What if RMS Titanic hadn’t struck an iceberg and had arrived safely in New York? The specific itinerary for her return voyage remains sketchy and uncertain. Following the disaster, White Star Line had little reason to retain the records for an event that would never take place; the official documents were probably tossed into a trash pail or disappeared when the company’s old offices were torn down.
If Titanic had arrived in New York, she would’ve docked at White Star’s Pier 59 (near West 18 Street) at the Chelsea Terminal on the afternoon of April 16, 1912. As soon as the last of her passengers disembarked, the great ship would have been quickly refitted and restocked for her return voyage to England, set for noon on April 20, 1912.
Titanic, like her sister ship Olympic, would have continued to follow the same trans-Atlantic route between Southampton and New York with stops in France and Ireland. Unless she fell victim to some other catastrophe, Titanic would have continued to sail (again, like her sister ship) through the innovative perils of World War One, pass the deceptively iridescent Twenties, into the financially depressed Thirties, until being scrapped and largely forgotten.
Strangely ironic that it took such a disaster to make her truly unsinkable: no other ship casting such an enduring spell on the sea of human imagination as did RMS Titanic‘s brief, ill-fated, yet eternal voyage.
Images: New York City Walk
- Titanic History Revised (lewrockwell.com)
- What if . . . the Titanic hadn’t sunk 100 years ago? (forgottennewengland.com)
- 100 years later, tragedy of the Titanic still resonates (vancouversun.com)
- World’s largest RMS Titanic museum opens in Belfast (gizmag.com)
- In the media, at least, the Titanic proves unsinkable (entertainment.inquirer.net)
- On today’s date it’s been a Century since the Titanic was lost… (underthelobsterscope.wordpress.com)