Often overshadowed in fame by her younger, and infamous sister, the Titanic, the RMS Olympic had a long and incredibly successful career of her own. The first of White Star Line's three 'Olympic Class' ships, the Olympic commenced her maiden voyage in 1911, enduring a long and successful career which would earn her the nickname 'The Old Reliable'. In many ways, she represents the pinnacle of ocean liner design, with her graceful elegance and her ability to survive anything that came her way. In this piece, I will provide a history of this magnificent ship, from her conception until her retirement in 1935.
Design and construction of the Olympic:
The early 20th century was a turning point for commercial ships. It was the height of transatlantic migration; in 1905 alone, over a million people sailed from Europe to the US to start a new life. The migrant shipping trade was booming, and every major shipping line was eager to capitalise.
With the success of Cunard's latest superliners, Mauretania and Lusitania, alongside continued competition from Hamburg-America Line and Norddeutscher Lloyd, White Star Line knew it needed to upgrade its fleet in order to maintain dominance over the transatlantic route and take advantage of growing migration.
The result of this would begin in 1907, when plans began for the construction of a new class of liners which would be bigger, grander, and more luxurious than any ship ever created before. Rather than competing with rivals for speed, White Star Line head, J. Bruce Ismay, opted to compete for size, luxury and grandiosity. These new liners would be known as the 'Olympic Class'.
Invariably, the contract to construct these new ships would go to Harland and Wolff, with whom White Star had forged a close relationship with.
In 1908, shipbuilders Harland and Wolff presented 'Design D' to White Star Line, the outline for the future Olympic Class liners, pictured below.
The design gave basic plans for two brand new superliners, with a potential third to join the pair. The features of Design D were unlike any of White Star Line's previous ships, and unlike any superliner before. Although there are some differences between Design D and the end products, including the placement of the lifeboats and the original plan for the ships to only have one mast, the exterior design of the ships remained very close to this design.
The first of these ships had the yard number '400'. Of course, '400' would later be christened RMS Olympic.
The design of the new liner was overseen by Lord Pirrie, Thomas Andrews, Edward Wilding and Alexander Carlisle. Carlisle would resign from his position as the chief draughtsman and general manager of Harland and Wolff in 1910, following a number of dispute with Lord Pirrie about the number of lifeboats on the ships. Carlisle was concerned about the insufficient number of lifeboats planned, but was rebuffed by Pirrie given that the number of lifeboats onboard met the Board of Trade requirement of 16 for the vessel. Andrews would subsequently take over, becoming master shipbuilder.
On the 16th December 1908, Olympic's keel was laid and was launched on 29th October 1910 and was then fitted out. Below are some of the specs of the ship as of 1911 (some would later be updated following her 1913 refit):
Length - 882 feet (the largest ship in the world until the SS Imperator in 1913)
Capacity - 2,435 passengers, 950 crew
Tonnage - 45,000 gross tonnes
Speed - 21 knots
Engines - two four-cylinder steam reciprocating engines and one low-pressure turbine engine
Boilers: 29 coal-fired boilers
Three propellors - two three-bladed wing propellors, one four-bladed propellor
Engine horsepower - Approximately 51,000
Lifeboats - 16, with four collapsibles
Inside RMS Olympic:
Olympic's interiors contained beautiful Edwardian features, mixed with period styles from the late-19th century.
She featured a stunning grand staircase, very similar to the famous grand staircase on her sister, Titanic. Made from English Oak, the staircase descended from the boat deck onto every deck below, accompanied by elevators from A deck to E deck. Above the staircase was a glass dome, which allowed natural light to flow in during the day. The grand staircase was a White-Star exclusive to Olympic Class ships, which certainly set them apart from their competitor liners.
Olympic's Grand Staircase
First class passengers enjoyed the highest of seagoing luxury, with cabins containing oak wood and private bathrooms, with a large dining saloon on D-deck, and a smaller, A-La-Carte restaurant for those who preferred a more intimate dining experience.
