Launched in April of 1911, the SS Nomadic was the first of a two ship sister class of 'tender ships' specifically made to serve the recently celebrated and praised 'Olympic class' ocean liners. These consisted of the 'RMS Olympic' which was just two months away from its expected maiden voyage and the Iconic 'RMS Titanic' which would launch in just one month's time.

Along side the SS Nomadic, was a smaller sister ship known as the SS Traffic which would assist the Nomadic in transporting passengers from small ports to their large Olympic class sister ships.

The SS Nomadic which was the first of her class would be used to tender the soon to launch RMS Titanic, while her sister ship SS Traffic would tender the more popular RMS Olympic.

Built to also compete against Cunard Line's popular tender ships, the Nomadic and Traffic were built with a similar mindset to the Olympic class liners. Despite being slightly smaller than their Cunard competition, the Traffic and Nomadic were built for comfort and luxury for all passengers, third to first classes. This was a deliberate choice by the White Star Line to give passengers the best experience and gain more popularity over the Cunard line which sacrificed luxury for speed, as seen with the massively popular Lusitania and Mauretania. 

As years of tension between the British and the Germans finally erupted, the White Star Line and their rivals the Cunard Line had to put their rivalry aside and hand over their famed ocean liners to the British admiralty where they would be refitted into troop transports and medical vessels. Iconic ships such as the RMS Olympic and RMS Lusitania were refitted as troop transports while the RMS Britannic and RMS Aquitania were refitted to serve as medical vessels for the wounded of Britain and her allies across Europe.

The SS Nomadic and SS Traffic however, were too small to serve as medical or transportation vessels and instead were modified to serve the duration of the war as 'Minesweepers'. A branch of ships new at the time, made to cut the metallic chains that held enemy sea-mines underwater and hidden from view, the chain would be cut by the minesweepers and the crew would fire projectile ammunition shortly after the enemy mine surfaced.

The job was incredibly dangerous as the ship could be hit by a mine itself and endangering the lives of the crew due to the vessel's smaller size and less protected bulkheads. Thankfully, the Nomadic carried out this role from 1914-1919 before finally being returned to tendering role for the White Star after a year long role of post-war minesweeping. Her interior was stripped of the military gear and hardware before finally having her pre-war White Star Line luxury interior reinstalled for passenger service.

The 1920s and 30s marked an eventful period for the small steamer, the Nomadic not only began to serve along newer White Star Line vessels. Due to the HMHS Britannic being lost during the war, the SS Nomadic was left with no parent Olympic class liner to tend passengers to. This would have marked bad news for the Nomadic and could have quite possibly concluded with an early scrapping of the little steamer. However, fate had different plans for the Nomadic. In 1934, in the middle of the great depression, the former rivals; Cunard and White Star were forced to merge companies which would eventually form the 'Cunard White Star', a lesser known company which brought the construction of history's most iconic liners, that being the iconic Queen Mary.

Due to the formation of Cunard White Star, the SS Nomadic found herself flying the flag of both her parent company and former rival. The Nomadic continued to serve for another 4 years with a Cunard style red funnel and paint-job, tendering passengers to both Cunard and White Star vessels such as the RMS Queen Mary and the RMS Queen Elizabeth.

If it had stayed this way for the next several decades, the Nomadic could have very well possibly been given a parent ship to tender to, similar to her original purpose as the Titanic's tender. Unfortunately, world events took over once more, and the Nomadic was once more called along with her sister to serve in the 'second world war'...

As the Third Reich prepared to make their final advancements to take over all of France, the SS Nomadic served largely during the major evacuations of British and French forces out of Cherbourg, her home port. The Nomadic escaped being sunk or stolen by German naval forces, however, the same could not be said for her sister ship the SS Traffic. The SS Traffic which had not left Cherbourg during the evacuation was repurposed by the German navy as a troop transport vessel, a role which was short-lived for the Traffic after she was torpedoed and sunk by the British Royal Navy, making the Nomadic the last of her class.

Unlike her service life in the first world war, her role in this world event would be far less exciting as she was requisitioned into an accommodation ship at Portsmouth harbour for the British Royal Navy.

During this time, the Nomadic would gratefully be spared by the British Admiralty by not sending her into the U-Boat infested waters, while many of Cunard White Star's other ships would be sunk left right and centre. The SS Nomadic would be one of the few post war ships to survive the war, coming out alongside the RMS Queen Mary where she would continue to serve along the Cunard and White Star Line before finally being pulled from service in 1968.

