People often compare Titanic and Hindenburg; there was even a film called Hindenburg: Titanic of the Skies. But while both are best remembered for their dramatic disasters, these two passenger ships otherwise had little in common.
On the anniversary of the sinking of Titanic — April 14-15, 1912 — a brief comparison of the two ships.
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Titanic: Sank on Maiden Voyage
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Hindenburg: 62 Successful Flights
Titanic famously sank on her maiden voyage; the ship never once saw the port she was designed to visit, New York.
There is a common misconception that Hindenburg crashed on its maiden voyage as well, but in fact the airship was lost on its 63rd flight, having made many successful voyages between Europe and North and South America.
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Titanic Death Toll: 68% Died
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Hindenburg Death Toll: 36% Died
Titanic was a tragedy both in terms of the number of people who died — 1517 men, women, and children perished in the sinking — and also the tragically low rate of survival: Only 32% of the souls on board Titanic survived, and the death toll was even higher for certain groups; only 25% of third class passengers and 24% of the crew survived the sinking.
While Hindenburg’s fiery destruction may have looked unsurvivable to those on the ground, and to people watching films of the disaster, 64% of the passengers and crew survived the accident. Of the 97 persons on board the airship when it burned, only 35 died in the disaster (along with one civilian on the ground).
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Titanic: Built for Luxury, Not Speed
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Hindenburg: Built for Speed, Not Luxury
Titanic was built for size and luxury. The White Star ship was never going to win any speed records, but provided passengers with space and luxury never before seen on any ocean liner. Passengers looking for speed in 1912 would have chosen Cunard’s Mauretania or Lusitania rather than Titanic.
Hindenburg was built for one purpose: to cross the ocean faster than any other passenger vessel in the world. The airship’s passenger accommodations were certainly comfortable, and astounding when compared to a modern jetliner, but not luxurious when compared to an ocean liner; the ship’s windowless cabins were about the size of a small railway compartment and passengers shared public bathrooms one deck below. Passengers looking for luxury would have chosen Normandie or Queen Mary, but Hindenburg was more than twice as fast: while the fastest ocean liners of the era took about five days to cross the Atlantic, Hindenburg’s fastest crossing took less than 43 hours.
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Titanic: Conservative Design
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Hindenburg: Cutting Edge Innovation
Titanic was not a technologically innovative ship; she was basically a larger version of ships that had gone before. Titanic’s main power plant was a tried-and-true triple-expansion reciprocating steam engine (although she had a small turbine powering her center propeller) and most of the ship’s notable features and systems — such as her watertight subdivisions and Marconi radio installation — had been used on previous liners.
Hindenburg, in contrast, represented the cutting edge of airship technology, and was one of the most capable aircraft of any kind in its time. Hindenburg had advanced engines, an auto-pilot, and a sonar altimeter among other innovations, and the zeppelin could carry a greater payload a farther distance than any other aircraft of its day. Though the technology of the airship itself was rapidly becoming obsolete, Hindenburg was the summit of airship development.
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Titanic: 882 feet, 2500 passengers
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Hindenburg: 808 feet, 72 passengers
Titanic was a little more than 882 feet in length, with a beam of 92.5 feet, and could carry approximately 2,500 passengers.
Hindenburg was roughly the same size — the ship was approximately 808 feet in length, with a diameter of 135 feet — but had berths for only 72 passengers.
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Titanic: The Beginning of a Golden Age
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Hindenburg: The End of an Era
Titanic was the beginning of a golden age of transatlantic ocean liners. Titanic’s sister ship Olympic had a distinguished career that lasted until 1935, and the next decades saw a succession of larger and faster ships that included Bremen and Europa, Normandie, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, United States, Queen Elizabeth 2, and France.
Hindenburg was the last airship ever to carry passengers across an ocean. Hindenburg’s near-identical sister ship LZ-130 Graf Zeppelin never carried a paying passenger and was dismantled in 1940.
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Illustration of Hindenburg courtesy of artist Max Pinucci, creator of the beautiful new book AIRSHIPS: Designed for Greatness.
The main difference between the two is the fact that the Titanic was superseded in size and luxury , BUT the Hindenburg is still the Largest man-made object to ever fly .. 242 tons of luxury that rose among the clouds With a Grace and magnificence never to be seen… Read more »
The Hindenburg wasn’t luxurious. In any shape or form.
Actually, the Hindenburg was luxurious Flying across the Atlantic on the airship Hindenburg was the fastest and most luxurious way to travel between Europe and America in the 1930’s. The much larger “A Deck” contained promenades, a dining room, a lounge, a writing room, and 25 double-berthed passenger cabins. And… Read more »
You can’t even compare the Hindenburg with passenger liners in terms of luxury lol!!
Airships are 10 levels below passenger liners.
Andrew Learmouth is correct; ocean liners offered a lot more luxury than airships. What airships offered was not luxurious accommodation and food, but speed and freedom from seasickness.
….and ocean liners offered their passengers freedom from being airsick!
Hi there, look, I know the Hindenburg was luxurious compared to any other airships and a huge step as airships go. I actually have a soft spot for the Hindenburg. My comment wasn’t meant to sound mean. This is why I hate typing like this, as the written word can… Read more »
thank you for these wonderful things about the Hindenburg and the Titanic thanks again
The popular comparison between the two likely has to do with the truly large scale of both vessels. Granted, as you noted, many an ocean liner would be larger than Titanic, but in her time she lived up to her name. Both were majestic, greatly noted for their elegance to… Read more »
Actually, the events that led to the respective demises of both vehicles are quite similar, so there actually is some justification in comparing the two in that regard. Obviously the weather played a role in the disasters. But pushing the limits of the performance of both machines contributed, too. With… Read more »
Hello there, Pete. I’m a Titanic historian, whose finally just about to publish my first book. I also work at Titanic Belfast and have researched the Olympic Class for 40 years. It’s known from Frederick Barrett and the crew that Titanic’s 4 single ended boilers were never lit. This is… Read more »
What is sad is that the majority of people seem to believe that the Hindenburg crashed on its maiden voyage to the U.S. while it had a very successful first season of flying in 1936 and several flights in 1937 before the crash.The sinking of the Titanic did not spell… Read more »
The majority of my friends, I am convinced, believe that the Hindenburg crashed right after taking off, and there are many people who know virtually nothing of the golden age of airships. In reality, it was not feasible to end the transatlantic steamship trade, as there were no alternatives to… Read more »
Wasn’t the Los Angeles still in service at the time? I heard the demises of the Akron and Macon pressed the LA back into service.
Yes, everything you said was true and ita rather sad things happened the way they did. Personally, I’d love to see the likes of huge zeppelins floating across the skies. I’d be pretty awestruck to see something so large in the air. I just think it’s not fair to compare… Read more »