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Overview
Launched as the pride of British shipbuilding and the largest vessel in the world, Olympic was more than 40 per cent larger than her nearest rivals: almost 900ft long and the first ship to exceed 40,000 tons. She was built for comfort rather than speed and equipped with an array of facilities, including Turkish and electric baths (one of the first ships to have them), a swimming pool, gymnasium, squash court, á la carte restaurant, large first-class staterooms and plush public rooms. Surviving from 1911 until 1935, she was a firm favourite with the travelling public – carrying hundreds of thousands of fare-paying passengers – and retained a style and opulence even into her twilight years. During the First World War, she carried more troops than any other comparable steamship and was the only passenger liner ever to sink an enemy submarine by ramming it. Overshadowed frequently by her sister ships Titanic and Britannic, Olympic's history deserves more attention than it has received. She was evolutionary in design rather than revolutionary, but marked an ambition for the White Star Line to dominate the North Atlantic express route. Rivals immediately began trying to match her in size and luxury. The optimism that led to her conception was rewarded, whereas her doomed sisters never fulfilled their creators' dreams. This revised and expanded edition of the critically acclaimed RMS Olympic: Titanic's Sister uses new images and further original research to tell the story of this remarkable ship 80 years after her career ended.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780750963480 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | The History Press |
| Publication date: | 09/07/2015 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 352 |
| Sales rank: | 596,755 |
| File size: | 20 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
| Age Range: | 18 Years |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
RMS Olympic: Titanic's Sister
By Mark Chirnside
The History Press
Copyright © 2015 Mark ChirnsideAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-7509-6348-0
CHAPTER 1
The Tale of Two Sisters: Lusitania and Mauretania
The early years of the twentieth century were marked by the rapid progress being made by the various shipping companies in the highly competitive North Atlantic trade. Although traditionally a British-dominated trade, by the turn of the century the Germans had made great progress and were making a serious challenge to both major British shipping lines, Cunard and White Star. Following the introduction of the 10,000-ton Teutonic and Majestic in 1889 and 1890, however, White Star had adopted a policy of aiming above all for the finest vessels afloat in terms of comfort, luxury and facilities, while leaving the pursuit of speed to Cunard. The Hamburg Amerika Linie followed White Star's lead several years later, which left the competition for speed to Cunard and their German rival Norddeutscher Lloyd. Such competition led to the introduction of Norddeutscher Lloyd's quartet of superliners – Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse (1897), Kronprinz Wilhelm (1901), Kaiser Wilhelm II (1903) and Kronprinzessin Cecilie (1906) – which captured the Blue Riband between 1897 and 1907 and gradually increased the speed from about 22.4 to 23.7 knots. In 1891 White Star's Teutonic had wrested the prize for speed from the American Line's City of Paris by reducing the westbound passage to 5 days 16 hours and 31 minutes at an average speed of some 20.5 knots, completing the eastbound passage in 5 days 21 hours and 3 minutes, but Cunard's twin 12,950-ton Campania and Lucania of 1894 cut the times down to 5 days 7 hours and 23 minutes westbound and 5 days 8 hours and 38 minutes eastbound. Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse crossed to New York in 5 days 20 hours at an average of 22.4 knots in 1897, but three years later the Hamburg Amerika Linie's Deutschland took the prize. Several German liners held westbound and eastbound records during the next few years, and in 1906 Norddeutscher Lloyd's Kaiser Wilhelm II crossed in 5 days 8 hours and 16 minutes at an even higher average speed of some 23.7 knots. By 1914 the two major German lines had clearly overtaken the British competition in terms of tonnage: Hamburg Amerika owned 194 ships with an average tonnage of 6,739 tons, making a total of 1,307,411 tons; Norddeutscher Lloyd owned 135 ships of 6,726 tons, for a total of 907,996 tons; White Star owned thirty-three vessels of an average 14,330 tons, totalling 472,877 tons; and Cunard owned the smallest number of vessels, twenty-nine ships with an average tonnage of 11,871 tons, bringing their total tonnage up to 344,251 tons.
