WI: RMS Titanic collides with SS New York during departure.

[Crunch Buttsteak]

When Titanic was leaving Southampton, her displacement was enough to pull the New York and Oceanic free from their moorings and New York almost collided with the Titanic had it not been for the quick intervention of a tugboat to prevent a collision.

What would have happened if Titanic and New York had collided in Southampton?

 

[Ozpin]

The voyage ends there. Titanic avoids the iceberg and has the usual steamer career until WW1 where it probably serves as a hospital ship and then after that it is scrapped.

 

[Peg Leg Pom]

The sailing is delayed while they check for damage and even if it's just an hour or two Titanic never hits the iceberg. The end result is the ship reaches New York and unless some later disaster happens the vast majority of people never hear of her.

This probably leads to more people dying as shipping regulations don't change and come 1914-18 ships are still sailing without a 24hr wireless watch or an adequate number of lifeboats.

 

[DougM]

As noted this avoids the “claim to fame” of the Titanic. It may well get sunk during WW1 as it will most likly get used as a hospital ship instead og Britanic. So it may hit the mine instead. but that is completely unpredictable. So i give it say a 20% chance of sinking in WW1.
If it survives the war Then it will get scrapped in the mid 30s about the time Olympic was.
It has a good chance of the three sisters getting to sail together after the war.

And frankly we probably dont know of any of them today as without the Sinking of Titanic and then the subsequent sinking of Britanic most people. would have never heard of any of the three.

 

[ivanotter]

This could be very interesting!

It would mean the famous people would still be arund to run their businesses. Some of the 3rd class passengers might have become tycoons in their own right as well?

 

[Carl Schwamberger]

Lightroller survives three sinking instead of four?

 

[LostCosmonaut]

Relevant vid;

 

[Kellan Sullivan]

Relevant vid;

I was going to post Mike Brady's video as well, thanks for that

 

[EWHM]

The thing about the Titanic is almost any change at all regarding it versus OTL likely makes it not sink. If the tug is a little faster at preventing the collision---the Titanic isn't in the right place at the wrong time for the iceberg. If the tug takes longer than OTL, same thing. If there's a minor 'fender bender' with ss-new-york, well, same thing. It's not hard at all to prevent the Titanic. Just rolling the dice again without any actual identifiable changes probably prevents it most of the time.

 

[DougM]

And no sinking then we are having a discussion about why anyone would even know of the Titanic.

 

[Peg Leg Pom]

And no sinking then we are having a discussion about why anyone would even know of the Titanic.

The what? Never heard of it, was it a Battleship?

 

[Onkel Willie]

The collision with the iceberg would be butterflied away. After that either hospital ship or troop transport in WW I. If she isn't sunk in WW I, she resumes her career as an ocean liner in the 20s and 30s. Best case scenario is that the decision to scrap her is preceded by WW II erupting in 1939. In that case, again troop ship or hospital ship and then floating hotel in Belfast after the war is over. Not impossible if you consider that the RMS Aquitania served from 1914 to 1950.

 

[DougM]

I wonder if it may have sunk in WW1 while being used as a hospital ship.

 

[TRH]

The what? Never heard of it, was it a Battleship?

Name like that, it should’ve been.

 

[Peg Leg Pom]

Name like that, it should’ve been.

Sister ship to HMS Colossus I think, but couldn't swear to.

HMS Colossus (1910) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org