Entering the 1960's, the Nomadic would have been purchased by a private individual named Yvon Vincent. the rusting and decaying tender craft would be pulled away from the shipbreakers and converted into a floating French restaurant. The Nomadic remained 'sat' as a restaurant for the next 40 years, slowly rusting and decaying under the constant splashes of the salty rivers of Paris.

The restaurant itself was not very popular as it was in a river known for having rough waters. The restaurant would list and rock from side to side which ruined the vision Yvon Vincent proposed those years back.

After her owners went into bankruptcy amid the late 1990s, the small steamer made a brief appearance in James Cameron's iconic feature movie 'Titanic' which sparked large interest in the small tender craft. Over the next several years into the early 2000s, the Nomadic went through multiple different owners before finally being purchased by the Northern Ireland and Belfast government along with public support to bring the iconic steamer back to her former pre-war glory days.

The restoration of the steamer was no easy task, as seen by the incompetence by the Americans with the Queen Mary and SS United States. Both of those ships being the result of constant bankruptcy and the incompetence of those trying to restore the liners, however the Nomadic would be different. The Belfast government along with some support from 'Harland and Wolf' (the very company that built Nomadic back in 1911) being behind the restoration of a fairly small ship.

It was a long and tedious process with the Harland and Wolf company trying to find the blueprints for the 1911 Nomadic. After 4 years of heavy refinement and construction, the once dormant and miserable steamer was finally reported to her former 1911 glory days with a new paint-job and interior to mimic her golden years.

Once the Nomadic was restored, researchers such as James Cameron and other famous icons were invited to point out what would make the final touches to completing her interior. Eventually, she was opened to the public in 2012 as part of the Belfast Titanic museum experience and still remains there to this day.

Today ever since 2012, the Nomadic has continued to serve her final role as a museum ship for the Titanic Belfast company. It is obvious that the Nomadic will not serve any other role in the future seeming as her current role both respects her past and original purpose. She has also become a noticeable favourite among many as she is the last remaining White Star Line vessel in the world.

In a sense, the Nomadic's fate is almost poetic. a ship made to serve a vessel that she only served once before fate tore that ship from the little steamer. A ship who oversaw multiple wars and served more ships then any other. A ship who now lies in the very dry dock where she was built, serving as a museum to the very ship she was originally built to serve...

20/03/2024

As I begin to set the groundworks for what will become the base for the Nomadic's interior, I have chosen to model out the room itself in Unreal Engine 5 while the furniture such as chairs, cups, tables and portholes being modeled out in Maya to save both storage and time.

While all this happened, I was making preparations for my primary research which I will perform in just a few days.

05/04/24

After some minor setbacks after the trip to Belfast, I finally began modelling out the furniture of the SS Nomadic's interior. Currently as of the 5th, only the chair has partially been completed however things will change over the following days.

The model itself isn't exactly one to one with the real thing as of now but as stated previously, this will change in the following days. This is just so I know what to do once I restart my regular college scheduling in just under a week's time.

A comparison is to the left of the current model as of the 5th of April compared to the real world chair I'm using for reference.

Future editors note: This model would be scrapped in favor of a more polished version.

With the help from one of my teachers Connor, while cutting a hole through a different variant of the wall, I managed to model out the same tiles that contained the side windows on the vessel. Although its still work in progress (W.I.P) and missing a lot of accurate details.

Eventually, I had filled the areas around the now missing hole with the required details. Despite the textures not being implemented yet, textures will still be added later on down the line. 

On the 15th of May, I officially Uploaded a walkthrough of my completed project onto YouTube.

The final result consisted of exterior water, a noticeable sunset. a size accurate and true to life structural details along the entire model. The lights were placed in their real world locations and brightened to mimic the intensity of their real world counterpart. 

Despite some inaccuracies to the real Nomadic such as the angles of some of the walls or the size of the windows. Even though these issues are a slight issue when noticed, it doesn't ruin the overall experience or model itself. The attention to detail such as the realistic placement of the chairs to the chairs blocking both the entrance and view of the incomplete stairs leading to other decks.

After Months of both research and modeling on Maya, the project was all put together smoothly and came together near perfectly into an almost one to one scale recreation of the Nomadic's Passenger deck.