White Star – legally known as the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company – had finished the nineteenth century on a high note with the Oceanic; a magnificent ship bearing the same name as the company's first express vessel of 1871, which was the largest in the world and had earned the title: 'Ship of the Century'. Although designed for a similar speed to Teutonic, the White Star Line's Blue Riband holder, Oceanic would not be able to capture the Blue Riband as the German vessels had improved on the necessary speed; however, this is not to say that she was a slow vessel, as she was less than 2 knots slower than the speed required for the Blue Riband. With a length of 685ft between perpendiculars, a total length of 705ft, Oceanic was the first vessel to exceed the length of the ill-fated Great Eastern (1858), and being 68ft 6in in breadth, 49ft depth and with a usual draught of 32ft 6in; her gross tonnage was 17,274 tons. Grandiose plans were made for another running mate for the ship, although tragic circumstances would force the cancellation of this vessel.
On 1 January 1891 J. Bruce Ismay – usually known as Bruce Ismay – and James Ismay became partners in Ismay, Imrie & Co., essentially the managers of the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company; and their father, Thomas Henry Ismay, resigned from his managerial position but remained chairman, staying interested in the company. In fact, he had been very involved with the Oceanic project and had planned for her running mate to be named Olympic, but when Thomas Ismay died aged seventy-two on 23 November 1899 plans for the sister vessel were cancelled, and an even larger vessel, Celtic, was planned. Following his death, his two sons Bruce and James would manage the company with Thomas Ismay's old colleagues, William Imrie and W.S. Graves.
Celtic would be the first of four large liners that came to be known as the 'Big Four' or 'Celtic' class, combining luxury, stability and comfort with economy of operation. Following the completion of the fourth liner, the class would together complete twenty-one years of profitable hard work, while the liners' lives spanned thirty-three years, from 1901 to 1934. Their sizes ranged from Celtic's 20,904grt to Adriatic's 24,541grt. Adriatic (1907) had the first ever floating swimming pool and Turkish baths. Some 280 tons of coal per day were consumed by the boilers to drive the twin reciprocating engines for speeds of over 16 knots. With the completion of this class in 1907, the White Star Line's express service to New York was well equipped with high-calibre vessels, as one reporter later noted:
The history of the line reads like a romance – one fortunately intimately associated with the progress and material prosperity of Belfast, where the whole of this noble fleet was built. The connection between the White Star Line and Messrs Harland & Wolff Limited dates back many years, and if, on the one hand, the company has obtained through that business intimacy the greatest ships in the world, on the other hand, the Lagan yard has gained prestige and fame from a policy that set at nought all previous conceptions regarding the size limit of vessels, and denied the pessimism of less far-sighted rivals ...
The Adriatic, Oceanic, Majestic and Teutonic are mail and passenger steamers engaged in the Southampton and Cherbourg–Queenstown–New York service, calling at Plymouth on the eastern passage. The Baltic, Cedric, Celtic and Arabic are on the Liverpool–Queenstown–New York route. Other splendid vessels sail to and from Boston and New York and the Mediterranean ...
Just prior to the completion of the Cedric, the White Star Line's ownership had in fact changed, which would have a remarkable effect on the great company's main rival, the Cunard Line. The Oceanic Steam Navigation Company Limited was itself a British-registered company with an all-paid-up capital of £750,000, controlled by three directors: Chairman J. Bruce Ismay; the Right Honourable Lord Pirrie, of Harland & Wolff; and Harold Sanderson. Following the change of ownership, eight shares were still held by Messrs E. Grenfell, Vivian Smith, W. Burns, James Gray, J. Bruce Ismay, Harold Sanderson, A. Kerr and Lord Pirrie, but the remainder were held from 1902 by the International Navigation Company Limited of Liverpool, which was also a British-registered company, with an all-paid-up capital of £700,000, controlled by four directors: chairman J. Bruce Ismay, Harold Sanderson, Charles Torrey and Henry Concanon. This company had controlling interests in a number of other shipping lines: the British and North Atlantic Steam Navigation Company Limited; the Mississippi and Dominion Steamship Company Limited; the Atlantic Transport Company Limited; and the Frederick Leyland Company Limited (the Leyland Line). Against these shareholdings, the International Navigation Company Limited had issued share lien certificates for an impressive £25,000,000; while the share and share lien certificates for the International Navigation Company Limited were owned by the International Mercantile Marine Company (IMM) of New Jersey, or 'by trustees for the holders of its debenture bonds'. Thus, the complicated ownership structure of the White Star Line can be summed up as follows: Liverpool-based Ismay, Imrie & Co. were essentially the managers of the British Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, otherwise known as the White Star Line, which in turn was owned by the International Navigation Company Limited of Liverpool, that was owned by the American International Mercantile Marine Company (IMM) of New Jersey, one of American financier J.P. Morgan's companies.
