What if Titanic's stern remained afloat? | Nautical Tales 

200 to 300 lost instead of 1500. Truly a better timeline.

This would have been the biggest event in marine time history, even as the real Titanic is. This would have been a miracle among the survivors, a life changing event from total despair and death turned into a salvation, even a rebirth. This would have been something beyond even the wildest dreams if this had happened. One amazing video!

If the stern survived, it may would’ve had a small chance that it would go into a museum.

If the engines had broken off and fell out when the ship broke in half, the stern could have stayed afloat. However, since they held strong to the ship and were the heaviest part of the ship, they drug the stern under far more quickly than it could fill with water. Survivors reported hearing what sounded like an underwater explosion after the stern had sunk. It evidently still had large air pockets that reached a crush depth for the ship structure. The stern imploded, causing the severe damage we see visible on the stern today.

Imagine the shock of the Carpathia when Titanic became a lifeboat of itself in some way. Amazing video btw

If something like this really happened to RMS TITANIC the ship should have become a Museum ship and hotel because of its survival of parcel sinking. Also probably sometime in the mid to late 1980s Titanic's bow was discovered by Bob Ballard.

Lightoller was swept off during the final plunge while he was desperately working around the bridge and officers quarters areas to try and launch Collapsibles A and B. It's possible those crew still on the stern might've recovered him, if they'd been able to find Collapsible B in the dark, but given the chaos, it would've been up to those crew and passengers still left on the stern to help themselves. This all assumes the stern could even have remained afloat with the huge amounts of damage from the breakup and being pulled down by the weight of water and the heavy machinery inside near the break up point.

It would be such a strange, unbelievable, sight to behold. A ship split in two with a stern staying afloat. It would easily be the most infamous disaster thanks to what goes down even in this universe. Its also possible that a number of key figures who died would now be alive, including Captain Smith, Thomas Andrews, among others. An imagine the expedition in search of the Titanic's bow. Based on accurate reports of the location the stern section was last (assuming it didn't drift too far from the scene of the sinking and break up) and finally locating it where it rests on the sea floor today. Now alone as one massive piece with a smaller debris field surrounding it.

I kinda like this timeline. The Titanic lived a long and successful career and got scrapped, While the Original Titanic would be at the bottom of the ocean, where it would be visited by submersibles Great video.

Using stormworks for these kind of videos is the best thing ever

Wow this was neat for the stern staying afloat when for a moment I thought the stern will afloat when fall backwards this was exactly what I dreamed last night

If the double bottom never made (it made to avoid from grounding damages) thisll be real. After she splits into sections, hull and superstructure splits but the double bottom stays one piece. Cause of it, bow tries to go down while stern want to float, stern started to go up and sinks. If u look to wrecks, bow actually can recognisable but stern is not. The air in her compartments and other places caused explosions in her.

