RMS Olympic

General Characteristics
RMS Olympic, sister ship of infamous RMS Titanic.
Owner:	White Star Line
Builder:	Harland and Wolff yards in Belfast, Ireland
Laid down:	December 16, 1908
Launched:	October 20, 1910
Christened:	Not Christened
Maiden voyage:	June 14, 1911
Fate:	Served for 24 years from 1911 to 1935. Scrapped.
Tonnage:	45,324 (46,439 after repairs)
Displacement:	52,067 tons
Length:	882 ft, 9 in
Beam:	92.5 feet
Draught:	34 ft, 7 in
Power:	29 boilers. Two four cylinder triple expansion reciprocating engines each producing 16000 hp for outer two propellers. One low pressure turbine producing 18000 hp for the center propeller. Total 50,000 hp.
Propulsion:	Two bronze triple blade side propellers. One bronze quadruple blade center propeller.
Speed:	21 knots

Built for the White Star Line Company, RMS Olympic (or SS Olympic) was the first of her class, which included the ill-fated Titanic and Britannic. Unlike her sisters, Olympic served a long and illustrious career (1911 to 1935) and came to be known as "Old Reliable".

Contrary to popular belief the ship was not named after the Olympic Games. Instead, the Olympic class of ships — Olympic, Titanic and Britannic (originally Gigantic) — were named after Greek mythological races Olympians, Titans and Giants.

Beginning

Bruce Ismay, the chairman of White Star Line, and Lord Pierre, the chairman of Harland and Wolff shipyard planned the new Olympic-class ships intended to surpass rival Cunard's largest ships, the RMS Lusitania and RMS Mauretania in size and luxury but not speed. Olympic was to be built first, followed by Titanic and Britannic. In order to accommodate the construction of the class, Harland and Wolff had to upgrade their existing facility in Belfast. Olympic's keel was laid in December 1907 and she was launched in 1910. For her launch, which took place on October 20th 1910, the hull was painted in a light grey color for photographic purposes (a common practice of the day for the first ship in a new class, it made the lines of the ship clearer in the black and white photographs). Her hull was repainted immediately following the launch. Her maiden voyage commenced on June 14, 1911. During this voyage, shipbuilder Thomas Andrews was present along with a number of engineers, as part of Harland and Wolff's "Guarantee Group" to spot anything needing improvement. Unlike other ships of the day, Olympic had a cleaner look with a sleek profile. Rather than fitting her with bulky exterior air vents to catch more air, Harland and Wolff used a smaller air vents with a fan powered by electric motors. Unfortunately, the quest for cleaner looks comes with a price, less lifeboats. During the design phase, the Olympic class liners were intitially fitted with more lifeboats than the final design. However, White Star found that the lifeboats cluttered the decks and ordered Harland and Wolff to reduce them.

September 20, 1911, Olympic's first mishap was the collision with a British warship, HMS Hawke. Although the collision left two of her water-tight compartments filled and one of her propeller shaft twisted, Olympic was able to limp back to Southampton. At the resultant inquiry, the Royal Navy blamed Olympic for the incident, alleging that her massive size generated a suction that pulled HMS Hawke into her side. At the helm during this incident was Captain E. J. Smith, who would famously die at the helm of Titanic less than a year later. One crew member, Violet Jessop, survived not only the collision with the Hawke, but also the later sinking of Titanic as well as the 1916 sinking of Britannic, the third member of the class. Ironically, a similar incident would occur on Titanic's maiden voyage, when a smaller vessel New York, while moored beside Oceanic, was sucked by her propellers and nearly collided with Titanic. Fortunately the tug boat operator reacted quickly and pull the smaller vessel away from Titanic. The Hawke incident was a financial disaster for Olympic's operator and keeping her out of revenue service made the matters worse. Olympic returned to Belfast and to speed up the her repair, Harland and Wolff forced to delay Titanic's completion and uses her propeller shaft to Olympic. February of 1912, Olympic lose a propeller blade and she returned to her builder for emergency repairs. To perform these repairs Harland and Wolff once again had to pulled resources from Titanic's, delaying her maiden voyage from March 20, 1912 to April 10, 1912. [1]

