What happened to RMS Olympic after WW1?

It's early in the morning September 1918 the  twilight of the first world war Olympic a troop   ship is making its way from Southampton all  is calm but beneath the waves a predator lurks it's a German submarine a u-boat and its  commander has Olympic perfectly in his sights he waits patiently for his shot foreign two torpedoes have been fired they  roar through the water at great speed   each carries 195 kilogram warhead just three years  earlier the rms Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk   in very similar circumstances now the torpedoes  bear down on Olympic impact is a certainty this attack on Olympic actually happened it  was in the final stages of the first world war   and it's believed that the submarine u-53 fired  the offending torpedo now one of them missed but   one of them hit dead centre but didn't detonate  if Olympic had sunk that morning it would have   been the end of the Olympic class as a whole  because titanic and Britannic were gone and it   would have been a real shame because the 1920s  were some of the best years of Olympic’s career   for almost a year following the first world  war Olympic continued to serve as a troop ship   repatriating British and Canadian soldiers she had  been hastily repainted in her peacetime colours   perhaps a little too hastily because in  patches the black paint of the hull wore   off and she could see her striking camouflage  pattern beneath a Olympics’ problems were   not just cosmetic however the ship had  been driven hard for four years of war   and her plumbing electrical and engineering  systems all needed care and overhaul if she   was to re-enter the passenger service a tired  Olympic was finally retired from admiralty service   and made it back to her builders Harland and  Wolf in Belfast northern Ireland in august 1919.   the shipper transported some 200 000 people safely  over 36 trooping voyages surviving submarine   attacks and even having managed to sink one in  action four years earlier in 1916 her larger and   newer sister ship Britannic had struck a mine  off Greece while serving as a hospital ship   and sank now it was up to Olympic to shoulder the  burden of the ever popular Southampton to new York   service the liner was fatigued and her refit would  be extensive the biggest change made to Olympic   during this time was to her machinery Olympic  had originally been built as a coal-burning ship   this had been the primary means of feeding ship  spoilers for decades but as early as 1912 thought   had been given to converting Olympic to burn  oil fuel instead this had a number of advantages   first it meant that the large number of hands  required to endlessly shovel coal into the   furnaces would no longer be needed in fact the  engineering complement was reduced from 350   to just 60 men it also changed the refuelling  process bunkering coal took days and was a   dirty grimy business coating the ship's hull in  thick coal dust and soot instead refuelling could   now be complete in just five or six hours  as liquid oil was pumped into the bunkers   there was a bit of good foresight here too in my  what happened to Olympic after titanic sank video   we analysed the additional inner skin which had  been added and subdivided into small cellular   watertight compartments these could now be used  to store additional liquid fuel oil giving Olympic   and impressive capacity in range the conversion  to oil drove another small external change   Olympic titanic and Britannic had all  originally been fitted with small triangular   coaling outriggers with their wires slung out  along the promenade deck these have been used   to act sort of like cranes slinging buckets of  coal into the ship's sides during refuelling   they weren't needed anymore so they were deleted  giving Olympic side a nice clean look additional   safety measures were introduced too previously  watertight doors and Olympic spoiler rooms had   to be closed manually a process which could take  up to two minutes after her refit the system was   entirely automated from the bridge powered  by electricity and took less than 20 seconds   her ventilation systems were improved and  she received a whole new lifeboat plan   all in all she could now carry 50 lifeboats  many designed to nest inside another two of   these boats were 28 foot long motorboats  which even carried their own wireless set   this gave Olympics lifeboats a capacity  for almost three and a half thousand people inside Olympics’ full pre-war glory was  restored all of the wood panelling and   decoration that had been removed during  the war was restored and anything that   was damaged was replaced with panels which had  been built but never fitted to the Britannic   this all took 10 months but finally in 1920 the  shining all-new rms Olympic proudly steamed into   Belfast lough and the open ocean to the casual  observer from the outside she would have looked   about the same as she did when she first left  her shipbuilders in 1911. but now instead of   thick coal smoke pouring out of her funnels there  was just the slightest wisp of oil smoke instead   Olympic was ready to face  the 1920s and a whole new era   now it would be a little bit remiss of me not to  mention this small event that occurred we all know   Olympic had a little penchant for the dramatic and  when she was steaming from Belfast to Southampton   that first time powered by oil a huge fire broke  out caused by faulty valves the faulty valves   allowed extra fuel oil to escape which then caught  a light in one of the boiler rooms it was under   control in 15 minutes thanks largely to a fire  extinguishing system installed exactly for this   reason but it's just one more interesting event in  Olympics colourful career anyway Olympic returned   to service and was built by the white star line  as the largest oil burning passenger ship afloat   her first post-war transatlantic voyage was billed  as a second maiden voyage but by 1920 hers was a   household name and the ship had become a bit of  a legend she was booked to the brim and carried   2249 passengers in absolute style and comfort the  crossing was a success and it set the scene for   the early 1920s she steamed into new York harbor  having averaged 21 knots across the Atlantic   on that voyage she'd carried the new York symphony  orchestra