What if the SS City of New York collided with the Titanic?

[Armarillo]

A collision narrowly averted by a hair's breadth OTL. If the two ships had actually collided in the harbor, would it have sunk both of them or merely perhaps damaged them to the point that the Titanic would have been forced to call off it's Maiden voyage?

[Mike Stearns]

The Titanic's maiden voyage would have been cut short....

[Arachnid]

Knowing absolutely nothing about the structure of the Titanic or the City of New York or the details of the incident surely the effect of the crash would be dependent on the angle and speed of the crash. There is an obviously large distance between a slow graze and a top speed T-boning.

[RandomChance]

Even if the damage was minor, might it affect departure, hence misses the iceberg and makes it to New York? More importantly, James Cameron doesn't make his film, which doesn't get a re-release in 3d....

[Codae]

Originally Posted by RandomChance

Even if the damage was minor, might it affect departure, hence misses the iceberg and makes it to New York? More importantly, James Cameron doesn't make his film, which doesn't get a re-release in 3d....

I would argue that, realistically, the Titanic probably wouldn't hit the iceberg with any POD before it gets out to sea. The collision of two specific objects while each crosses an ocean is a low-probability event; the fact that it happened in our only observed instance by no means assures that it would in a replay of the events.

[hairysamarian]

Originally Posted by RandomChance

More importantly, James Cameron doesn't make his film, which doesn't get a re-release in 3d....

Dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!

Ok, that's out of my system now, so on a more serious note:
It seems to me that if the tragedy of the Titanic doesn't happen, the maritime world is only storing up trouble for the future. The shortcomings of contemporary ship design and safety protocols (#s of lifeboats, etc.) were bound to be revealed the hard way sooner or later. However, one could hope that the eventual demonstration wouldn't cost 1,500+ lives.

[DanMcCollum]

Originally Posted by RandomChance

Even if the damage was minor, might it affect departure, hence misses the iceberg and makes it to New York? More importantly, James Cameron doesn't make his film, which doesn't get a re-release in 3d....

I rather think the averting the deaths of hundreds of people, is of slightly more importance than causing a movie to not be released. I mean, we're not talking Pootie Tang here ...