Many people seem to assume that the number of passengers Titanic carried on her maiden voyage was relatively low. In fact, express liners rarely sailed fully booked outside the height of the season. https://markchirnside.co.uk/article-from-the-archives-titanic-passengerlist/
(If you will excuse the plug - I don't believe there's any prohibition in the group rules...)
My new book, 'Olympic & Titanic: Triumph and Disaster', was published by the History Press in April 2026.
This hardback volume, similar in scale to the acclaimed Titanic: The ‘Ship Magnificent’ books, is 416 pages (including c. 160 black & white and c. 20 colour images). The text contains a treasure trove of little known information and previously unpublished anecdotes. Whether your interest is in the design and engineering, financial, social or technical aspects of these ships’ history, you will learn something new.
It is heavily based on primary sources. The approach was to explore the wider context and contribute to a deeper understanding of Titanic.
Many people are naturally sceptical of 'yet another Titanic book'. Nonetheless a common theme so far is that reviewers are finding out new information - and among these reviewers are noted Titanic historians who've studied the subject matter for decades. These include Bruce Beveridge and Steve Hall, from the team of authors who wrote 'Titanic: The "Ship Magnificent"', and Bill Wormstedt, a co-author of 'On A Sea of Glass'.
As I posted on my Facebook page:
>I ran a poll for people to chose some random page numbers from 'Olympic & Titanic: Triumph and Disaster'. The winners were the double page spreads starting on pages 48 and 116. Here's a preview of the contents!
>Page 48 has photos of Alexander Carlisle, Thomas Andrews and Edward Wilding. The information includes little known details of Carlisle's consultancy agreement with H&W, after his retirement; Thomas Andrews' pay rise and a 'bonus' he was paid directly (by the White Star Line, not H&W!); Edward Wilding's career and the earliest details of the 'Design "A"' concept, which demonstrates how much Olympic and Titanic grew during the design process.
>Page 116 has a stunning photo of the first class palm court on the Holland America liner Rotterdam, built by H&W in 1908. We can see furnishings by H. P. Mutters en Zoon, the Dutch company which also provided furniture for Olympic and Titanic and designs for the finest first class staterooms; there is a letter from Cunard's chairman, William Watson, to White Star's chairman, J. Bruce Ismay, explaining that James Miller, who worked on Lusitania's interiors, was seeking an introduction and wanted to pitch for interior design work on White Star's new ships; we see Alexander Carlisle discussing the enlargement of H&W's polishing shop, because the interior fittings required for Olympic and Titanic are straining the shipyard's capacity. We follow H&W's views on interior design, harking back to the lavish woods used in Teutonic's first class staterooms and expressing a preference for lighter colouring in newer ships. And then there is a very rare interior design concept sketch of Olympic's first class smoke room, produced by A. Heaton & Co. in February 1910 (compare it with the finished version!)
>All these little details flesh out the story and help us understand the broader context.
There are a number of blog posts with preview material for anyone who might be interested.