This would have been a museum and an important part in history

this is my theory: Titanic sets out on her maiden voyage, on april 14th 11pm she hits a burg and splits although the bow sank the stern managed to stay afloat, carpathia will arrive shortly to help the passengers on the stern, after all the passengers are off carpathia broadcasts Titanic's stern to other ships, soon a series of ships arrived to tow the titanic back to belfast, Olympic wont help in this operation as the arrival of the olympic might make some of the surviours feel a bit uneazy. after the voyage back to belfast, titanic will be laid up next to the keel of britannic and white star will laid the keel plates for titanic's new bow, after a year she will set out on her second maiden voyage, when she arrived in NYC she was welcomed with a ton of fanfare, Titanic's years were good years some voyages even exceeded the passenger amount carried by the olympic, Titanic was nickenamed the ship who cheated death, soon britannic was introduced with even safer equipment, and white star finally had its trio, but soon world events are about to change and WW1 will lead to britannic's loss after striking a mine. the 1920s were titanic and olympic's golden years, people from all around the world wanted to experience what it was like for the passengers on her orignal maiden voyage, and paired with the recently built Majestic and her older sister olympic, the trio proved a major threat to the cunard liners, but overall the white star line would gain a massive amount of profit until the IMM sold WSL away. the 1930s was the worst years for WSL for the first time in its history it recovered its first loss, and with other rival companys building more better and faster super liners it was clear that WSL needs a superliner of its own, but the massive amounts of cost wont allow it, and in 1934 WSL and cunard would be forced to murge, cunard owned a majority of the new company's share as it had a closer relationship with the royal family, the first ships to be scarpped were the remaining assets of the Big four, then the Olympic and the maturtiania, Titanic was next on the line but her legendary past made.her still profitable and cunard decided to keep her, so majestic was scarpped instead of titanic, WSL had planned to build a pair of motorships due to their superliner being canclled, and titanic would acomapny the 2 smaller motorships, but in 1938 titanic's passengers began to dry up and its clear that her days are numbered, after a few more cruises and transatlantic voyages she was laid up, but right when she could be bought by any scarpers the britsh royal navy stepped in and bought her to be used as a training ship, 1939 with the outbreak of WW2 Titanic was converted into a troopship, she retained her orignal name but her image was drastically changed, her funnels were cut to a stump with her fourth funnel competely removed and her bow was fixed four 6 inch cannons with a 11 inch on the stern acompany with two more 5 inch cannons and loaded with dezons of AA guns, in one point she will be captured by the germans and will be tasked to protect the Turpiz against aircrafts as her AA systems proved to be useful, but on her way to germany she would be spotted and bombed by bombers, she retained heavy damages but she was kept afloat, she gone through repairs and was moured next to the turpitz, on the same day turpiz was bombed, titanic will meet her fate, as 3 bombs hitted straight in the middle of the ship, the titanic will ground on the shallow seabed alongside the Turpiz, after the raid the titanic or whats left of titanic will be towed to france to be scarpped, but luck came to meet her again and as WW2 ended titanic was found aboandon and floating on churbourg with only her upperhull remaining, attempts were made to repair her and turn her into a hotel ship but the world just had bigger problems and she was scarped, she was completely gone by 1949, the last part of her being one of her propllers left in the seabed from the bombing of turpitz and titanic.

If Titanic’s Stern stayed afloat and had a new bow constructed, I think two very different things would happen; A: Gigantic/Britannic’s construction could’ve been delayed. Meaning the WSL could probably have its Trio Superliners. Probably saving them from bankruptcy and they would become the Majority Holders in the merger with Cunard B: With Titanic’s triumph over tragedy 89 years earlier, also being the Phoenixs rising from the ashes would be the Twin Towers (probably with designs more akin to that of the current One World Trade/Freedom Tower)

To anyone that doesn’t know this game for some reason, this is stormworks

Thomas Andrew’s even stated the ship could have been split into sections. However because the break wasn’t clean the stern was pulled up and then flooded super fast which is why it’s significantly more damaged than the bow. It’s wild to think that the ship did take 2hr20 to sink when Lusitania and Empress of Ireland sank in 14 and 18 min or even the Britanic which took less than a hour

Thomas Andrews himself stated that if the ship were broken up the individual compartments could still float, the only reason the stern went under was because it was pulled down by the bow.

The ship probably would have also been pressed into service by the British Navy in WW1. The same happenned to the Olympic and the Britanic. The Olympic serving as a troop tramsport, the Britanic serving as a hospital ship.

I already had a few ideas about what the sinking of the 'Titanic' could look like in a parallel universe, but I wouldn't have come up with an idea like this. 🙂 Great idea 👍🏼 (which could be used for a fanfiction, as after the real story, but then again the question would be who survives and who dies). 🤔

The idea of the Titanic (somewhat) surviving the sinking is soo great

New to the channel. As a Titanic historian myself I am very impressed and pleased that all of the factual information in your video is correct and accurate. It seems harder and harder lately to come across true factual information about her lately but you’ve done amazing work here. Love the hypothetical scenario as I’ve often pondered this myself. Love the mention of the Seuvic as well. Great video!

This is a concept I’ve wanted to see on RU-vid for a long time

If this happened, it really would've been the first Apollo 13-style of infamous rescues with tense deadlines

If Titanic had broken in two at shallow angle like it was depicted in the 1997 film the stern section would have remained afloat ( assuming all the watertight doors were shut ) but perhaps sitting lower in the water at the break ( then shown in this video ) as the engine room would have been flooded. But this is not how Titanic broke up, her wreck clearly shows lots of crush damage, not a clean tension break ! Suggesting she broke up in compression at a high angle may as much as 90 degrees.