Titanic Disaster

On April 14, 1912, Olympic received a distress signal from her sister Titanic, but was too far away to assist. Olympic, like Titanic, did not carry enough lifeboats for everyone on board. Upon return to England, Olympic was equipped with additional collapsible lifeboats, but her stokers went on strike and refused to return to work until the ship was equipped with regular lifeboats sufficient to accommodate all passengers and crew. The White Star Lines thereafter equipped Olympic with enough lifeboats, and in a later drydocking raised her bulkheads and gave her a double hull. With additions to her accommodation space made at the same time, her gross tonnage rose to 46,359 tons, 31 tonnes larger than Titanic's. In 1913, Olympic resumed her service and briefly regained the title as the largest ocean liner in the world until SS Imperator began service in June 1913.

World War I

At the beginning of World War I, Olympic initially remained in commercial service. October 27, 1914 she was ordered to assist a stricken British warship, the HMS Audacious. Olympic took on board the warship's crew. Attempts to tow the warship were unsuccessful as the towlines parted in bad weather, and HMS Audacious sank. In September of 1915, when the Royal Navy summoned Olympic to serve as troopship. Armed with 12 pound and 4.7 inch guns, she ferried the British troops around the eastern Mediterranean area. From 1916 to 1917, Olympic was chartered by the Canadian Government to transport its troops from Halifax to Britain. In 1917 she gained 6 inch guns and later she was painted with a "dazzle" camouflage scheme in order to confuse the enemy. After the United States declared war on Germany in 1918, Olympic transported thousands of US troops to Britain. On May 12, 1918, she was attacked by a U-boat U103; Olympic managed to avoid the torpedo and then rammed the U-boat and sank it, the only known sinking of a warship by a merchant vessel during World War I. Despite of heroic effort, not everyone was thrilled. Some people critisied her crew for risking thousands of life to retaliate against the U-Boat. During war, Olympic carried 66,000 troops, burned 347,000 tons of coal and traveled about 184,000 miles.[2] Her impressive World War I service earned her the nickname Old Reliable. After the war, when Olympic was about to be reverted back to civilian configuration, a dent was discovered below her hull's waterline and later concluded that it was caused by a torpedo failed to detonate. Had the topedo exploded, the result could be devastating.

Post-War and Demise

After completing service as a troopship, Olympic returned to Belfast for restoration to civilian service. Her interior was modernized and she was converted to burn oil. In 1920 she returned to passenger service and joined with RMS Majestic and RMS Homeric for an express service. She enjoyed success until the Great Depression reduced demand.

In 1934 Olympic again struck a ship. The approaches to New York were marked by lightships, and Olympic, like other liners, had been known to pass close by these vessels. [3], [4] On May 15, 1934,Olympic, inbound in heavy fog, was homing in on the radio beacon of Lightship 117, the Nantucket lightship. [5] Olympic failed to turn in time and sliced through the smaller vessel, which broke apart and sank.[6] Four of the lightship's crew went down with the vessel and seven were rescued, of whom three died of their injuries, for seven fatalities out of a crew of eleven. [7]

In 1934 White Star merged with the Cunard Line at the instigation of the British government. Cunard White Star then started retiring older ships. Olympic was suffering from a number of age related problems and appeared outdated compared to newer ships. In 1935 she was withdrawn from service and thereafter partially demolished at Jarrow, England. In 1937 she was towed to Inverkeithing, Scotland for final scrapping.

Olympic's fittings were auctioned off immediately before she was scrapped; some of her fittings (namely those of the First Class Lounge and part of the Aft Grand Staircase) can be found in the White Swan Hotel, located in Alnwick, England. Some fittings and paneling also ended up at a Haltwhistle paint factory.

In 2000, Celebrity Cruises purchased some of Olympic's original wooden panels and created RMS Olympic Restaurant on board their newest cruise ship, Millennium. According to Celebrity Cruise Line, this rare collection of wood paneling once graced Olympic's à la carte restaurant.

Trivia

Canadian artist Arthur Lismer, member of the Group of Seven (artists), painted "The 'Olympic' with Returned Soldiers" and now part of collection in National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.
Famous actor Charlie Chaplin and Edward, Prince of Wales, who later become the King of Great Britain, boarded the Olympic in 1921.

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