Olympic Class Ocean Liners: The Greatest Liners of Their Generation

hello everybody welcome back to another episode of mega projects this one highly requested and pretty specifically people were like don't just do the titanic do all three of the olympic class ocean liners simon and well what else can i do other than oblige you kind people and in return why not smash that like button let's get into it there was a freezing night in the north atlantic when the end came the day was the 12th of april 1912. you know the story well by now iceberg right ahead came the call from the night lookout on board perhaps the most iconic ship to ever set sail two hours 40 minutes later the titanic began to slip below the icy waves it was of course her maiden voyage a journey from southampton to new york that would forever remain incomplete but our story today doesn't simply concern the legendary titanic she was after all one of three olympic class ocean liners that were launched within four years of one another the olympic the titanic and the britannic were designed to cement britain's place at the forefront of luxury ocean travel and yet only one of these mammoths which were the largest ships in the world at the time would survive more than a year on the water then just a side note here i'm sure we'll get into the titanic size but just compared to modern cruise ships it's so small there's an incredible image which i recently shared on twitter i think when we were first putting together this the script for this video of the titanic compared to like a modern cruise liner here's that image it's absurd but let's carry on [Music] the early 20th century saw a heated battle between britain and germany world war one not really over who could produce the largest most luxurious and fastest ocean liners the final stages of the 19th century had seen german engineering surge forward and it was two companies from germany who fought over the coveted blue ribbon an award given to the ocean liner with the fastest transatlantic crossing cunard line a british company entered the fray at the turn of the century and built the lusitania and mauritania the second of which would hold the blue ribbon from 1909-1929 white star line also british knew that it would be difficult to match cunard ships for speed so instead plumped for a design that called for the largest ships the world had ever seen with a sense of luxury to match i mean who cares about speed when you can enjoy the fruits of such opulence aboard these floating palaces well as long as you had the money for a first class ticket it's true if i was on that i don't know i've seen that movie i've seen what the titanic was like be like nah i'm good just take your time i'll just relax assuming i was in first class [Music] the olympic and the titanic were built side by side in the belfast shipyard standing next to one of these astonishingly large ships must have been quite something but to stand between two of them well it must have been a sight to behold the two ships that slowly rose above the shipyard were larger than any seagoing vessel at a length of 269.06 metres they were over two and a half times as long as a football pitch with a beam of 28.19 meters they were five meters wider than the length of a tennis court their drafts the distance from the water line to the deck was 10.54 meters and their height in general from the keel to the mast was 62 meters approximately the height of a 14-storey building their weight was also as you would guess extraordinary with each ship weighing between 45 and 48 000 tons enough to comfortably match four eiffel towers in terms of water displacement they came in somewhere around 52 000 tons which is slightly more than the iowa class battleships that america would put to see during world war ii 30 years later so all in all while i might have ruined like how big they are in a modern context over a hundred years ago these things were absolutely monstrous these leviathans were powered by 24 double-ended and five single-ended scotch marine boilers no doubt during the film titanic you notice the poor souls frantically shoveling coal as the captain barks for more power well yeah that's exactly where it happened these boilers powered two four-cylinder piston engines which turned the two bronze three blade wing propellers and one bronze four blade central propeller in total this provided a nominal horsepower of fifty thousand which could be pumped up to fifty nine thousand at its maximum the mauritania at the time the fastest ship crossing the atlantic had 10 000 less horsepower but had to drag considerably less bulk she weighed around 15 000 tons less than the white star lines trio the ocean class liners had a top speed of 23 knots while the mauritania could zip along at exactly one knot faster as this point like come on white star line push a little bit more take that blue ribbon these giants were all set over nine decks seven of which were occupied by passenger accommodation and let's look at them first up the boat deck at the very summit was the boat deck with deck housing lifeboats and the ship's four iconic funnels the bridge and wheelhouse were located towards the front near the captains and officers quarters either side of the bridge were two observation platforms and it was from here that the titanic's nemesis was first spotted the boat deck also included a wooden deck promenade carefully divided into four for first class passengers second class passengers officers and engineers because god forbid they should mingle no one wants to mingle with the peasants next up a deck the promenade deck ran for 166 meters along the entire length of the ship and was reserved for first and second class passengers b-deck home to the grandest passenger cabins that money could buy the very epitome of luxury were the two deluxe parlor suites which each came with their own private promenade measuring 15 meters in length this was apparently just in case you did want to fraternize with the other slightly poorer first-class passengers this deck also included a la carte restaurant smoking rooms and on the titanic its very own cafe parisian next up sea deck sometimes referred to as the shelter deck sea deck included two areas to be used as third class promenades as well as small cranes for loading and unloading goods while in port this deck also included first-class accommodation and a small library d-deck the saloon deck was home to the first-class reception room the first and second-class