I wonder if the bow would have been found in 1985 if this happened

GOD JESUS THE MOUTH SOUNDS

Somewhat of the story was confirmed (partially anyway) Clive Palmer is building Titanic replica called Titanic 2 which is currently to set sale in 2027 if all goes according to plan.

White star line doing suevic move second time:

I wonder if this ever possible.. if they flooded the stern to lift the damaged compartments slightly higher out of the water.. I know she went down to fast to for this to happen.. but still would’ve been amazing..

Something very similar happened in WW2. The Japanese destroyer Amatsukaze was a very famous ship of the war. Commanded by Tameichi Hara, who wrote his famous book "Japanese destroyer captain" on his war experience, Amatsukaze would see a variable early war career, including helping to sink the submarine USS Perch in the Indian Ocean, and her service in the battle of Guadalcanal where she sank the destroyer USS Barton and helped to sink the light cruiser Juneau, and survived heavy fire from the light cruiser Helena. On January 16th 1944, Amatsukaze was enroute escorting high speed transports when she was hit by a torpedo fired from the submarine USS Redfin. Amatsukaze was blown in half, and the forward section sank with the loss of 86 men. Her stern was presumed sunk, but amazingly six days later was discovered by Japanese aircraft and towed to Singapore. What was left of Amatsukaze spent nearly the rest of the war there, and was never extensively repaired, only being rigged with a temporary bow in March of 1945 where she attempted to undergo the journey back to mainland Japan, where enroute the next month she was finally finished off by land based US bombers.

If the stern survived, it would have became a museum, somehow put into a museum, or part hotel part museum. Many more lives would have survived and it would have been the biggest event that would ever, ever happen in marine history. It will be said down from generation to generation.

I don't think she would have lived up to her former glory if the stern was intact. They would rebuild her (knowing the white star line), but in 1914 all hell broke lose in Europe. 9/10 she would have been converted to just another hospital ship (like many liners were) hauling wounded and dead soldiers back home. And then sadly, just forgotten.

Great video, also you’re one of the best ship builders in this game! I’m wondering if you’d ever make the symphony of the seas or an oasis class ship I think a LOT of people would enjoy sinking it (c4’s cause the doors no longer work sadly hopefully they get fixed)

Man this is an awesome video, I love the use of SW for storytelling. As a member of the community, I'd be eager to help with future projects if you ever needed it!

Omg Someone made an alternate history documentary via Stormworks That’s awesome!

One things for sure, the death toll would be way down. Most of the people who died were on the stern when it plunged down.

White Star Line in this timeline be like: *remembers Suevic* "Ah Crap, Here we go Again."

In the game Floating Sandbox, when the Titanic split in two, the stern portion actually remained afloat just as in the video (until a tsunami came and destroyed it, of course). I have always wondered what would happened if this occurred! Definitely more lives would've been saved. Very interesting

theirs a lot of what ifs about titanic out their but what happened happened and its unrealistic to assume it couldve stayed afloat i saw someone say well if the engines fell out well even if they had that would’ve caused more damage when it split its ripped shell plating off destroyed the ships Skelton and superstructure leave so many places for water and the ship split in one part and cracked in another which is why a section of titanic is gone today the only way it couldve stayed afloat would be if it had been a clean cut that would be boarder line impossible

Damn, if only the stern had completely split in half. Stupid double bottom... It's not like it saved countless of other lives-

Second Officer Charles Lightoller was not at the stern. He was actually on upside down lifeboat.

Cool that you used stormworks to build and show some history on the titanic!

That’s actually crazy storm works build

Bizarre to think that all the time later submersibles would still be able to go down and visit her bow as they do to this day, but also know she has been scrapped also.

I don't think they would be particularly pleased to find out their greatest ship snapped in half like a twig

There's lots of theories and other opinions about it, but I think it's certainly possible the stern could have rode itself, being that its watertight bulkheads were sealed . James Cameron and a few other Naval historians have often thought because the break wasn't clean the bow of the Titanic pulled the stern under and later on their descent they detached the exact nature of it can never be known. However I think it certainly plausible given how the devastated Stern looks like it literally imploded from being crushed by the pressure and if it was still connected to the bow for great duration of time it's plausible no one can disprove it or validate it but I think that is what happened.

