Titanic Only Half Filled for Maiden Voyage?

[Aaron_2016]

According to the figures on the below websites the Titanic was only half full. Does anyone know why she sailed with so many empty rooms? I understand many passengers were transferred from other ships onto the Titanic due to the coal strike. Does this mean the Titanic would have sailed only a third full with likely more crew on board than passengers? Is it usual for a passenger ship to sail only half or even a third full on her maiden voyage?



739 - Room for in First Class
319 - On the ship.

674 - Room for in Second Class
272 - On the ship.

1026 - Room for in Third Class
709 - On the ship.

2439 - Total room for passengers
1300 - Passengers on the ship.

Space for 1,139 more passengers.

Does anyone know if this was normal for passenger service to America? Was the Titanic simply too expensive to travel on?


TITANIC
Titanic: Demographics of the Passengers


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[Christophe Puttemans]

The middle of April wasn't a busy time of the year for traveling. I once heard about some sort of 'travel season' between June-July and September-October (I guess). That's when traveling made it's annual peak.
Anyway, Titanic wasn't expected to be anywhere near full in April, but a few months later, she was.

 

[Mark Chirnside]

The reality is that even the crack liners of the period such as Lusitania, Mauretania or Olympic sailed, on average, half full all year round. Only at the height of the season were they fully booked and some of the winter sailings were very quiet - I seem to remember the Cunarders sailing with as few as 400 passengers some winter crossings pre-war.

Mauretania was in service from late 1907, and it was not until the high season of 1910 that this liner ever carried more than 2,000 passengers on a single crossing. (Lusitania would have suffered the same way, had it not been for the fact that she had carried over 2,000 passengers on her eagerly anticipated maiden voyage in 1907.)

In many ways the question as to why Titanic was not fully booked rests on a misconception, for the assumption seems to be that she should have been. In fact, the opposite is the case: it was not the height of the season, and in any event Olympic had taken over 2,000 passengers on her previous Southampton departure, so many early April travellers had gone with her.

Perhaps the best way to make my point is to outline the average passenger lists for White Star Line vessels in 1910, sailing Southampton-New York. Adriatic, White Star's newest liner and a popular vessel by the standards of the time, carried an average passenger list of 943 passengers; Oceanic, the 'Ship of the Century' from 1899, carried 688; while the older Majestic carried 468 passengers on average. Clearly, these figures were far better at the height of the season, but Titanic sailed in April and her passenger list was very impressive in comparison.

Best wishes


Mark.

 

[Mark Baber]

Only at the height of the season were they fully booked...

Or at the outbreak of war, as in August-September 1914.

;-)

 

[Robert T. Paige]

Trivia item on "Titanic Movie Goofs" :
In the 1953 Stanwyck-Webb version, Richard Ward Sturges (Clifton Webb) is told that "Titanic has been sold out for months". He gets on board by bribing a Steerage Passenger and buying his ticket..

 

[Christophe Puttemans]

The 1953 film is a total piece of Hollywood crap. Most iconic is everyone on board forming one titanic choir, singing Nearer My God To Thee. So Hollywood and so wrong.

 

[Robert T. Paige]

How true. The list could go on and on. But unfortunately just about any of the Titanic movies have at least a few goofs.
And that the Astors had an inside cabin, Titanic had a tailor shop, no Thomas Andrews, et cetera, et cetera and so forth.

 

[Robert T. Paige]

Even Cameron borrowed a few lines from the 1953 film.

 

[Robert T. Paige]

Were the officers, crew, etc. fully staffed ?

 

[Cam Houseman]

Or at the outbreak of war, as in August-September 1914.

;-)

I bet on May 5th, 1915, they regretted it