dining saloon as well as cabins for second and third class passengers edek the only deck where cabins for all three classes could be found though they were of course kept well apart it was strictly prohibited to visit the areas set aside for the class or classes above you this was also where the majority of the non-officer-class male crew were accommodated in packed rooms with bunk beds on the titanic this crew corridor came to be known as scotland road the female crew normally shared two berth cabins which were scattered throughout the ship f deck eptic mostly housed third class accommodation but you could also find the third class dining area swimming pool and most lavishly the turkish baths which were of course strictly reserved for first-class passengers g-deck the lower deck was the final deck that dominated passengers and was reserved entirely for third class but if anybody fancied a game of squash then this was the place to come g-deck not only housed the ship's squash court but also a small traveling post office mail wasn't really delivered on the ships of course but instead this was more of a sorting area for when the ship docked the deck was also where the bulk of the food needed for the 3 327 passengers and 892 crew on board was stored or optek the final deck located in the bowels of these mighty liners lay below the water line the area was used for cargo storage as well as housing the vast engines and boilers just a few points on accommodation before we move on as i mentioned passengers on the olympic glass ocean liners were divided into three classes a first-class single-person booth on the titanic cost between 30 pounds that's 3 000 pounds today and 870 pounds which is 87 000 pounds today and that would get you a parlor suite needless to say they were about as luxurious as you would ever find the average second-class ticket was 13 pounds that's 1 123 pounds today while their accommodation couldn't hope to match that of the first class it was noted at the time that a second-class experience on the titanic was comparable to a first-class trip on a smaller liner accommodation and amenities for third class passengers were better than almost any other liner yes compared to first class it probably seemed like abject poverty but white star lions was eager to tap into this passenger group third class passengers had their own dining area along with cooks other liners at the time required third class passengers to bring their own food and a cabin and bed were provided to every passenger i know that sounds like a bit of a given but for a third class ticket at the time it really wasn't always a third class ticket on titanic cost seven pounds 698 pounds today with children traveling for three pounds or 299 pounds today the vast majority of those traveling in this class on the titanic were those emigrating to the united states and as i'll come to shortly a significantly higher percentage of third class passengers died than each of the others in the disaster first out of the gate was the olympic which was launched on the 10th of october 1910. the maiden voyage from southampton to new york began on the 14th of june 1911 with captain edward j smith at the helm if that name doesn't ring any bells well he was also the captain of the titanic on its only voyage just under a year later so clearly he was a captain who was held in very high regard by white star line when the olympic set out to see it became the largest ship in the world and received frenzied attention from both the media and the public over 10 000 people lined the pier in new york when she departed on her return journey it's fair to say that the next five years would be the very worst that white star line would ever experience and the turbulent events began on the 20th of september 1911. while moving through the solent a stretch of water that separates the isle of wight and the mainland uk the olympic collided with the british cruiser hms hawke the olympic was under the control of the harbour pilot at the time whose job it was to safely navigate the waters but it was white star line that was essentially blamed for the accident which had ripped two holes in her hull she was able to limp home to southampton but it would be six weeks until she was seaworthy again during world war one she received a new lick of paint as she was decked out in camouflage once she had been requisitioned by the royal navy what had once housed utter opulence had now found itself a troop transportation vessel capable of carrying 6 000 soldiers well they really crammed them in her most extraordinary act of the great war came on the 12th of may 1918. traveling from the usa to france with u.s troops on board she sighted a surfaced german u-boat the u-103 the olympic had been fitted with 12 pounders and 119 millimeter guns that opened fire with everything she had while also turning to ram the u-boats which had begun an evasive crash dive the german submarine disappeared below the surface but it wasn't fast enough the hull of the olympic smashed into the u-boat crippling it and forcing it to surface shortly after the captain of u-103 ordered her to be scuttled and with that the luxury ocean liner was now a battle-hardened warship while the 1920s saw recommencement of its traditional service the 1930s saw passenger numbers plummet as a result of of course the great depression in 1934 the olympic was involved in another collision this time tearing a light ship in two while traveling through heavy fog off the coast of massachusetts yes that light ship wasn't doing a very good job seven of the crew on board the tiny ship died as a result of the accident the following year with the merger of white star lines and cunard she was deemed surplus to requirements and began her final journey from new york to southampton on april 5th 1935. by this point the olympic had tallied up an impressive 257 round trips across the atlantic and had covered roughly 2.8 million kilometers 1.8 million miles carrying a total of 430 000 passengers on her commercial voyages she had had a turbulent but relatively long life but the same could not be said for her sisters the story of the titanic and her infamous maiden voyage is perhaps the most well-known sea voyage in history and has of course been immortalized on the silver screen the titanic departed from southampton on april the 10th 1912 and never returned on the 14th of april at 2340 an enormous iceberg was spotted in its path and despite frantic attempts to turn