FAQ: What Was Olympic‘s Maiden Voyage Time & Average Speed?
I thought that Olympic completed her maiden voyage in five days sixteen hours and forty- two minutes, averaging 21.17 knots. Why do you give different figures (after 2006)?
When Olympic completed her maiden voyage in June 1911, the time taken for the transatlantic leg was given as five days sixteen hours and forty-two minutes. This appeared in press reports and the log card issued to passengers. Given the distance of 2,894 nautical miles, the average speed came to 21.17 knots. However, unknown to anyone at the time, there was an error of 100 minutes in the calculation. The departure time from Daunt’s Rock, after leaving Ireland, and the arrival time at the Ambrose Lightship, approaching New York, could both be confirmed. They showed that the voyage had taken five days fifteen hours and two minutes. This meant that the average speed was actually 21.43 knots.
The incorrect figures were included in the earlier print runs of The ‘Olympic’ Class Ships: Olympic, Titanic & Britannic and RMS Olympic: Titanic’s Sister, as the mistake was not known. Mark Chirnside and Sam Halpern discovered the mistake in 2006. Their research was outlined in an article published in early 2007. This article appeared in the Titanic International Society’s Voyage journal, and subsequently online at Encyclopedia-Titanica: ‘Olympic and Titanic: Maiden Voyage Mysteries’ (external link). Since then, the books have been revised and the mistake corrected. (It is interesting to note that someone at the White Star Line had apparently discovered the error at some point after June 1911, because the corrected duration was provided by the company in the 1930s. However, all modern literature had relied on the headline data reported in June 1911.)
