But at the same time, half the reason I'd like to try a trip on the QM2 is because it's like going on the Titanic - only without getting wet.
There's probably a market for both that sort of traveller - and people who want to get somewhere and aren't too worried about taking 5 days to get there, if it's not as big a dent to the planet as flying (Or isn't sin-taxxed into the realm of the rich and wasteful) .
And the Olympic-class design is basically sound and very stable in the sea. We know how well it sinks, anyway. And how rugged it can be - Olympic herself hit a lot of things without sinking. Marine engineers have theorised that if the Olympic hit an iceberg, the iceberg would likely have sunk.
You're kinda tapping the romantics who want to travel on 'The Titanic', and the people who just want to get there. So you get both.
And it's probably as close as we could get with modern technology and shipbuilding techniques - we don't know how to rivet hulls or make reciprocating steam engines anymore - but shipbuilding has advanced a lot so it'd be a lot cheaper to build a ship that is - today at least -realtively smol for a passenger liner.
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I mean, these ships were fucking nuts. There's a lot more technology in them that people think.
Titanic's engines were relatively efficient for her era - especially compared to the Turbine ships. Her compartmentalisation made her a lot harder to sink (Not impossible - as we discovered). and while the circumstances that would cause her to sink were known, they were calculated to be unlikely and - arguably - actually were pretty bloody unlikely. She had a proper HVAC system, capable of turning over the air in the ship seven times an hour - and heating and steam humidifying it. The ventilating air was conditioned - as much as possible in 1912. Her steering gear was basically steer by hydraulics - a shuttle valve at the wheel triggered a hydraulic flow which activated a steam engine to drive the rudder to the correct angle. She had electric power - and contrary to modern ships her generators were located high enough that they strayed dry and operational right up until the final destruction of the ship - most ships these days loose power the moment they get breached because the gennys are right at the bottom of the hull.
Even the dearth of lifeboats was considered in the design, and was based on the prior experience of the RMS Republic - where a combination of wireless communication and a busy shipping line had allowed the entire passenger compliment of two liners to be rescued following a collision, in weather conditions that were sub-optimal for a rescue. The ship took hours to sink, and there was time to shuttle all those onboard onto nearby ships that arrived to answer a wireless call. The foundering ship sank in a stable manner - and acted as her own lifeboat.
Modern cruise ships topple when they flood. More would've died on the Concordia if she hadn't settled on the rocks - they were lucky.
The irony of Titanic is not that she was a bad design, and a watchword for hubris - she was just bloody unlucky.
There's probably a market for both that sort of traveller - and people who want to get somewhere and aren't too worried about taking 5 days to get there, if it's not as big a dent to the planet as flying (Or isn't sin-taxxed into the realm of the rich and wasteful) .
And the Olympic-class design is basically sound and very stable in the sea. We know how well it sinks, anyway. And how rugged it can be - Olympic herself hit a lot of things without sinking. Marine engineers have theorised that if the Olympic hit an iceberg, the iceberg would likely have sunk.
You're kinda tapping the romantics who want to travel on 'The Titanic', and the people who just want to get there. So you get both.
And it's probably as close as we could get with modern technology and shipbuilding techniques - we don't know how to rivet hulls or make reciprocating steam engines anymore - but shipbuilding has advanced a lot so it'd be a lot cheaper to build a ship that is - today at least -realtively smol for a passenger liner.
----
I mean, these ships were fucking nuts. There's a lot more technology in them that people think.
Titanic's engines were relatively efficient for her era - especially compared to the Turbine ships. Her compartmentalisation made her a lot harder to sink (Not impossible - as we discovered). and while the circumstances that would cause her to sink were known, they were calculated to be unlikely and - arguably - actually were pretty bloody unlikely. She had a proper HVAC system, capable of turning over the air in the ship seven times an hour - and heating and steam humidifying it. The ventilating air was conditioned - as much as possible in 1912. Her steering gear was basically steer by hydraulics - a shuttle valve at the wheel triggered a hydraulic flow which activated a steam engine to drive the rudder to the correct angle. She had electric power - and contrary to modern ships her generators were located high enough that they strayed dry and operational right up until the final destruction of the ship - most ships these days loose power the moment they get breached because the gennys are right at the bottom of the hull.
Even the dearth of lifeboats was considered in the design, and was based on the prior experience of the RMS Republic - where a combination of wireless communication and a busy shipping line had allowed the entire passenger compliment of two liners to be rescued following a collision, in weather conditions that were sub-optimal for a rescue. The ship took hours to sink, and there was time to shuttle all those onboard onto nearby ships that arrived to answer a wireless call. The foundering ship sank in a stable manner - and acted as her own lifeboat.
Modern cruise ships topple when they flood. More would've died on the Concordia if she hadn't settled on the rocks - they were lucky.
The irony of Titanic is not that she was a bad design, and a watchword for hubris - she was just bloody unlucky.
Oh sweet meteor of death
Fall upon us.
Deliver us in fire
To Peace everlasting.
Fall upon us.
Deliver us in fire
To Peace everlasting.