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THE OLYMPIC CLASS:

The Olympic Class Was A Trio Of Liners Built In The 1910s

The Class Consisted Of:

RMS Olympic: The Only Succesful Of The Three. Served From 1911-1935 A Grand Total Of Almost 24 Years, Rammed A U-Boat In WWI, And Was Very Unfortunately Scrapped from 1935-1937

RMS Titanic: We All Know The Story Of The Titanic, Finished In 1912 She Sailed On One Voyage In Total Before Sinking Because Of A Iceberg, She Was The Largest Ship In The World At The Time Of Her Loss

HMHS Britannic: The Third And Final Sister To Olympic and Titanic, Launched In 1914 As The Largest Britan Built Vessel  Intended For Passenger Service In The Spring Of 1915, But WWI Forced Her Into A Hospital Ship, She Served Only 11 Months Before Sinking On November 21, 1916 after striking a mine in the kea channel, sinking in a little under a hour. She is the largest intact passenger vessel on the sea floor in the world

Sadly There Was Never A Time All Three Of Them Sailed Together, Despite The 1907 Plans

They Were The Biggest And Safest Ships For The Time, But Obvoiusly This Didn’t Work Out Very Well,

Heres The History Of The Olympic Class:

Part I. The Origin

The Olympic Class Was Owned By The White Star Line, Rival To The Cunard Line

In 1899, A New Ocean Liner Entered Service For The White Star Line That Would Change The Ship Industry, Forever.

The RMS Oceanic Entered Service On September 1899

And was a massive success

So much success in fact she would get a sister ship ironically called Olympic

But this Was Cancelled After Four New Ships Called The “Big Four” Happened, There Names Were The Cedric, Celtic, Baltic, And Adriatic. Came Along

Cedric Used Parts Of Oceanics Sister Olympic For Construction After The Cancellation Of The Project

The Big Four Was Completed In 1907 When The Newest Sister, The Adriatic, Entered Service

Additionaly In 1907

The Cunard Line Had Two Brand New Liners In 1907

The Lusitania And The Mauritania

They Were The Fastest Ships For Their Time

Despite Lusitania Sinking In 1915 After A Torpedo Attack In WWI

Mauritania Held The Blue Ribbon, A Thing As A Celebraition For The Fastest Atlantic Crossing, From 1907-1929

The White Star Line Saw How Popular These Two Were And Had Made The Decision

They Were Gonna Build Three New Liners

The Olympic, The Titanic, And The Gigantic (This Would Later Be Called Britannic, But I Will Still Keep The Name Britannic For Refrence)

Part II. The Planning

The Olympic, Titanic, And Britannic, Was Intended For Three Funnels Instead Of Four, But Since The Four Funnels Were More Popular And Impressive, It Was Changed To Four.

Construction For The First Of The Class, The RMS Olympic, Began Construction On December 16, 1908 at Harland And Wolf In Belfast

Titanic Wasn’t To Long After Olympic

She Had Began Construction Alongside RMS Olympic On March 31, 1909, In Harland And Wolf Belfast, The Construction Was A Massive Undertaking, As The Ships Were 882 Feet Wide

97 Feet Tall Up To The Boat Deck (The Tallest Part Of The Ships and Is here the funnels would be put on)

And 92 Feet Wide (Which We Will Call The Beam As That’s What It Is called)

The Designer Of The Olympic Class Was Thomas Andrews Jr.

These Ships Were Often Called The Most Unsinkable That They Could Make

The Movie Of RMS Titanic Relased In December 1997 Often Claims The Ship was “The Ship Of Dreams” And “Unsinkable’ But Neither Was Stated In Real Life

She Was Called “The Queen Of The Seas”

Anyway this is getting off topic, back to the class

RMS Olympic Was Launched From Her Slipway In Harland And Wolf On October 20, 1910, this is where we get to the fitting out part of this essay

The Fitting Out For The Olympic And Her Sisters Was Adding The Luxury Spaces Onboard The Vessels, This Is How It Worked Back In The Day, It Was Adding The Four Funnels On

The Masts Which Is Where It Connects To The Wireless, The Marconi Wireless Was A New Technology In The 1910s

Being Added On Ships In The Late 1900s

These Were For Sending Distress Calls For Ships If You Were Sinking

As You Could Tell, This Would Be Very Imprtant For Titanics Sinking Later On

Anyway, On The Same Day Of May 31, 1911, Titanic Was Launched From Her Slipway and began fitting out

Olympic Was Finished The Same Day

And Began Her Sea Trails, Which Ended Up A Success

Olympic Began Her First Voyage On June 14, 1911

BUT WAIT!

