Posted by Bob Read on September 29, 2000 at 15:49:05:
In Reply to: Scavenged Boat Parts posted by Norm Olsen on September 29, 2000 at 14:54:07:
Norm:
You have a dilemma if you are in charge of repairs at H&W. Olympic has
notified Belfast via wireless that she will be steaming back to have a propeller blade replaced. First, I still think that spares had been cast. They must have had experience with blades being dropped before now. But let's say you don't have a spare. You have two options:
1. If Titanic is not in dry dock she has to be brought back in and the propeller blade removed then taken out again. Sound simple? Think about all the steps involved and the time involved to do this. Then after you go through the same steps with Olympic except for installing the blade you have to bring the Titanic back in and install a new blade on Titanic.
2. You immediatly notify your forge to cast a new blade.
Of those two options I would speculate that option two would be the most cost effective and also the most time efficient. With that said, the most time efficient thing would have been to cast spares in the first place. I'm willing to bet they were smart enough to do this.
Regards,
Bob Read
: In reference to C.J.Reynolds inquiry about the Olympic using one of the Titanic's propellers to be returned to service quickly, there is reference to this in an article in the Docking Bridge titled Olympic and Titanic Reunion. The item in question is between figures 2 and 3. The author doesn't make this fact, just brings up the possibility. But if one of Titanic's propellers went on the Titanic, wouldn't a new one have to be made for the Titanc, thus keeping her longer in the fitting out dock? Also there is nothing mentioned of a conspiracy theory, its just putting on a propeller most available to get the Olympic back in service as quickly as possible. After all, White Star must have been losing money on this deal with Olympic in the fitting out dock instead of in service. If this actually took place we probably will never know. Norm