RMS Olympic

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section, while providing some complete reference citations, includes a list of references or external links, and its verifiability remains partly unclear because it has insufficient in-text citations. You can improve this article by introducing more precise citations.

RMS Olympic May 31 1911
Career
Name:	RMS Olympic
Owner:	White Star Line
Port of Registry:	Liverpool, United Kingdom
Builder:	Harland and Wolff yards in Belfast
Laid down:	1908-12-16
Launched:	1910-10-20
Christened:	Not christened
Maiden voyage:	14 June 1911
Fate:	Retired at Southampton after 24 years service and scrapped. Superstructure dismantled at Jarrow, England, and the hull at Inverkeithing, Scotland.
General characteristics
Class and type:	Olympic-class ocean liner
Tonnage:	45,324 (46,358 after 1913, increased to 46,439 after 1920)
Displacement:	52,067 tons
Length:	882 ft 6 in (269.0 m)
Beam:	92 ft 6 in (28.2 m)
Draught:	34 ft 7 in (10.5 m)
Installed power:	24 double-ended (six furnace) and 5 single-ended (three furnace) Scotch boilers. Two four-cylinder triple-expansion reciprocating engines each producing 15,000 hp for the two outboard wing propellers at 75 revolutions per minute. One low-pressure turbine producing 16,000 h. 59,000 hp produced at maximum revolutions. [1]
Propulsion:	Two bronze triple-blade wing propellers. One bronze quadruple-blade centre propeller.
Speed:	21 knots (39 km/h/24 mph) maximum 23 knots

RMS Olympic was the lead ship of the Olympic class ocean liners built for the White Star Line, which also included Titanic and Britannic. Unlike her sisters, Olympic served a long and illustrious career (1911 to 1935), becoming known as "Old Reliable."

The Olympic class ships were originally to be named Olympic, Titanic and Gigantic, after Greek mythological races: the Olympians, the Titans, and the Giants. Gigantic was renamed Britannic following the sinking of Titanic.

[edit] History

Plaque of RMS Olympic on the William Pirrie monument, grounds of Belfast City Hall

J. Bruce Ismay, the chairman of White Star Line, and William Pirrie, the chairman of Harland and Wolff shipyard, intended the Olympic-class ships to surpass rival Cunard's largest ships, the RMS Lusitania and RMS Mauretania in size and luxury. Olympic was to be built first, followed by Titanic and Gigantic (the latter renamed Britannic after Titanic's sinking). In order to accommodate the construction of the class, Harland and Wolff upgraded their facility in Belfast; the most dramatic change was the combining of three slipways into two larger ones. Olympic's keel was laid in December 1908 and she was launched on 20 October 1910. For her launch, the hull was painted in a light grey colour for photographic purposes (a common practice of the day for the first ship in a new class, as it made the lines of the ship clearer in the black and white photographs). Her hull was repainted following the launch.

Her maiden voyage commenced on 14 June 1911. Designer Thomas Andrews was present for the passage to New York and return, along with a number of engineers, as part of Harland and Wolff's "Guarantee Group" to spot areas for improvement. Olympic had a cleaner, sleeker look than other ships of the day: rather than fitting her with bulky exterior air vents, Harland and Wolff used smaller air vents with electric fans, with a "dummy" fourth funnel used for additional ventilation. For the powerplant Harland and Wolff employed a combination of reciprocating engines with a centre low-pressure turbine, as opposed to the steam turbines used on Cunard's Lusitania and Mauretania. White Star claimed the Olympic class's engine set-up to be more economical than expansion engines or turbines alone. Olympic consumed about 650 tons of coal a day at 21.7 knots on her maiden voyage, compared to 1000 tons of coal a day the Lusitania and Mauretania.^[2]

[edit] Hawke incident

Olympic's first major mishap occurred on 20 September 1911, when it collided with a British warship, HMS Hawke off the Isle of Wight. Although the incident resulted in the flooding of two of her compartments and a twisted propeller shaft, Olympic was able to limp back to Southampton. At the subsequent inquiry the Royal Navy blamed Olympic for the incident, alleging that her large displacement generated a suction that pulled Hawke into her side. In command during this incident was Captain Edward Smith, who was lost at sea a year later onboard Titanic. One crew member, Violet Jessop, survived not only the collision with the Hawke but also the later sinking of Titanic and the 1916 sinking of Britannic, the third ship of the class.

The Hawke incident was a financial disaster for Olympic's operator, and keeping her out of revenue service made matters worse. Olympic returned to Belfast, and to speed up her repair, Harland and Wolff was forced to delay Titanic's completion and use her propeller shaft for Olympic. In February 1912, Olympic lost a propeller blade and she once again returned to her builder for emergency repairs. To get her back to service immediately, Harland & Wolff again had to pull resources from Titanic, delaying her maiden voyage from 20 March 1912 to 10 April 1912. ^[3]

[edit] Titanic disaster

Main article: Sinking of the RMS Titanic

On 14 April 1912, Olympic, now under the command of Herbert Haddock, 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 Britain, Olympic was equipped with additional, second-hand collapsible lifeboats but this still was not enough for everyone on board; subsequently 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. Six months later, White Star withdrew Olympic and returned her to her builders at Belfast. There, her bulkheads were raised higher and a double hull was installed. At the same time, alterations and additions to her passenger cabins were carried out on B Deck which necessitated deleting her B Deck promenades - one of the few features that separated her from her sister ship. With these changes, Olympic's gross tonnage rose to 46,359 tons, 31 tons larger than Titanic's. In 1913, Olympic returned to service and briefly regained the title of largest ocean liner in the world, until SS Imperator entered passenger service in June 1913.

[edit] World War I

After aborting the attempts to tow, the crew of HMS Audacious take to lifeboats to be taken aboard RMS Olympic. Note Olympic's lifeboats in the water.