Passengers also had access to a luxury Turkish bath (something which proved very popular), a gymnasium, smoking rooms, and after 1913, a Cafe Parisien.
Olympic First Class dining room
First Class Saloon
First Class cabin, room C-64
Even the Second Class had luxury not too dissimilar from First Class among many of Olympic's rival ships. Second Class cabins featured oak wood and wash basins with running water, a rare feature on ships of this era. Although less ostentatious than First Class suites, Second Class rooms were certainly comfortable.
Second Class Smoking Room
A Second Class cabin
Third Class, although far less luxurious than First or even Second Class, had very respectable conditions in comparison to most other ships. Passengers slept in cabins containing two to ten bunks, each with a washbasin, and shared common bathrooms. Although it would seem like the bear minimum nowadays, access to water and electricity, three meals a day and a smoking room, common room and dining room were indeed a luxury for many passengers, many of whom were migrants travelling to the US for a new life.
A Third Class cabin
Third Class Saloon
Early career: 1911-1913
The Olympic began her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York on 14th June 1911, arriving in New York City 7 days later, on 21st June. She was captained by Edward John Smith, an experienced and highly regarded captain, who would later also captain the Titanic, on which he would sadly perish.
The Olympic would actually provide a source of inspiration for Cunard line and the construction of the Aquitania which would be launched in 1914. Cunard wanted to build a ship to rival the luxury and size of White Star's new Olympic Class.
However, Olympic would not be smooth sailing for long; on 20th September 1911, Olympic suffered a collision with HMS Hawke near the Isle of Wight, flooding two of her watertight compartments and twisting a propellor shaft. Thankfully, her robust design enabled her to stay afloat but the incident brought White Star Line a massive cost in repairs and legal bills, not to mention the revenue that was lost through having her largest ship temporarily pulled from service.
The repairs on Olympic forced the delay of the construction of the Titanic, as Harland and Wolff used parts from the Titanic, such as her propellor shaft, to repair the Olympic and allow the ship to resume service as quickly as possible.
On the night of Titanic's collision and sinking in April 1912, the Olympic was approximately 100 nautical miles from the Titanic (120 miles). After receiving news from the RMS Carpathia about the disaster, Olympic attempted to rush to the scene in hopes of rescuing survivors. However, her location meant that such an effort would have been futile, and Ismay ordered that Olympic should not take on any survivors due to concern that boarding a near-identical ship so soon following the disaster would have been too distressing.
Despite high popularity for the first year of crossings, revenue for the Olympic would drop as passengers were concerned about the safety of the Olympic following the Titanic disaster. Similar in design to the Titanic with as many lifeboats, this was certainly understandable. As a result, in October 1912, she was pulled from service for an extensive refit. Extra davits were installed to increase the number of lifeboats from twenty to sixty-eight, a double-hull was constructed to make the ship more robust, and five watertight bulkheads were increased from E and D deck up to B deck. Extra cabins were also introduced, along with a Cafe Parisien which had been popular on Titanic. Following the refit, Olympic's gross-registered tonnage increased to 46,439 tonnes.
On 2nd April 1913, Olympic resumed service. A year on from the loss of her sister ship and equipped with new safety features, it did not take long for Olympic's popularity to soar.
Olympic leaving port, 1911
1914 - 1918: The First World War
In 1914, Olympic continued to operate as a passenger liner, although passenger numbers dwindled as it became increasingly unsafe to travel with the threat of enemy ships. Rather than her traditional route of operating services between Southampton and New York, her voyages instead went between Liverpool and New York.
On October 27th, on her way back to Liverpool from New York, Olympic was alerted to an incident regarding HMS Audacious, which had been struck by a mine off the coast of Donegal, Ireland. Olympic was able to rescue 250 crew and despite Olympic's attempt to rescue the ship and tow her back, the HMS Audacious foundered. In fear that news of the incident would demoralise the public, Admiral Sir John Jellicoe ordered Olympic to not allow any passengers to disembarked until they had sworn to secrecy regarding the incident.
