.
But how do modern ships like Utopia of the Seas compare?
They are a lot safer, don’t worry. Technically Utopia of the Seas could sink in extreme conditions such as with a rogue wave, or with a hurricane or iceberg, but it’s extremely unlikely.
The biggest risk to modern ships, according to a ship pilot I spoke to, is running aground – just like what happened to Costa Concordia. And since that happened, captains are even more careful about where they sail.
Utopia of the Seas also has enough lifeboats for every passenger, unlike Titanic, so if the worst did happen, there would be enough boats to get everyone to safety. Titanic only had 20 lifeboats – a capacity for around half the people onboard.
Lifeboat for a Royal Caribbean Oasis-class ship
How Does The Cost To Build Compare?
Utopia of the Seas is expected to have a final build cost of around $1.35 billion, which is around the same as sister ship Wonder of the Seas. It’s a lot more than the Titanic’s cost to build, which was $7.5 million.
And inflation still doesn’t make a difference – even accounting for that, Titanic would only have cost around $200 million to build today, so less than a sixth of the cost of Utopia.
Titanic did have higher suit costs for sailing though – the most expensive suite would’ve cost £870, which is around the same as $104,000 now. The Ultimate Family Suite will cost around $15,000 per person for a weekend, so around $60,000 for a typical family.
But Titanic was cheaper on entry-level fares. A third-class cheap ticket would be the equivalent of $900 today, and that was for a journey of around a week. Doing back-to-back cruises on Utopia of the Seas for a total of 7 nights would cost around $1,100 per person.
While there are some surprising similarities between Utopia of the Seas and the Titanic, these are few and far between. Utopia is the ultimate weekend party ship for families, whereas Titanic was more of a luxury ocean liner.
Utopia is much bigger in every way, and she’s packed with amazing things to keep you busy for every second of your voyage.
Comparing Titanic to modern cruise ships shows just how far things have advanced, and how different the cruise industry is now that it is more focussed on shorter itineraries – with Utopia of the Seas the perfect example with its 3-night and 4-night sailings.
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Jenni Fielding is the founder of Cruise Mummy. She has worked in the cruise industry since 2015 and has taken over 30 cruises. Now, she helps over 1 million people per month to plan their perfect cruise holidays.
After the Titanic sank in 1912, the bodies of many victims were recovered, but many more were lost to the sea.
But what happened to the remains of the unfortunate souls who perished in the Titanic wreck? Are the bodies still there? And can they be seen by those who visit the wreckage in submarines?
This article explains…
No intact human bodies or skeletons remain in the Titanic wreckage
The wreck was first located and explored in 1985 and no bodies were visible then, or on any of the other times that it has been visited.
Over a century has passed since the ship sank in 1912, and any bodies that were trapped within the wreckage will have decomposed and been consumed by sea life.
Even the ship itself is slowly being consumed by bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms that are accelerating the degradation of the wreck.
Despite the lack of physical human remains, the site of the Titanic is considered a gravesite out of respect for the over 1,500 people who lost their lives in the disaster.
What happened to the bodies on the Titanic
Many bodies went down with the Titanic when it sank. Some drifted away and some would have remained inside the ship. Any bodies that sank to the seafloor would have decomposed over the following months and years.
The exact rate of decomposition in water is influenced by a variety of factors including water temperature, depth, oxygen levels, and marine life activity.
The sinking of the Titanic occurred in the North Atlantic, where the water temperature is typically around 28°F (-2°C), and the ship rests at a depth of about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers), where there is virtually no light and the pressure is extreme.
Bodies in the water would have started to decompose slower than usual, due to the cold temperatures.
They would have initially sunk, then potentially floated back to the surface as decomposition gases accumulated, only to sink again once those gases escaped.
Marine scavengers would have quickly started to consume the bodies. While it would have been too cold for larger creatures, such as sharks, the deep waters are inhabited by a multitude of smaller organisms that would have gradually consumed the remains.
These include rat-tails, hagfish, and various types of crustaceans.
In addition to these scavengers, the deep ocean is home to various bacteria and other microorganisms that aid in decomposition. These organisms would have broken down the soft tissues within a few months.
Bones, on the other hand, could have theoretically lasted for years, but they too would eventually decompose due to the action of certain types of osedax, also known as “bone-eating worms,” along with other deep-sea organisms.
It’s difficult to give a definitive timeline for this process as it varies based on numerous factors, but it’s likely that within a few years of the Titanic sinking, no identifiable human remains would have been left.
Titanic
The last body was found in 1912
After the Titanic sank on April 15, 1912, recovery efforts began almost immediately and lasted several weeks. 300 bodies were recovered from the sinking, most within the first month.
The last body to be recovered was that of James McGrady, a cabin steward. His body was found two months after the sinking and then buried in a cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
What can be seen at the Titanic wreck site
Although no human bodies remain at the Titanic wreck site, parts of the ships and other artefacts are still there.
In addition to the large pieces of the ship, the debris field surrounding the two main parts of the wreck contains hundreds of thousands of items, from parts of the ship (like pieces of coal, china, and metal fixtures) to personal artefacts (like clothing, shoes, and personal belongings). There are also larger items such as boilers and pieces of machinery.
While physical human remains have not been found at the site, it’s important to remember that the site is considered a grave for the people who died in the disaster, and there are international agreements in place to protect it.
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Jenni Fielding is the founder of Cruise Mummy. She has worked in the cruise industry since 2015 and has taken over 30 cruises. Now, she helps over 1 million people per month to plan their perfect cruise holidays.
Clive Palmer, an Australian billionaire who announced over 10 years ago that he intended to build a fully working replica of the Titanic for cruises, has now revived the project and claimed that it will be happening.
Palmer, a former member of parliament in Australia who made his fortune in the mining industry, had previously announced that he wanted to build Titanic II to the same specifications as the original ship, with some minor modifications.
He is the chairman of Blue Star Line, a cruise line based in Brisbane that shares a similar name to White Star Line, the company that built and operated the first Titanic.
Speaking at the Sydney Opera House, Palmer set out his plans for the new ship, but did not specify a timeline for when it would be built.
He confirmed that three new partners had joined the project – Deltamarin, a ship design firm from Finland; V. Ships, a ship management services company; and Tillberg Design, an interior design company from Switzerland.
The Titanic II will measure 56,000 gross tons, which is around 10,000 more than the original Titanic, but otherwise the specifications are similar – she will be one foot shorter than the original ship, and have the exact same guest capacity of 2,435.
She will, of course, have enough lifeboats for everyone onboard.
Titanic II is envisaged to sail transatlantic cruises between New York and Southampton, as the original ship would’ve, but also more global voyages as well.
She will have a bridge that is identical to the original Titanic, but with much more modern technology onboard including contemporary safety and navigation systems. But the ship will rely on diesel engines instead of cleaner, modern fuel types, and she will have four smoke stacks like the original ship.
We are very pleased to announce that after unforeseen global delays, we have re-engaged with partners to bring the dream of Titanic ll to life. Let the journey begin.
Clive Palmer, chairman of Blue Star Line
Few other details were confirmed about the ship, but she will have first class, second class and third class accommodation options, and it’s estimated she will cost between $500 million and $1 billion.
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Jenni Fielding is the founder of Cruise Mummy. She has worked in the cruise industry since 2015 and has taken over 30 cruises. Now, she helps over 1 million people per month to plan their perfect cruise holidays.