I must admit I have done a lot of research on the Titanic I mean I've always thought about what if a miracle happened and they could have salvaged her and this is very impressive I mean this would change history and I think it could have even been history as we know it

This reminds me of RMS Suevic incident

I love the fact that this is filmed using stormworks

My thought being if this did actually occur in the sequence you depict, Titanic would still be considered sunk and the stern would have just been incorporated/retrofitted into and become Britannic. I suppose it would just depend on how badly WSL wanted a 3rd running mate. Given the impending WWI, and assuming this Britannic survives, that probably doesn't happen until after the war. Perhaps they commission a 3rd running mate in the early 1920s, which becomes Majestic, which essentially becomes WSL's own Aquitania.

how in gods name was this done in stormworks

This is how that night should have played out seriea of events wise in the 1912

I found this video very intresting! The storytelling is also very well made. It would have been very lovely if the Titanic had such a chance to be reborn.

I would see it as unlikely that they would rebuild the bow due to this sheer cost one instead, you can just preserve the stern as a piece of history

If it was reborn it’s would have been put in a museum and would have almost become a hotel ship and museum ship at the same time.

I think the only way the Stern would have a chance to stay afloat is if by some miracle the water tight compartments were still water tight and if the ship broke in half around the 2nd funnel and not the 3rd.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="366">6:06</a> I believe it would be put beside to rest with its tender boat SS Nomadic that took it out of port. <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="463">7:43</a> Yes? More likely to not be script.Seeing the lives it took with it so it's gonna be kept in a type of port museum I feel.

Nice video. I can see a scenario where the stern could possibly stay afloat until rescue ships arrived. But, I honestly don't think that she could have withstood being towed all the way back to Belfast. I mean, the hull would've been so compromised that they really would've had no watertight integrity. And, without power there'd have been no way to operate pumps. Carpathia also couldn't have single-handedly taken all survivors if some 1900-2000 had survived. She simply would not have had space or provisions to make any port. She'd have had to wait for other ships to arrive and then transfer some of the survivors over to them.

Wait if the stern stayed afloat Thomas Andrews would have survived the sinking because he was last seen in the 1st class smoking room which was located on A Deck of the stern so therefore he would of survived

More people live the titanic remains could be used for a museum ship or something and we would still get the safety features implemented from the events of the sinking

What doomed the stern section was the strength of the keel, which continued to pull on the stern to the point of no return until it finally detached. If the watertight compartments were still intact and the keel broke early on, then it is plausible that it might float, but I question the stability of it remaining on an even keel and not have a tendency to roll since the ship is designed to be ballasted as a whole. I agree with another comment that the mass of the engines helped to pull it down. If this scenario did happen, I think it would be in the best interest to scuttle the stern in place once the survivors are off.

If only. Sure many people would've still perished, but both White Star Line and Harland & Wolff would have been regarded as being the absolute best in the business. Imagine not one, but two ships which had been cut in half, but still survived ( Suevic and Titanic )

Big issue is they would NOT have sent the Olympic. The idea of sending a ship that was the spitting image of Titanic would've been a PR disaster and many would've refused to board.

The bottom of the ship was still connected after the split and it pulled the stern down with the 1st half.

Given where Titanic was, I don't think she would've been towed back to Belfast. If y'all recall she was roughly 2 3rds of the way to NYC, thus the closest port would be the BEST option, which the closest port lies within eastern Canada AND New England.

The bow section would have been launched the other way round, just like suevic's new bow was. And the a deck promenade would have been enclosed from the very start

If we didn't have a definition for "best case scenario", this would be it.

I dont just think its likely that White Star would have constructed and entire new bow, the damage to the stern was too extensive, its more likely she would be scrapped since there is no way White Star could make a profit from her at that point.

When it was split in half, some of the boilers were underwater, so the stern wouldn’t survive bc of the water already in the boilers so, it would still sink

I imagine that Britannic would be delayed with parts being taken for titanic.

Honestly I see two ways of how this would end up 1. Her sturn would be towed to America *it was closer and thus less costly* and then put into dry dock to help with the investigations and trials that happened afterwards. Then would be put to be scrapped but then a heritage company would buy her instead and turn the sturn into a museum 2. (Same thing as the 1st up until the scraping part) She would have the extremely damaged parts removed and then dismantled to be brought back to Belfast where the material would be used to quickly finish her sister Brintanic allowing her to have a few months of being a passenger liner before WW1 after that it's either she sinks by a mine or is also turned into a troop ship like Olympic

Nice what if video

I doubt they would scrap the ship. I think they would maybe take it back to Belfast and turn it into one of those floating ship museums because of what happened on the maiden voyage

It would be probably be difficult to mount the new bow on the stern part. Also, the merging point would be a probably point of failure.