Morgan, a man of enormous wealth, saw an opportunity to reduce undue competition in the competitive North Atlantic trade, employ economies of scale and thereby generate considerable profits. By 1912 IMM owned 120 ships totalling 1,067,425 gross tons – approaching the size of Hamburg Amerika – with six more vessels under construction. However, the combine's start had not been good in terms of its performance: merging the large number of lines into a streamlined organisation was not an easy task and initially some of the small lines had remained competing with each other on routes, directly in contradiction to IMM's interests. J.P. Morgan realised that only J. Bruce Ismay was capable of improving IMM's fortunes and, after some encouragement, in February 1904 Ismay became president of IMM, aged forty-four, remaining chairman of the White Star Line.
Following IMM's acquisition of the White Star Line, Cunard's chairman, Lord Inverclyde, gained support from the British Government to change his company's Articles of Association in order to prevent control by foreigners, but at the same time he had a radical proposal regarding a twenty-year low-interest £2,600,000 loan. If the Government were to grant the loan and an annual £150,000 subsidy, Cunard would construct two swift superliners to Admiralty specifications, re-establishing British Atlantic domination. Inverclyde's proposal was appealing to the Government. Germany's recent achievements had seen the loss of Britain's long-term domination of the Atlantic, as Germany's greatest shipping companies expanded, and the loss of the White Star Line to American J.P. Morgan was even more upsetting. The two proposed superliners would certainly be a good step to help restore the balance, while if they were constructed to Admiralty specifications and available in times of war, they would be a welcome addition to the Royal Navy, still the largest navy in the world. Parliament, led by Conservative Prime Minister Arthur Balfour's Government, voted in favour of such a move.
Lusitania and Mauretania were launched a few months apart in 1906, entering service in September and November 1907 respectively. They soon proved themselves, as they engaged in a friendly rivalry to be the fastest liner in the world. Passenger carryings were strong and their grand passenger accommodation won numerous admirers, although Cunard did not opt to include the Turkish bath establishment, gym or 'plunge' pool, which Adriatic featured when she entered service a few months earlier.
Although both vessels were significantly larger than the Adriatic in gross tonnage, their actual weight (or displacement) was not much greater. Whereas the White Star liner's propelling machinery needed to generate over 16,000 horsepower for a speed of about 16.5 knots, Cunard's ships had engines that could produce more than four times as much power. The result was that their new liners had a top speed about 10 knots clear of Adriatic, making them the clear choice for passengers concerned with a speedy crossing.
Lord Pirrie had become the controlling chairman of Harland & Wolff following Sir Edward Harland's death in 1895 and Gustav Wolff's retirement in 1906. He directed an extensive programme of modernisation and expansion of his shipyard's facilities between 1906 and 1908 in order to meet future requirements of the White Star Line for new vessels to compete with Cunard and the German lines. These were undertaken on a costly and magnificent scale. A reporter noted:
They involved the laying out of two berths large enough for vessels of such length and weight, and the erection of a gantry which is undoubtedly the largest in the world. Thus there has been added to Belfast's gigantic achievements a structure massive and towering, almost time-defying in its strength, and one of the sights which arrest the engrossed attention of the traveller who visits the city for the first time. On its original site there were four berths, spanned by three large gantries. One slip was left where it was and the two other gantries were lifted up bodily onto rails and transported sideways until they covered this slip, which now has the use of all three. This cleared the way for the new slips for the leviathans. First of all a bed sufficiently strong to take their enormous weight had to be constructed. For this purpose the ground was heavily piled and then a concrete floor reaching in places 4ft 6in thick was laid on, and around the piles in such a manner that the latter take the load. The floor is suitably inclined to ensure a steady launch. The gantry already referred to was designed by the firm, and constructed by Messrs Sir William Arrol & Co. Ltd, the electric cranes being supplied by Messrs Stothert & Pitt. The space covered is more than 850ft long by 270ft broad, while the height is 180ft. No fewer than twenty-three crane hooks are fitted, and the motors total something like 1,500 horsepower ... These cranes support the hydraulic riveting machines ...
Much could be – and as a matter of fact has been – written eulogising the wonderful prescience and foresight of such men as the late Sir Edward Harland and T.H. Ismay. The former saw the commercial utility of building large ships, while the latter falling in with the idea played his part in their utilisation in the great march of Inter-Oceanic ... intercourse.
