What happened to Olympic after Titanic sank? | Analysis of the White Star Sister Ships

rms olympic is a ship with a legendary career spanning decades her achievements ranking up there with ships like mauritania aquitania queen mary and america but it's strange to think that there was once a moment when she was an awkward arguably even unwanted member of the white star line fleet on april 14th 1912 olympic was under the command of captain herbert haddock and his magnificent set of mutton shops mid-atlantic ocean eastbound about a day out of new york at around 10 50 pm new york time her wireless operators received an alarming transmission olympic's brand new sister titanic had begun sinking after striking ice on her maiden voyage haddock ordered full steam be made but olympic was some 505 miles away from her stricken sister and could never hope to make it on time perhaps a day's sailing but titanic had less than two hours regardless olympic rushed wildly through the night at just under 23 knots even after her sister had fallen silent and did not reply to wireless transmissions 14 hours into her mad dash signals were received from carpathia and it became clear it was all over titanic was gone haddock offered to help embark titanic survivors but it was thought that the sight of the lost ship's near-identical sister would be more than a shock for the passengers olympics steamed dejectedly for home and reached southampton on april 21st the mood on board was grim all concerts were cancelled and passengers raised some fourteen hundred pounds for a survivor's fund white star now faced an awkward conundrum over the next few days and weeks the news of titanic's loss blew up to epic proportions and the criticism leveled at the company and the ship's captain began to mount compounding issues was the fact that jay bruce ismay the company's chairman and managing director had survived the disaster and was being labelled a coward looming above all of it though was the vast hulk of olympic an awkward visceral reminder of the recently lost titanic what were they going to do with her it was immediately decided that olympic be loaded full of lifeboats until further sweeping changes could be made at least this way the ship could maintain her schedule although the white star line had a large number of ships on the transatlantic run mothballing olympic could hurt revenue badly by april 26th olympic was loaded with 24 additional collapsible boats bringing the ship's total lifeboat number to 44. this seemed fine to white star officials on paper except that the additional boats were birth on type collapsibles and these hardly inspired confidence in the crew they seemed small awkward and ungainly and it was suspected that they leaked olympics crew mutinied now this mutiny is the stuff of legends at one point haddock had to signal a nearby royal navy warship saying crew deserting ship request your assistance this is worthy of its own video but suffice it to say that olympics voyage was cancelled and the liner was laid up until may 15 when she again finally sailed for new york but with only 500 passengers aboard and 900 crew dismal numbers the talk on board was fixated on titanic and some ladies even put on life jackets before going to bed interestingly crew morale was also very low fresh in the men's memory was the frantic but futile dash to titanic's aid and the many friends they had lost on the ship returning to southampton olympic nearly came aground thanks to a navigational era off land's end if the news had got out the company's reputation would have been damaged even more eleven further round trips saw her carry passengers between southampton and new york but it was becoming clear something major needed to be done in late 1912 she was withdrawn from service for a refit and arrived at her birthplace harland and wolf in belfast in october white star was going to give the olympic a brand new start on life but it wasn't going to be easy probably the most major of the improvements to the vessel were structural and invisible from the outside her water type bulkheads were vastly improved with five of the original 15 now reaching as high as b deck harland and wolfe naval architect edward wilding intended for the olympics hull to be divided into six groups of watertight bulkheads and that she could stay afloat with any one of these groups flooded also new to the ship was an inner shell running along the bulk of her hula midships for about half the ship's total length this was effectively a second hull made of strong steel plating with the space in between the two hulls subdivided with a network of divisions and bulkheads in future when olympic was converted to burn oil this space would be used to store fuel to compensate for the reduction in space brought on by the installation of the inner skin boiler room 5's central boiler was reduced in size the ship's pumps were old during titanic sinking it was found that the liner's pumps were located too far off to be of any use forward modifications to olympics saw that the additional lines of piping would ensure every compartment could be reached by the pumps and operated from edek in the case of an emergency the work required to install these modifications deep within the ship was immense the funnels had to be unseated the uptakes disassembled the boilers hoisted out piping and wiring removed rearranged construction of the new bulkheads and inner skin and then the eventual reinstallation of everything that had been ripped out in the first place while work carried on deep in the ship's belly her boat deck bulwark midships was permanently cut off and her lifeboat capacity increased dramatically with the installation of 16 brand new clinker-built wooden boats and a number of collapsibles to boot olympic was now arguably the safest ship afloat in the world but work was not just limited to her safety features a number of lessons had been learned from titanic as regards her passenger space and olympics interior spaces were altered to suit notably the liner finally received a cafe parisienne like her younger sister had had and the a la carte restaurant was extended because it was so popular some smaller rearrangements were made as well the officers quarters were extended to include birthing for a new officer role something like an assistant commander the marconi room was moved the reading and writing rooms shortened and brand new first-class staterooms installed on adec this is no exhaustive list of the changes made to olympic in that 1913 refit anybody who'd like a more in-depth version of events would do very well to read rms olympic titanic sister by mark chenside by march 1913 the olympic that floated funnels again installed and hull gleaming was essentially a new ship the installation of new public spaces like state rooms and the cafe parisienne had brought her gross registered tonnage up to 46 358 tons larger than titanic said been finally on march 22 1913 the olympics sled into belfast loft once again under captain haddock's command i wonder what white star officials and the shipyard workers at harland and wolff were thinking how nervous that they must have been to see the public and press reaction to olympics debut perhaps tempting fate once again white star advertised olympic as the safest ship afloat but this time it seemed they were justified the public reaction to olympic's return was nothing short of enormous and her place in history was solidified her first voyage drew over 1 500 passengers 1913 was a big year for olympic and the white star line jp morgan the financier of white star line's owner the international mercantile marine died and in june jay bruce ismay retired his reputation forever shaken by the titanic disaster white star lions profits that year broke previous records and olympic had definitely played her role she was no longer the biggest ship in the world imperata had taken that title from her but she was the toast of society and had become a firm favorite the titanic disaster still fresh in public memory was no longer a fix to olympic's performance and she would go on to have one of the most celebrated careers in ocean liner history all seemed well a new sister was even on the way rms britannic white star and the world at large didn't know it yet but world events were about to change and olympic would see herself conscripted in wartime but that is a story for another day [Music] as always thank you so much for watching i've really been blown away recently by the outpouring of support and all of my new subscribers if you liked this video be sure to click the like button and subscribe and why not join my patreon at patreon.com oceanlinerdesigns to laugh at my behind the scenes bloopers today herbert haddock herbert haddock try saying that five times quickly and cut and get early access to my videos my illustration of olympic in her 1913 configuration is also available as a print on my website oceanlinerdesigns.comolympic go check it out thanks for watching stay safe stay happy and i'll see you again next time you

Channel: Oceanliner Designs

Views: 891,079

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Id: okkKFnMTUec

Length: 9min 30sec (570 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 16 2021