Posted by Speaking of the interiors.... on September 29, 2000 at 18:53:49:
In Reply to: Re: Olympics props?"Conspiracy". posted by Mark Darrah on September 29, 2000 at 17:37:38:
...In order to switch ships, it would have taken an entire army of H & W workers WEEKS to rip out Titanic's B deck interiors and swap them with Olympic's...
...Not to mention virtually every other piece of interior panelling, doors, furniture, etc. on every deck. Every single piece was either stenciled or punch stamped with the hull number and exact location of installation. When the Olympic was scrapped, all of her interior fittings and furnishings were sold off and much of it still exists today. All of this stuff bears the number "400". Considering that we're talking about literally thousands of pieces, the odds in favor of overlooking something during such a "switch" would be really high; yet, nothing had been reported found with the number "401" while the Olympic was being scrapped.
We're talking many MONTHS of work to swap out all of that stuff and get it to fit properly in another ship. Ships aren't like automobiles with interchangable parts. Even "identical" parts made from the same drawings require some custom fitting. The majority of the panelling was fitted in place with some judicious planing and scraping to ensure proper fit during fitting out, just as the moldings in a house are cut on site. Even though your neighbors may have the exact same floor plan as you, this doesn't mean that the baseboards from their kitchen will fit right into place in your's. Such is the case with all of the fittings between the Olympic and Titanic.
As an aside, the first place I saw any mention of a section of shafting being pirated from the Titanic and used to repair the Olympic was in Eaton and Haas's "Titanic: Triumph and Tragedy". I assume they uncovered this during their research in Belfast. Personally, I think that it also may have been a reserve part held at the yard.
Scott Andrews