Return Voyage

[Jason D. Tiller]

Well, their was an advertisement stating that the Titanic was scheduled to leave for her return voyage on April 20. The ad does say "Tickets For Sale Here", so I'm thinking it was posted outside the White Star Offices in New York, but I could be wrong.

Best regards,

Jason

 

[Daniel Klistorner]

Steven Biel in his book "Down with the old Canoe" mentions a 74 year old Mr Henry Adams that booked to sail back on the Titanic. I would agree that Ismay, Fry, Harrison, Andrews, Chisholm, Parr and others from H&W were very likely to return on Titanic, as they had no business in NY and were only taking the Titanic to observe her in action.

Before Olympic reached New York on her maiden voyage, newspapers were already printing the numbers booked to sail back. I don't recall the same thing for the Titanic. Not even after her sinking. I do recall reading in a newspaper mentions of White Star quickly rearranging travelling plans for those booked to return on Titanic. No numbers were mentioned though. Unfortunately there is little hope that any lists survive of Titanic's return bookings.

I do recall reading somewhere (for the life in me I cannot remember where) that a steward commented on the modest number of people taking the Titanic to New York, and then commenting that they received a marconigram mentioning that they a more heavily booked on the return trip. I don't know if it said booked full, or just much better booked than the first leg of the trip.

As for Capt. Smith, Mark Baber has done a great job transcribing some of Olympic's maiden voyage articles. These were from June 1911 and one of them talks about how Capt. Smith was to retire by the end of 1911 and who was to command the other ships Titanic and Gigantic (aka Britannic - this ship was still called the Gigantic as late as August 1912). I think the articles are still on ET. Have a look under Olympic's maiden voyage thread. I may be wrong as to where I read it, but I definitely recall it was from one of the articles Mark transcribed. Perhaps he would be able to help out on this.

Regards,

Daniel.

 

[Daniel Klistorner]

I had read recently in the April 15, 1912, Christian Science Monitor (a Boston newspaper) that as many as 600 first class passengers had already booked to return on Titanic. That day the paper was still reporting the Titanic as being safe and on her way to be repaired.

Daniel.

 

[Paul Jones]

I read in a New York newspaper that Greta Hotstetter had a 1st class booking for the April 20th trip. Does anyone know who she was?

 

[Carrie Ann McMillan-Tarleton]

I own a book called the complete Titanic Written by Stephen J Spignesi.I have read it numerous time and it never gets old.In this book there is a time line that begins in 1850 with the birth of Edward John Smith, and ends with April 10 2002.
According to this book it was announced(not sure by whom)in April 1998 that the South African-built
Titanic replica would be launched Wednesday,December 29,1999. It also states that a $500 million replica of the Titanic built by a Swiss-U.S. partnership called White Star Ltd. was scheduled to launch from Southampton Wednesday, April 10, 2002. Has anyone heard this before or since? Do these ships really exist?If so could someone point me in the right direction for me to read up on this?

 

[Dave Gittins]

Carrie, this one's been done to death. If you search this site, you will find quite a lot of discussion about it. Some of the supposed replicas were the dreams of teenagers without $10 between them. It isn't going to happen.

For an idea of the wild schemes that were put about on the back of Cameron's movie, go to. Gigantic Concepts: To Build a New Titanic? The site hasn't been updated for some time, because nothing is happening.

Stand by for more wild schemes as 2012 approaches.

 

[Michael H. Standart]

G'Day Carrie, as Dave said, this idea has been knocking around since Cameron's movie came out. The fist such proposal I saw was the article published in Popular Mechanics back in 1997. (This magazine has a track record for predicting things inaccurately that has to be seen to be believed.) This is my now standard answer for why a replica is impossible;

1)Any exact replica would fail to meet current and anticipated SOLAS standards in regards to;
- Fire protection
- Lifesaving equipment, particualarly lifeboats
- Habitablity standards such as small cabins and no air conditioning would be unacceptable today
- Electrical systems not up to current codes.
- Radio systems obsolete
- Obsolete navigation equipment
2)Environmantal standards in regards
- Sewage Management
- Materials such as asbestos lagging would be unacceptable
- Coal firing of boilers would not meet current emissions standards
3)Technologies used then are no longer used today such as
- riveting
- Reciprocating steam engines are no longer built.
- Any attempt at replication would be extremely expensive as no tooling exists to produce same.
- Lack of experinced and trained people who would even know how to operate the ship.

The one thing you can be sure of is that this just scratches the surface. The last such scheme I was aware of hasn't been updated since April of this year.

 

[Doug]

I understand Titanic was to return to England on May 20th--- are there any return-trip tickets in existence?

 

[Emilie]

I heard Marconi had booked a first class westbound passage.

 

[Dave Gittins]

Marconi never actually booked a westbound passage. Bruce Ismay invited him to go on the westbound voyage, as a distinguished guest. However, Marconi had urgent business in the USA, so he declined the offer and went on Lusitania. That's why he was able to meet Carpathia in New York.

 

[Emilie]

Oh ok, thanks for the info!

 

[Harland Duzen]

Oh ok, thanks for the info!

In the Lusitania Pre-sinking Forum, it states he travelled from Liverpool on March 15th 1912. his daughter doesn't rectify that she meant the original sailing date of March 20th instead of the final date of April 10th.

 

[Emilie]

Sad they.destroyed the.return trips manifest. We only have rumors left to get a (biaised) idea about.who might have boarded . My take is that steerage would have been quite emply, perhaps more 1rst and 2nd class booking than before.

 

[Doug Criner]

I don't recall any eastbound tickets being listed anywhere for sale or otherwise. I assume such tickets had to be surrendered to get a refund or a replacement ticket on another ship.

I would think that White Star would have retained the bookings list for some time until after refunds or other claims had been settled. But, in due course, such records would have been destroyed in accordance with normal business practices. To preserve such records or make them public might, rightly, have been considered a potential invasion of privacy.

I wonder if, as stated above, newspapers routinely reported passengers' names embarked on ships leaving New York? If they did, it might have just been repeating public gossip - nor unknown even today. Otherwise, would a passenger line, such as White Star, disclose the name of a future booked passenger and the name of the female that accompanied him?

 

[Mark Baber]

I wonder if, as stated above, newspapers routinely reported passengers' names embarked on ships leaving New York?

They did, indeed. I have read probably hundreds of such articles over the years.

Otherwise, would a passenger line, such as White Star, disclose the name of a future booked passenger and the name of the female that accompanied him?

The papers had access to the list of passengers booked to travel and would, on occasion, note that some well-known person---such as J. P. Morgan---whose name was not on the list showed up at the last minute.