During the summer of 1907, Mr and Mrs J. Bruce Ismay dined one evening with Lord and Lady Pirrie at their London home, Downshire House, Belgrave Square. Ismay's biographer, Wilton J. Oldham, described what followed:
Ismay and his host, who both believed in the 'big ship' with great comfort and moderate speed, first discussed the Olympic and Titanic, which were to be followed by a third [ship] ...
After dinner was over, they drew up rough plans of the three sisters. They were to be the last word in comfort and elegance, and although fast, the key word was to be safety and comfort for the passengers, combined with economy of operation.
'We would naturally try to get the best ship we possibly could,' J. Bruce Ismay later said. 'We wanted the best ship crossing the North Atlantic when we built her.' He took quite an active role in the design of the new vessels.
In order to divert attention away from the Lusitania, one day before she arrived in New York after completing her maiden voyage, the first public press announcement was made regarding the new vessels and detailing the rough concept. It was reported that Harland & Wolff were working on a 1,000-foot design for ships 'bigger than the Lusitania'. According to one source, the size would be in the region of 40,000 gross tons. Equipped with a possible combination of reciprocating and turbine engines, it was stated of the ship's speed:
It is probable that her speed will be only 22 knots, the cost of every extra knot after 20 knots being so excessive that steamship companies are averse to such high speeds.
At the same time, there was a progress report in the New York Times of the Lusitania's maiden voyage performance. She was not to perform as well as expected, failing to gain the Blue Riband. Her best day's run so far had been 575 miles at an average of some 23.2 knots. Many were hoping that the ship could increase her speed to the estimated maximum of 25–26 knots.
Sure enough, Lusitania did better as she settled in and fulfilled the hopes invested in her. Several months later, in March 1908, J. Bruce Ismay made some comments to the New York Times about his own company's plans. The paper quoted him speaking of two ships 1,000ft long, although the figure had no basis in reality. 'This is the first time in its history that the White Star Line has been able to enter the field of ship construction without a handicap. Hitherto we have been restricted by the limitations of our former home terminal – that of Liverpool,' Ismay noted, '... but now we have moved our terminal to Southampton, that restriction no longer exists, and so, for the first time, we are able to enter the field without any handicap of this nature, Southampton being a spacious harbour and its waters so wide and deep ...' He did not want to comment on the specific plans, beyond saying that the new ships' accommodation would 'be far ahead of anything that has yet been projected'.
The newspaper pondered, 'Will these roomy new leviathans have trolleys or moving sidewalks to carry passengers up and down their far-reaching decks? Will they have theatres and shopping arcades? When the bow reaches port will it be necessary to telephone the fact to the other end?' With an imaginative flair, the reporter noted, 'If the rate of increase in steamship dimensions should be maintained for the next hundred years at the same ratio that they increased from 1807 to 1907 the ship launched at the end of the next century would have a speed of 6,527 knots a day, and would be able to cross from New York to England in about thirteen hours.' It would be 'nearly a mile' long with accommodation for 33,000 passengers, but that was far in the future.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from RMS Olympic: Titanic's Sister by Mark Chirnside. Copyright © 2015 Mark Chirnside. Excerpted by permission of The History Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Title,Dedication,
Acknowledgements,
Acknowledgements to the Second Edition,
Author's Introduction to the Second Edition,
Introduction,
The Tale of Two Sisters: Lusitania and Mauretania,
A New Dawn,
'Queen of the Seas',
'Passenger Accommodation of Unrivalled Extent',
'Unrivalled Magnificence',
The Hawke Collision,
Calamity and Mutiny,
New Beginning,
The Audacious Incident,
Wartime: 'Old Reliable',
'The Great Olympic',
'The Film Star Liner',
Old Veterans,
'Looking Like New',
The Nantucket Affair,
Twilight,
Cruising, a Floating French Hotel and a Summer Lay-up,
End of the Line,
Epilogue,
Appendix I: Chief Engineer Bell's Report,
Appendix II: Maiden Voyage Mysteries,
Appendix III: Cunard's Spy,
Appendix IV: 'The Millionaire's Special',
Appendix V: Back in Favour,
Appendix VI: HMT Olympic: Wartime Voyage Chronology (1915–19),
Appendix VII: The First and the Last,
Appendix VIII: Olympic Passenger Statistics 1911–35,
Appendix IX: The 'Big Three': Homeric, Olympic and Majestic Passenger Statistics 1920–36,
Appendix X: Olympic Specification File,
Appendix XI: Olympic: From Profit to Loss 1931–33,
Appendix XII: Olympic Captains,
Bibliography,
Plates,
Copyright,