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The Big 'U' as the SS United States was also called, is at the Walt Whitman Bridge in Pennsylvania. I intend to visit this summer. She isn't open for tours, but just a chance to see that ship is a treat in itself. She was the fastest ocean liner ever built, with 240,000 horsepower steam turbines, over a hundred thousand more than here nearest rival. She was designed by Francis Gibbs, the same man who designed the Missouri. She had a cruising speed of about 36 knots, and could attain a maximum speed of 43 knots, 20 in reverse. She was the last ship to take the Blue Riband.

But I digress; this is a Titanic forum Back to the subject at hand.

I do believe that had Titanic not sunk, only ship buffs like us would know of her. Heck, if one is not a ship buff, Mauretania would be unknown to most, excepting the rare few who paid attention to its mention in Titanic at the beginning of the film.

Given some of the events leading up to Titanic's launch, it was probably good that it was the Titanic and not the Olympic; she was not at full capacity on her maiden voyage (don't know if the Olympic was or was not, but there was a lengthy coal strike going on at the time, which disrupted schedules and though it ended on April 6th, only 922 passengers were aboard when she left Southhampton, picking up more at Cherbourg and Queenstown to bring the total to 1316, barely half of Titanic's capacity.

Anyway, I don't think they're dumb questions at all

Daniel