So what are the butterflies?
Olympic became a transporter and once sank a German U-Boat
Getting the image of a longer-lasting, much-modified Titanic ("Old Unsinkable") making a final transport run at the end of WWII in Europe, and facing off against a Type XXI U-Boat in the last engagement for either vessel...
It is a soft idea because the whole point of Type XXIs was that they could keep their distance and stay underwater faster/longer. Another soft but slightly more plausible and a lot more spectacular idea is the ship going down by ramming a German surface raider earlier in the war.
I know next-to-nothing but that so I will just reply with something I do know about. In the 1930s British shipping was, to put it mildly, pretty screwed. The government had to bail out the industry which forced the White Star/Cunard merger and the decision to scrap Olympic was part of a costcutting programme. I'd be very surprised if Titanic would've made it out of the 1930s. There'd be even less of a nostalgia/mystical reverence for the Olympic class if she had never sank, of course.Getting the image of a longer-lasting, much-modified Titanic ("Old Unsinkable") making a final transport run at the end of WWII in Europe, and facing off against a Type XXI U-Boat (maybe U-2511, commanded by Schnee or another, more diehard captain?), in the last engagement for either vessel...
(Disclaimer: I know next to nothing about naval tech and other matters, so this is a very soft idea)
Titanic vs. Bismarck*??
(*Maybe post-1st or 2nd OTL battle Bismarck, to make the odds somewhat more even?)
I know next-to-nothing but that so I will just reply with something I do know about. In the 1930s British shipping was, to put it mildly, pretty screwed. The government had to bail out the industry which forced the White Star/Cunard merger and the decision to scrap Olympic was part of a costcutting programme. I'd be very surprised if Titanic would've made it out of the 1930s. There'd be even less of a nostalgia/mystical reverence for the Olympic class if she had never sank, of course.