The saddest fact about the Titanic is that it carried no rafts. Older passenger liners always carried rafts, because, if the vessel sank so quickly that there was no time to launch the boats, the rafts would float free. If there had been rafts, many more would have been saved. As to the number of boats - there were twenty. There was room for another sixteen. If these had been provided, while there would not have been time to launch 36 boats, they would have floated free if they had been unlashed in readiness.

It would of been cool if this could of happened. But instead of being rebuilt seeing as that would be distasteful to those lost I think the stern should go to a museum.

It’s kinda funny seeing 1 and a half of an Olympic class ship.

It would be a cool urbex to watch the half stern left of the titanic if it was abandoned

Interesting story but a couple of things - 1. WSL currently had Harland And Wolff working on the BRITANNIC. 2. The OLYMPIC would be pulled out of service for Upgrades (due to the TITANIC sinking). These upgrades took (roughly) 6 months to complete. BRITANNIC wasn't far in construction, so upgrading wasn't a problem. 3. In 1914, that's right around the start of WW1. The British government was using any (and all) big liners they could get for Troops and Hospital Ship duties. OLYMPIC was transformed into a Troop Ship, and the BRITANNIC was transformed into a Hospital Ship. TITANIC most likely would've joined her sisters in military duty.

I think this alternate ending 4 Titanic sounds a lot better than what really happened, mainly because most of its passengers and crew would have been saved that night.

After such a career i don't think she would be scrapped she would be a lot like Queen Mary and made into a museum ship next nomadic with Olympic and Britannic.

Even if she stayed water tight the stern probably would've capsized being unstable without a bow, eventually sinking.

This is realistic

I am a big fan of Titanic.

i believe in multiverse theory, in another universe this happened. awesome job man!

And the ship broke in two before 2nd grand staircase, so everyone could safely move between the decks and marvel the splendor. :)

I doubt the Titanic would have been rebuilt, about a third of the ship was directly damaged from the iceberg, Boilers 5 and 6 were flooded along with much of the forward third of the ship. You mention the Suevic, but the difference is with the Suevic the bow was damaged, but everything else was almost perfectly intact, and salvagers cut the first 40m off. which is where the damage was. When Titanic broke, its bow section was 140m long, nearly the same size as the whole Suevic. Almost certainly she would have been declared a loss and scrapped for parts for her sister ships

Nice video, but my only complaint is that Lightoller was not on the stern when the ship broke in half

Well the reason why her stern went down was because it was attached to the bow but it makes the stern goes down even more due to her massive engines

I actually like this video.

You're assuming the ship doesn't get sunk by German U-Boats a mere two years later after she's pressed into service as a hospital ship in the First World War... and even if she does manage to survive that war, there's another one right around the corner.

Lightoller was in the water b4 she split in 2

“Not to worry, we are still sailing half a ship.”

where was rms britannic went the titanic relaunch of his brand new bow

As a ship guy myself if it stay afloat along time it will disintegrate in the water cause of big waves and storms. And it will not be like possible cause the engine room isn’t working anymore which cause the ship to not move even with a tug boat it will not move cause of the ship not functioning it will stay there for the rest of life the ship will not move cause of the broken engine room,missing bow and no telegraphs to guide there why back to port. With the double keel attached to the stern during the breaking will pull the stern to a angle which causes the stern to sink

Rip rms titanic

With the keel and double bottom ripped in half and the massive warping across the hull from being lifted out of the water and then breaking in two there is no way they would have rebuilt it.....at that point it actually is cheaper and faster to build an entirely new hull and just salvage the machinery and engines. I even have serious doubts they would have towed it because towing an unstable wreck is dangerous as well, probably would have made sure it sinks away from the shore. The theory is still fun tho, could it have remained stable enough for long enough to actually help save passengers, if the break was cleaner somehow.

wouldn't the backup generator still be working? it was on after the ship split.

Is there a working Titanic in this update? On the workshop?