The Olympic & Brittanic

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The Titanic's sisters ships, Olympic, and the not well known Britannic, both served under the White Star line. Like the Titanic, the Britannic's life was short and ill-fated. The Olympic, on the other hand, served many years of faithful service until she was retired and scrapped in 1935. This is their legacy:

RMS OLYMPIC: Old Reliable

The Olympic, the first of three enormous vessels, was first launched on October 20th, 1910. After final construction, she began her maiden voyage in June, 1911. Before the completion of the Titanic, she was the largest ship in the world and, later, regained that title until the construction of the German ship Imperator.

Although not as lavish as the Titanic, the Olympic was a model of craftmanship and luxury. Although very closely matching, there were differences between the Olympic and Titanic. The promenade deck on the Olympic, for example, was fully open while the Titanic was fitted with windowed covers over 1/3 of the length of the promenade deck. The Titanic also had some extra luxurious suites on the B deck that the Olympic lacked.

An incident between the Olympic and a small 7,350 ton British cruiser named Hawke occured while she was under the direction of Captain E.J. Smith on the 20th of September, 1911. She was coming around a bank (Bramble Bank) at a speed of around 19 knots when she encountered the Hawke. According to sources at the time, the two ships were aobut 100 - 300 feet apart when the Hawke was suddenly pulled towards the Olympic. Unable to avoid a collision, the Hawke speared itself into the starboard side of the Olympic and caused serious damage. The bow of the Hawke was smashed and two gashes were left in the Olympic - one below the water line and one above. Fortunately, no one was killed and the two ships were able to make it back to port under their own power. What caused this incident? It is most likely that the suction created by the larger ship Olympic actually pulled the hapless Hawke into her side.

After the Titanic disaster, the Olympic was put back in dry dock at Harland & Wolff where she was refitted in order to make her safer. Extra life boats were added and her double bottom was extended giving her a 2 layered skin. This increased her tonnage from 40,000 to around 46,000 tonnes. In the spring of 1913 her refitting was finished and she was put back into service on the North Atlantic seaway.

The Olympic had an impressive history of service. Just after the start of World War I, she rescued the crew of a British battleship called Audacious which had struck a mine near the coast of Ireland. Shortly after this, in 1915, she was commisioned as a naval transport. Painted in dazzling colours with geometric shapes on a yellow background (which was supposed to confuse u-boat captains but the actual effectiveness of this technique has never been verified) she carried troops to the war front. During this service, which lasted for the entire war, she was attacked by u-boats four times but managed to survive. An interesting event occured in May of 1918 when, during the Olympic's 22nd troop carrying voyage, she was attacked by a U-103 German u-boat. She narrowly avoided being torpedoed by quick evasive action and, amazingly, turned on the submarine and rammed it! Although only a glancing blow, the u-boat quickly sank but some of her crew managed to escape. They were later picked up by an American destroyer that happened to be passing by.

Even after the war the Olympic continued her reliable record of service. During her lifetime she had transported 66,000 troops, 41,000 civilian passengers, and 12,000 members of a Chinese labor battalion, burning a total of 347,000 tonnes of coal and travelling 184,000 miles! She was given the nickname "Old Reliable", a name which she certainly lived up to.

In March of 1935, due to loss of business to newer vessels, she was sold, stripped and eventually scrapped. Paintings and interiors (such as panels) from the Olympic were sold to various English pubs and estates where they can still be seen to this day.

HMHS BRITANNIC

The HMHS britannic was to become the largest of the three Olympic class vessels that were created. She had a double skin, giant sized lifeboat davits, and water tight bulkheads that extended as high as the B deck. Originally called the Gigantic, the britannic had a gross tonnage at 48,158 tonnes! Launched on February 26th, 1914, she was to begin her commercial life servicing the Southampton to New York route in the spring of 1915. However, she was requisitioned by the admiralty to be converted into a hospital ship in November 13th, 1915, because of the outbreak of World War I. She was officially ready for war service on December 12th, 1915 and was commisioned His Majesty's Hospital Ship Britannic.

Under the command of Captain Charles A. Bartlett, she took on a medical staff of 101 nurses, 336 orderlies, 52 officers, and a crew of 675 people in Liverpool on December 12th, 1915. She began her maiden voyage on December 23rd, 1915 where she teamed up with the Aquitania, Maurentania, and her sister ship Olympic in Mudros on the isle of Lemnos in what was called the Dardanelles Service. These four ships were later joined by the Statendam to form a team of ships that could transport 33,000 troops and 17,000 sick and wounded. Since these ships were so large, smaller ships were required to ferry wounded from the battlefront docks.

After a year of uneventful service, she returned to Belfast on June 6th, 1916, and was released from war service. However, after only two months she was recalled back into service again on August 28th, 1916 and began her fourth voyage on September 24th, 1916. Onboard she carried the members of the Voluntary Aid Detachment. Following a coaling stop at Naples, the ship arrived at it's destination in Mudros where officials detained the britannic to investigate the possible cause of food poisioning which had affected some of the staff members. She then resumed her service and returned to Southhampton on October 11th, 1916.

November 21st, 1916, a calm day, found the britannic steaming through the Kea Channel in the Aegean Sea. Just after 8:00 she was rocked by a tremendous explosion and quickly began to sink by the bow. It took just 55 minutes for the huge ship to sink and Captain Charles Bartlett, being a true captain, was the last to leave his ship. Amazingly, only 30 people were killed out of the 1100 that were on board at the time. Most of these deaths occured when two lifeboats were launched prematurely and were sucked into the churning screws of the still moving Britannic.

To this day the Britannic is the largest liner to be found on the ocean floor. She can be found lying on her side in only 350 feet of water. It is still unknown how the britannic met her doom, perhaps a torpedo from a u-boat or a floating mine (the latter being the most probable cause). Unlike her two sisters, the britannic was never to serve her real purpose as a Royal Mailing Ship and she never carried a fare paying passenger.