In 1915, Olympic was converted into a troopship. Fitted with 12 pounders and 4.7 inch guns, along with a dazzle camouflage, on 24th September 1915, she was ready for service as the HMT Olympic under command of Bertram Fox Hayes. Initially, she was used to carry troops from England to the Mediterranean as part of the Gallipoli campaign.
In 1917, she was instead used to transport troops from Halifax, Novia Scotia, to Britain.
On 12th May 1918, Olympic spotted an enemy U-Boat, U-103. The boat was planning to torpedo the submarine, but was rammed by Olympic before this could happen, destroying the submarine whilst Olympic suffered fairly little damage by comparison.
Her service as a troopship during the war saw her carry over 200,000 troops, and her impressive service earned her the nickname "The Old Reliable".
Olympic in her camouflage colours in the First World War
Post-War Career: 1919-1935:
In August 1919, Olympic returned to Belfast to begin conversion back into a passenger liner. The refit included updates to her interiors and the conversion of the boilers from coal to oil, as this meant quicker refuelling time and fewer engine personnel required to operate. On 26th June 1920, she began her first passenger voyage to New York.
Unfortunately, the loss of RMS Titanic and HMHS Britannic meant that the Olympic was once again without a sister ship. Two German ships, Majestic (formerly SS Bismarck) and Homeric (formerly Columbus), were given to White Star Line as part of the post-war reparations, and used as running mates alongside Olympic.
Throughout the 1920s, Olympic continued to be a highly popular ship, boasting passengers such as Charlie Chaplin, Prince Edward (later King Edward VIII), and Marie Curie.
Yet this ship would not be without further incidents. On 22nd May 1924, Olympic was involved in a collision near New York City, when she collided with Ford St. George, heavily damaging her sternpost. As a result, her entire stern frame had to be replaced, no easy task as such a repair had never been carried out on a ship of her huge size.
New immigration laws in the United States massively reduced the number of migrants able to travel from Europe to the US, something that made up a great part of the revenue of ocean liners. Like other major shipping lines, White Star needed to adapt in order to maintain profitability. As a result, Olympic was provided with a new "Tourist Third Class"
which catered to tourists looking to travel to-and-from Europe in comfort but at an affordable price.
By the early 1930s, a combination of lost revenue due to the Great Depression, alongside increased competition from newer, faster ocean liners such as the SS Bremen and the SS Rex, meant that Olympic's passenger numbers started to decline.
Between 1932 and 1933, Olympic underwent another refit, which greatly improved her engines and overall speed, but this couldn't stop the fact that Olympic was slowly becoming a relic of the past, unable to keep up with her younger competitors.
Alongside this, in 1934 Cunard and White Star Line merged, as both companies were struggling financially due to the Great Depression. The Queen Mary, which had begun construction in 1931 but had been halted, was given funds for completion by the British government, and plans were already underway for a new sister ship, the Queen Elizabeth
By 1935, Olympic was becoming increasingly redundant, for although she ran well for her age, her speed onboard facilities did not match those of newer liners.
As a result, she was withdrawn from service and laid up in Southampton. The first part of her dismantling began in Jarrow in late-1935, and the final part of her superstructure was demolished in 1937 at Inverkeithing.
Parts of her interiors were stripped and sold off to various venues around the globe, with some of her artefacts now available to see in hotels and museums.
Olympic at Southampton, 1930s
To Conclude:
With 24 years of service, and an impressive record both in peacetime and in wartime, Olympic was a ship surely deserving of her nickname. For many years she represented the best-of-the-best in terms of shipping design, a career which contrasts so much compared to her ill-fated younger sister. Although her fame has perhaps been overshadowed by Titanic, Olympic deserves great recognition for her magnificent career. The Olympic Class in many ways would set the standard for ocean liners going forward.