Wheres Britannic

Well She Began Construction Where Olympic Was On Her Slipway Before Launch On November 30, 1911

Olympic, meanwhile, hit HMS Hawke, A Britsish Cruiser, On September 20, 1911

And Later On, In Febuary 1912, She Lost One Of Her Proppelers, She Had 4, They All Created A Suction Underwater To Move Olympic, so naturally she got a new one from titanic in march 1912,

Part III. The First Tragedy

On April 2, 1912, Titanic was Completed And Began Her Sea Trails, They Ended Up As A successful one to

She Began Her First, And Last, Voyage On April 10, 1912. She Took Her Route Like Her Sister Ship, The Olympic. She Arrived In Cherbourg In The Evening Of April 10, 1912, And Departed Two Hours Later On April 10, 1912, She Arrived At Her Next Stop, Queenstown, On The Morning Hours Of April 11, 1912, She Departed In Noon On April 11, 1912, Heading For Her Next Stop, New York City, She Was In Open Water By April 12, 1912, But She Never Made It, On April 14, 1912, just 20 Minutes Before Midnight, The Titanics Lookouts, Freedrik Fleet And Reginald Lee, Spotted An Iceberg, For Context there was ice warnings sent to titanic leading up to this but the captain, Edward J. Smith. Had Ingored Them, Anyway Back To The Thing, They Rang The Bell And Titanic began Turning After Telling The First Officer, Willaim Murdoch, The Iceberg Was Near, Murdoch Operated The Ship, Willaims Main Task Was Overseeing The Ships Navagation And Ensure Saftey. Just 40 Seconds Later, Titanic SideSwipped The Iceberg, Flooding 6 Watertight Compartments, Titanic Was Only Designed For 4 Compartments Flooded, So This Meant The Ship Was Doomed.

There Also Wasn’t Enough Lifeboats For Everyone On Boar, Out Of the 2,200 Onboard, 1,178 pepole could get on the ships 16 lifeboats, meaning 1022 Couldn’t Get Off The Sinking Vessel.

Lifeboats Mainly Consisted Of Women And Children, This Was Because At the Time, It Was Considered Woman And Children Should Be Proitised For Saftey In Life treating Situations,  

Ships Had Overheard The Distress Calls And a Cunard Line Vessel, Carpathia Would save All The Survivors, Titanic Broke In Two By 2;17 AM On April 15, 1912. Sinking Completely Just 3 minutes later

Part IV. The Aftermath Of Titanic

Carpathia Rescued All 712 Survivors

Based On Math

1488 Pepole Died In The Sinking Of RMS Titanic, Her Sister Olympic And The Underconstruction Britannic Went Trough Major Saftey Changes To Aviod This Happening Again, Olympic Lost Its Title Of The Largest Ship In The World In 1913 When The German Liner SS Impererator Entered Service,

On Febuary 26, 1914, Britannic Was Launched From Her Slipway As The Largest Britan Built Vessel

But Her Fitting Out Was Slowed Because Of Finacail Issues Made After The Titanic Disaster And The onset Of WWI, shed go weeks without any work done on her, With Plans For Her To Enter Service Sometime In The Spring Of 1915, ut it didn’t matter…

Part 6. The First World War

On July 28, 1914, WWI Had Officaly Began, And Britan Joined WWI just days later on august 4, 1914, in 1915, Olympic entered Service As a troop Ship in WWI, Carrying Thousands Of Soilders Across The Atlantic, In November 1915, Britannic Was Recommised Into a Hospital Ship, Finsished On December 12, 1915, She Began Her Maiden Voyage Two days before Christmas in 1915, Britannic Served 5 succesful voyages as A Hospital Ship, But Like Titanic, Fate Would Catch Up To Her