who were returning after a successful   tour of Europe they played on deck as reception  boats circled the line-up all seemed well except   that typhus had recently broken out in Serbia and  Olympic on that voyage was carrying 180 people   from there in third class the ship had to be  quarantined for five days to the annoyance of many   regardless the crossing had been a great  success and Olympic was back in the spotlight   as one of the most prestigious ocean liners on the  transatlantic run with Britannic having been lost   white star's transatlantic service was now run by  a mismatched pair of liners the old rms Adriatic   of 1906 one of white star's so-called big four  originally intended to sail from Liverpool to new   York now served alongside Olympic which was 21 000  gross registered tons bigger and five knots faster regardless in 1920 the odd couple managed  37 Atlantic crossings many of them booked   out in a post-war boom and they carried 60 000  people between them Olympic became a favourite   for the rich and famous carrying the likes of  Charlie Chaplin Douglas Fairbanks Mary Pickford   and Percy Rockefeller her passenger lists  include millionaires politicians generals   judges socialites stars and she earned herself  the nickname of the film star liner in the press   the years 1920 to 1921 were good years for  Olympic as the post-war merchant shipping world   still reeled and plans were yet to be  finalized for running mates and rivals   but then in 1922 things were to change with the  introduction of a new generation of super lighter   that would steal some of Olympic spotlight Cunard had lost Lusitania in 1915. but the  post-war boom had begun to serve them well too   Aquitania proved to be a trans-Atlantic  champion carrying 60 000 passengers in 1921   to Olympics 37 000. in 1922 Bertram Hayes Olympics  master through the final years of world war one   and through 1920 and 1921 was transferred to a  newer larger ship she had been built in Germany   for Hamburg America line as the Bismarck but  was not finished before the war broke out   instead she was awarded to Britain as a war  reparation in view of the loss of Britannic   and was then bought by White Star Line she was  certainly impressive this superliner was over 950   feet long and 56 000 gross registered tons Olympic  was no longer the largest liner in the white star   fleet nor the flagship that honour went to this  new behemoth liner which had been renamed majestic   finally three large ocean liners  were servicing white star lines   Southampton to new York service but  it was an odd line-up to say the least   fairly early on white star line had recognized  that more than two ocean liners of equivalent   size would be needed to operate a regular and  reliable transatlantic service like clockwork   with three ships one could be departing  Southampton for new York another departing   new York for Southampton and a third still  could already be mid-ocean in either direction   the company's dream envisaged  this service being maintained by   Olympic titanic and Britannic but that dream  had died with titanic and Britannic’s loss   the company would have to make do with what it  had at hand now the busy transatlantic service   would be operated by majestic Olympic and the  smaller Homeric another war reparation originally   the former German liner Columbus it was an odd  trio but their matching was driven by necessity   white star was finally ready to face the 1920s and  beyond and compete with Cunard as best they could to create visual consistency across the fleet  and perhaps to refresh the brand a little   the Olympics gold sheer line was lowered along  with that of Homeric and Majestic so that it sat   further down on the hull from 1922 on  Olympic recorded some of her fastest   crossings averaging speeds in excess of 22 knots  and even recording a speed record of 24.2 knots   this good turn of speed came in handy in 1923 when  the united states lines ss Levithan which was also   originally a German-built liner the same class  as majestic was overtaken by Olympic in a storm   this sparked a friendly rivalry between the two  ships who unofficially raced against one another   but leviathan had the upper hand thanks to an  extra 40 000 horsepower in her engines by the   mid-1920s it was clear that majestic was carrying  a larger number of passengers compared to Olympic   thanks in no small part to that ship's huge second  and third class capacity Olympic however was still   a favourite for the rich and famous and she was  probably one of the most popular liners afloat by 1927 white star line was planning to build  and introduce a new super lighter in excess of   1 000 feet long and by far the most luxurious ship  afloat the company had wanted to replace Homeric   which just wasn't in the same league as majestic  and Olympic so to prepare for the change Olympic   would need to be modernized and refitted the late  1920s were a totally different world to that which   had existed when the Olympic class was first  dreamt up in 1909 by white star line executives   would Olympic be able to keep up with the shifting  social changes of the 1920s or would she be left   behind a relic of the Edwardian age the next time  we visit Olympics career we'll take a look at how   White Star Line was able to refresh the ship and  keep it abreast of all the social change that was   happening in the late 1920s because even all the  way through until her scrapping in the early 1930s   Olympic was still a favourite on the transatlantic  service ladies and gentlemen it's your friend mike   brady from ocean liner designs thank you so much  for watching this video please think about liking   and subscribing to the channel every little bit  helps and I aim to make a video like this once   every week so you'd hate to miss out or you  can support my channel on Patreon you'll find   the link down in the description until then stay  safe stay happy and I'll see you again next time

Channel: Oceanliner Designs

Views: 266,895

Keywords: great ocean liners, maritime history, ocean liners, famous oceanliners, ships documentary, history of ships, olympic, rms olympic, titanic, rms britannic, rms aquitania, hmhs britannic, titanic sinking, olympic u boat, u-53

Id: cKi3hkqGP8s

Length: 13min 51sec (831 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 19 2022