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British military authorities then refused to permit Olympic’s civilian passengers to disembark and refused to allow the ship herself to leave Lough Swilly. The only people permitted off the ship were the rescued naval crew of the Audacious and Olympic’s chief surgeon Dr John Beaumont, who was being transferred to the SS Celtic.

The White Star Line was reluctant to risk moving its flagship, Olympic, whilst there was such danger at sea. But finally, on 2 November, after ship and her civilian passengers had been held aboard for six days, Olympic was allowed to leave Lough Swilly and complete her voyage – not to Greenock as originally planned, but to Belfast. She disembarked her passengers there the following day.

For security reasons, the Admiralty tried to cover up the sinking, but despite its best attempts, speculation about the possible sinking of the Audacious got into the public domain. In an effort to hide the disaster that had befallen a new dreadnought from a single mine, the Admiralty went as far as modifying the SS Mountclan to resemble the lost battleship and published her ‘movements’. They also kept Audacious on the Grand Fleet’s order of battle.