Part 7. The Second Tragedy

On November 12, 1916, Britannic Began Her 6th And Lasr Voyage As a Hospital Ship, On November 17, 1916, Britannic arrived in Maples For A Reful On Her Coal, On November 21, 1916, At 8;12 Am, Disaster Struck Again, Britannic Hit A Underwater Sea Mine Laid By U-73 In The Kea Channel,6 compartments flooded, Britannic was designed to survive with 6 compartments flooded, but the open portholes meant water flooded over the bulkheads and caused her to start sinking, this is how titanic went down but the watertight bulkheads was much shorter and titanic was designed to survive with only 4 compartments flooded, anyway, back to Britannic,  Britannics Captain, Captain Bartlett, Sterred The Ship Towards Kea To Beach Her, This Failed And Resulted In 30 [epole died because of the moving proppelers, as their lifeboats, (Which were launched against barletts orders) Was Sucked Into The Proppellers, killing 30 pepole, Unlike Titanic Which Went Down In 2 hours and 40 minutes, Britannic sunk in just 55 minutes, but had much more survivors, out of the 1066 onboard, only 30 had died in the sinking, But Now, Olympic Was The Sole Survivor Of The Olympic Class Liners.

Part 8. Olympics WWI Carrer

For A Period In 1917, Olympic Was In A Gray Livery, Then By Late 1917, She Was In Something Called A Dazzle Paint Color

dazzle paint is a type of ship camouflage in WWI To Confuse Enemy Subs, Olympic Had This Paint From 1917-1919

On May 12, 1918, While En Route To France With U.S Troops, The Submarine U-103 Had Spotted Olympic, Olympic Had Spotted U-103 Aswell And She Tried To Torpedo U-103 And Olympic Rammed U-103 And Sunk U-103, Olympic Was Givin The Nickname “Ol’ Reliable”

On November 11, 1918, WWI Had Ended, But Olympic Kept Regular Serice as A Troop Ship From 1918-1919, Because it was operational and had been refurbished and modernized for miltary use, by 1919, Olympic was begging her transition back into a passenger liner

Part 9. The Roaring 20s

Olympic Returned To Passenger Service in 1920, She Was Refitted With Oil Instead Of Coal And Was Restored In The Interior Post WWI which did include upgrades for the fight for more passengers, And More, These Improvements Were To Modernized The Olympic, And Further Changes Happened Later Into the 1920s, In Addition, New Ships Came To Replace The Titanic And Britannic, There Names Were Mejestic And Homeric, Mejestic Was A Humbug American Liner, Originally Launched In 1914, Origannly Named Bismark She Wasn’t Completed In WWI, And Was Sold To The White Star Line As Mejestic, Homeric, Launched In 1913 Named Columbus, Was A German Liner, She Also Wasn’t Completed In WWI But Was Completed in 1921 And Was Handed Over To The White Star Line. They Competed With The Cunard Liners, Mauritania, Aquatania, and Berenigaria, The Cunard Ship That Replaced Lusitania As She Sunk In 1915 To A Torpedo, In 1924, The Olympic Collided With The Furness Liner St. Geroge, While Departing New York City, But Olympic Did Survive And In 1927-1928, It Was Fitted With A New Tourist Third Cabin, The New Class Of Travel Compared To Her Previous Classes;

First Class

Second Class

And Third Class

Olympics Most Succesful Year Was In 1929, But That Wouldn’t Last Long….

Part 10. The End Of The Line

On October 24, 1929, The Stock Market Crash Occoured, Marking The Beginning Of The End Of Olympic

Olympic Was 18 Years Old By The Start Of The Great Depression

And She Struggled To Compete With New Liners

Olympic Was refitted in 1932 as a last ditch effort to save the ship

But That Wasn’t Succesful

White Star Line Struggeld In The Great Depression, And Merged With Cunard In 1934

This Marked The End For RMS Olympic

On April 12, 1935, after Nearly 24 Years Of Service, Had Finally Completed Her Final Voyage To Jarrow, Where She Would Be Scrapped, The Crapping Was Completed By 1939, Marking The End For The Olympic Class

Conclusion:

SO There You Have It, My Apologize that’s its so long, But In Total these Ships Were Amazing, If You Want To Know More, See In Infos Like Google, Because That’s Where I gOt Most In The Information,  Peace And Love, And Ill See You Next Time!

Images retrieved from Google