Absolutely -- life surprises, doesn't it?

In 1911 Mauretania's third class passenger lists were actually slightly better westbound, so it maybe that there's a lot of difference in the Southampton-NY and Liverpool-NY passenger routes. I have got the comparative figures for 1911, and Olympic's average passenger lists beat Mauretania in every category bar 'second class westbound,' but her real competition was in the other Southampton ships, not Mauretania from Liverpool.

In 1913, Olympic's westbound third class passenger lists had the clear edge over the eastbound; and in 1914 (before the war's outbreak in August) they reverted to the 1911 situation, whereby eastbound passenger lists were higher than the westbound. By 1914, for every three westbound third class passengers, Olympic would be carrying about four eastbound in third class, but the difference is not nearly so marked as it was for 1911.

Bear in mind that we don't have any 'full' years for comparison prior to the war. In 1911, Olympic missed the height of the season due to the Hawke collision, and was only in service from June anyway; 1912 figures are distorted by her cancelled voyage, Titanic's loss, low passenger lists, and her early withdrawal for a refit; in 1913, she only sailed from April onwards and not the full year; and in 1914 she sailed until August in peacetime but then the passenger figures got distorted enormously for few her post-August commercial voyages.

Best wishes,

Mark.