A postcard of Olympic with "dazzle" camouflage.

In World War I, Olympic initially remained in commercial service. On 27 October 1914 she was ordered to assist a stricken British warship, HMS Audacious. Olympic took on board the warship's crew. Attempts to tow the warship were unsuccessful as the tow-lines parted in bad weather, and Audacious sank.

In September 1915 the Royal Navy summoned Olympic to serve as a troopship. Armed with 12-pounders and 4.7-inch guns, the newly-designated His Majesty's Transport 2810 left Liverpool on 24 September 1915, carrying soldiers to the Gallipoli campaign. She continued to serve on routes to the eastern Mediterranean. From 1916 to 1917, Olympic was chartered by the Canadian Government to transport troops from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Britain. In 1917 she gained 6-inch guns and was painted with a "dazzle" camouflage scheme to make it more difficult for observers to estimate her speed and heading. After the United States declared war on Germany in 1917, Olympic transported thousands of U.S. troops to Britain.

On 12 May 1918, Olympic, under the command of Captain Bertram Fox Hayes, successfully rammed the U-boat U-103, the only known sinking of a warship by a merchant vessel during World War I.

During the war, Olympic is reported to have carried up to 201,000 troops and other personnel, burning 347,000 tons of coal and travelling about 184,000 miles.^[4] Her impressive World War I service earned her the nickname Old Reliable.

[edit] Post-war

After completing service as a troopship, Olympic returned to Belfast for restoration to civilian service. Her interior was modernized and her boilers were converted from coal burning to oil fired. During the conversion work and drydocking a dent was discovered below her waterline which was later concluded to have been caused by a torpedo that had failed to detonate.

Olympic emerged from her refit with an increased tonnage of 46,439, allowing her to retain her claim to the title of largest British built liner afloat (although RMS Aquitania was slightly longer). In 1920 she returned to passenger service, on one voyage that year carrying 2,403 passengers. She was joined with RMS Majestic and RMS Homeric for an express service from 1922, operating successfully until the Great Depression reduced demand after 1930.

At the turn of 1927-28, Olympic was converted to carry tourist third cabin passengers as well as first, second and third class. Tourist third cabin was an attempt to attract travellers who desired comfort without the accompanying high ticket price. New public rooms were constructed for this class, although tourist third cabin and second class would merge to become 'tourist' by late 1931.

One year later Olympic's first class cabins were again improved by adding more bathrooms, a dance floor was fitted in the enlarged first class dining saloon, and a number of new suites with private facilities were installed forward on B-deck. More improvements would follow in a later refit, but 1929 saw Olympic's best average passenger lists since 1925.

[edit] Demise

Following a refit and overhaul at the end of 1932, Olympic returned to service in March 1933 'looking like new.' Her engines were performing at their best and she repeatedly recorded speeds in excess of 23 knots, despite averaging less than that in regular transatlantic service. Passenger capacities were given as 618 first class, 447 tourist class and only 382 third class after the decline of the immigrant trade. 1933 was Olympic's worst year of business - carrying under 10,000 passengers in total.

Olympic passes the Nantucket light vessel in early 1934.

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.^{[5] [6]} On 15 May 1934, Olympic, inbound in heavy fog, was homing in on the radio beacon of Lightship 117, the Nantucket lightship. ^[7] Olympic, under the command of Captain John Binks failed to turn in time and sliced through the smaller vessel, which broke apart and sank.^[8] Four of the lightship's crew went down with the vessel and seven were rescued, of whom three died of their injuries - thus there were seven fatalities out of a crew of eleven. ^[9]

In 1934 the White Star Line merged with the Cunard Line at the instigation of the British government. This merger allowed funds to be granted for the completion of the future RMS Queen Mary. Cunard White Star then started retiring its surplus tonnage, which included the majority of the old White Star liners. Olympic was withdrawn from service in 1935 and sold to Sir John Jarvis for £100,000 to be partially demolished at Jarrow, providing work for the region. In 1937, Olympic was towed to Inverkeithing to T.W. Ward's yard for final demolition.

[edit] Olympic today

Olympic fittings can be seen in this photo of the Olympic Suite at the White Swan Hotel in Alnwick, Northumberland

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, in Alnwick, England. Some fittings and panelling also ended up at a Haltwhistle paint factory. The rest of her fittings found homes in scattered places throughout Great Britain.

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

In 2004, in the Titanic Museum in Branson, Missouri, USA, a first class cabin from the Olympic served as an example of the class's interior quarters. A replica of the Grand Staircase in the Titanic also appears at this museum, as well as many items recovered from the Titanic wreckage.

The clock from Olympic's grand staircase is on display at the Southampton Maritime Museum.

[edit] See also

• SS Nomadic - surviving tender to Olympic

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• RMS Olympic: Titanic's Sister, by Mark Chirnside
• The Olympic-Class Ships, by Mark Chirnside
• Olympic & Titanic: The Truth Behind the Conspiracy, by Bruce Beveridge
• Atlantic Liners: A Trio of Trios, by J. Kent Layton

[edit] External links

• Titanic Research & Modelling Association, for Olympic-Class Research
• Olympic Home at Atlantic Liners
• RMS Olympic; Old Reliable
• Encyclopedia Titanica : RMS Olympic
• Olympic on Titanic-Titanic.com
• The RMS Olympic Restaurant on the Celebrity Millennium (Virtual Tour of ship's Plaza Deck shows panoramic view).
• Olympic's Fittings at White Swan Hotel, Alnwick, England
• Maritimequest RMS Olympic Photo Gallery
• Lostliners: RMS Olympic
• White Star Line RMS Olympic the Ship Magnificent
• Lego RMS Olympic