Titanic vs Queen Mary: A Comparison

how does the rms queen mary compare to the rms titanic i thought this might be an interesting topic to discuss simply because the ships are so different yet so similar first i want to give a brief overview of the two ships and their story for those who are new to the ocean liner topic then i'll get into some basic comparisons of size accommodations and engines please note that i do not consider myself an expert on ocean liners i'm just a fan and this video is just for entertainment also there aren't enough images of the titanic out there so some pictures and video will be of her nearly identical sister ship the rms olympic okay with that out of the way let's begin i'm sure you already know the story of the rms titanic she and her sister ships the olympic and the britannic were constructed at harland and wolf shipyards in belfast ireland and were owned by the white star line the titanic was the largest ship in the world at the time of her maiden voyage which set sail from southampton england on april 10 1912. she struck an iceberg on her way to new york and subsequently sank in the early morning hours of april 15 1912 killing 1517 of her nearly 2 200 souls on board even less of you know the story of the rms queen mary she and her sistership the rms queen elizabeth were constructed at john brown shipyards in clydebank scotland and were owned by the merged cunard white star company she was intended to be the largest ship in the world but the ss normandy added over 3 000 tons to her size just so that mary could not claim that title nevertheless the queen mary had her maiden voyage on may 27 1936 capturing the coveted blue ribbon just two years later making her the fastest ocean liner in the world for 14 years she was used as an armed troop ship during world war ii carrying whole divisions of soldiers at a time she still holds the record for the most souls on board a single voyage 16 683 people the queen mary retired 10 years early in 1967 because she couldn't keep up with the airline industry today she sits as a tourist attraction in long beach california for those that don't know these vessels are not cruise ships they are ocean liners built for ferrying passengers across the sometimes dangerous north atlantic these two vessels with their primitive technology and design could easily outrun a modern cruise ship and survive a powerful ocean storm that would otherwise rip a cruise ship apart and that is an important distinction and now for the first comparison between the two ships size unfortunately many people still think the titanic is the largest ship ever built and this is where i have to burst that bubble the titanic's length measured 269 meters or 882 feet and she had a width of 28 meters or 92 feet she weighed 52 310 long tons compare that to the queen mary which measures a length of 310 meters or 1019 feet her beam is 36 meters or 118 feet in width and lastly she weighed 77 400 long tons the mary has 12 decks and two swimming pools split between the three classes while titanic only had 10 decks and one swimming pool accessible only to the first class passengers the titanic had a capacity of 2435 passengers and 892 crew members for a total of 3 3227 people whereas the queen mary's capacity held 2139 passengers and 1100 crew for a total of 3 240 people that's right despite the queen mary's incredible size difference she held 87 less people than titanic and the reason why brings us to the next comparison we'll now compare the passenger accommodations between the ships both ships were split into three classes to simplify we'll call them first second and third classes however the first thing we must distinguish is how these classes changed in the 24 years between these ships during the days of the titanic the edwardian era was coming to a close but the wealthy were still treated like society's royalty while the working class was treated like peasants when the queen mary first set sail people had already been through the first world war and had survived the great depression events that humbled society and narrowed the divide between the classes on the queen mary first-class passengers still enjoyed a more modest luxury while third class were entitled to more comfort than ever before when it comes to the titanic we're used to seeing first class rooms look like they belong in a palace but only some of the first class staterooms appeared like that the rest were more modest with exposed ceilings the queen mary was similar most of her first class staterooms were also individually designed with their own artistic style but yet there were also more affordable options on the titanic most of the first class passengers had to share toilets with others just as the second and third class had to but on the queen mary every first class stateroom had its own toilet and tub it was a different story for the second class some had their own toilets but others had to share in the third class sometimes five cabins would have to share a single bathroom but at least on the queen mary third third-class passengers were able to keep their own staterooms because on the titanic third class passengers often had to share a cramped space with strangers not to mention the community toilets this is why the titanic held more passengers it was simply because the queen mary was designed to give all the classes more elbow room the titanic had a wonderful first class dining saloon with bright interiors and carved wood pillisters this is vastly different from the queen mary's first class main restaurant which prized its warm glow and golden puroba wood paneling on the titanic first class passengers could enjoy dining at the a la carte restaurant the queen mary had an equivalent as well it was called the veranda grill and was quite exclusive the cafe parisienne was a great place for titanic passengers to grab a snack and enjoy tea which is a contrast to the queen mary's observation bar where guests enjoyed pricey libations in a high-end atmosphere titanic's third class smoking room was rather bare bones but the dark wood paneling was at least comfortable and familiar now compare that to the queen mary's third class smoking room which was furnished with comfortable furniture and had more personality [Music] titanic's third class general room acted as a sort of lounge and was also quite sparse but on the queen mary the third class had two lounges the main lounge and a decorative garden lounge titanic's swimming pool was among the first swimming pools ever built on an ocean liner and as such was understandably somewhat lackluster with exposed bulkheads support structures and light bulbs however the first class swimming pool on the queen mary is dramatically different with its upper balcony glazed eggshell tiles double-sided staircase and mother-of-pearl ceiling this swimming pool was used by the third class passengers as well the next matter of this comparison video is the propulsion of these two great ships which differ greatly between them but yet have similarities the titanic's engines operated on steam power which was generated by the 29 scotch boilers they had there were three engines two of them were quadruple cylinder triple expansion reciprocating engines and the third was a low pressure parsons steam turbine when steam entered the triple expansion engines it powered a high pressure cylinder which exhausted into an intermediate pressure cylinder which then exhausted into two low pressure cylinders the spent steam from both engines was then exhausted into the parsons turbine blowing across its rows of blades causing it to spin like a pinwheel each triple expansion engine could produce 15 000 shaft horsepower with the parsons turbine generating 16 000 for a combined engine output of 46 000 horsepower which pushed the titanic at its maximum speed of 23 knots in contrast the queen mary used four sets of engines to drive her four propellers each of the engines consisted of four parsons turbines steam from the queen mary's 24 yaro boilers entered a high pressure turbine which exhausted into an intermediate pressure turbine which exhausted into a second intermediate pressure turbine which then exhausted into a low pressure turbine the high speed of the turbines was set through a single reduction gearbox converting it to 53 000 horsepower the four sets of engines could produce a combined maximum of 212 000 shaft horsepower which drove the queen mary at her highest achievable speed of 32.84 knots naturally you'd think a ship like the queen mary would have larger propellers but actually the titanic had bigger ones the mary had four quadruple bladed screw propellers that each measured 20 feet in diameter which is 6 meters and weighed 35 tons the titanic on the other hand had three propellers the two triple bladed outward screws measured 7.2 meters in diameter which is 23.5 feet and they weighed 38 tons the central propeller was driven by the parsons turbine and it was 5.2 meters in diameter which is 17 feet the propellers on both the queen mary and the titanic were made of manganese bronze which was somewhat resilient against the corrosive nature of seawater well everyone i hope this was fun and enlightening again i'm no expert on ocean liners i just love sharing my knowledge and enthusiasm with others the queen mary is often compared unfairly to the titanic and so i thought it was only natural to compare both ships without bias i know many people think that queen mary is lackluster in comparison but honestly i think that depends on which architectural style you like more just because the queen mary wasn't built with edwardian taste doesn't mean her art deco style was any less luxurious for her time thank you all for watching please like and subscribe for more content and i'll see you next time you

Channel: Alex the Historian

Views: 135,367

Keywords: Titanic, Queen Mary, Ocean Liner

Id: 8KvQZH1u2EA

Length: 11min 13sec (673 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 07 2021