the ship slammed into the frozen iceberg tearing off rivets below the waterline and opening a deadly gash in the hull with pumps unable to prevent the flooding of five compartments below deck she began to sink two hours and 40 minutes after the collision it was to be one of the most horrific naval losses of life ever seen during peacetime with 1514 of the 2224 souls on board losing their lives the issue of the lack of lifeboats has been well documented but it remains astonishing that the titanic was not carrying enough lifeboats for everybody on the ship it wasn't even close the largest ship the world had ever seen was carrying just 20 lifeboats enough for 1178 people roughly half of the number on board quite remarkably when the titanic met her demise her sister ship was only 930 kilometers away the olympic responded to titanic's distress signal but was far too far away to reach the stricken ship before she sank shortly before arriving on the scene she was ordered to continue as other ships had picked up the survivors and it was thought that asking people to board an almost exact replica of the ship that had just sunk would have been a harrowing experience i don't know i'd rather get on the ship that looks exactly the same as the one that just sank rather than die in the icy water christ the final ship to appear was initially named gigantic but after the horrors associated with the name titanic the decision was made to change the name probably a smart move there the britannic had not even entered passenger service though before she was requisitioned as a hospital ship in november 1915 a year into world war one just over a year later at 8 12 a.m on the 21st of november 1916 the ship hit a mine off the greek island of kia within a matter of minutes the britannic was in a perilous position and one that was remarkably similar to what titanic had faced an hour into her ordeal five of the compartments flooded with the situation quickly becoming hopeless two lifeboats were launched prematurely before the ship had come to a stop and unfortunately they were sucked into the churning propellers killing everyone on board 30 people died in the sinking of the britannic but with 1035 rescued it has to be seen as a huge success compared to what had happened four years earlier the britannic holds the interesting accolade of being one of the largest and most luxurious ships the world has ever seen never to carry commercial passengers it was also the largest ship to sink during world war one there is a thread that links the stories of the three olympic class ocean liners violet jessup died an elderly lady at the age of 83 in 1971 but it's probably fair to say that it took a lot to bring down this old woman who was often dubbed misunsinkable quite astonishingly jessop was a stewardess aboard all three ships when they faced their greatest disasters the olympics collision with hms hawk in 1911 the sinking of the titanic in 1912 and also the sinking of the britannic in 1916. in a memoir she recounted the horror as the britannic slipped below the waves the white pride of the ocean's medical world dipped her head a little then a little lower and still lower all the deck machinery fell into the sea like child toys then she took a fearful plunge her stern rearing hundreds of feet into the air until with a final roar she disappeared into the depths varla jessup died in surrey in the uk 60 years after the olympics collision a truly remarkable tale of resolve or maybe just luck we're not quite sure the short turbulent history of the olympic class ocean liner is one of both glory and horror the size of these ships and the lavish services they provided was second to none but unquestionably it was a class of ship that was stalked by death the loss of the titanic fundamentally changed sea travel the callous disregard for life was fully revealed and quite rightly sickened to public still in shock by such a loss enough lifeboats for everybody on board and better ways to launch them were added to liners across the world these changes they seem sort of plainly obvious to us now but over a hundred years ago it just wasn't the case the olympic-class ocean liners are monuments to both what humans can achieve but also the contempt that was once held by the mega-rich for those below them while the three ships provided better conditions for the third class passengers than almost any other liner in operation those traveling on the titanic with the cheapest tickets died in much higher numbers than the other classes james cameron's 1997 movie titanic famously showed third class passengers held behind metal gates as the ship began to flood there's a lot of debates over the accuracy of this because while gates were certainly used it was primarily for u.s immigration purposes which called for the classes to be kept apart really more third class passengers died for two main reasons many did not speak english and therefore suffered from fatal miscommunication secondly and most importantly their accommodation was a considerable distance from the lifeboats and he had to navigate a perilous flooding maze to even make it up onto the decks by which time any of the lifeboats had already left some less than 50 full it is perhaps unfair that these ocean liners are remembered almost exclusively for such a tragic accident because despite their obvious failings they were marvelous ocean liners which set a benchmark for what was to come they quite simply pushed the boundaries of what was possible on the open seas but the olympic class ocean liners will forever be remembered for the events of april 12 1912 and the immortal words iceberg right ahead so i really hope you found that video interesting this was heavily demanded so if you are asked for this well thank you for suggesting it please hit that like button if you like this video also subscribe we do mega projects now three times a week started on two 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Channel: Megaprojects

Views: 348,178

Rating: 4.9516439 out of 5

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Id: 1aLjJMzxRj0

Length: 19min 26sec (1166 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 10 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/DynastyFan85]

Anyone else bothered by how out of proportion Clive Palmer’s version looks? The hull is too high compared to the white superstructure. The added safety deck just totally throws off the balance. Then again, his project will never happen...so