The Titanic. Even more than 100 years after its sinking
everybody still knows her story. With over 1500 deaths it was the biggest civil
maritime disaster to that date and the sad reason why the Titanic remains the most famous
ship in the world to this day. Far less well known today, however, is the
fact that the Titanic had two almost identical sister ships - The Olympic and the Britannic. And although their stories ended not nearly
as catastrophic their careers were hardly less dramatic as all of them seemed to be
followed by bad luck. In the end, despite them being the biggest
ships of their time only one of them stayed in service for more than a year. Here is their story. The first and eponymous ship of the three
Olympic class ocean liners was the RMS Olympic. Her construction started in December 1908
roughly 3 months prior to the Titanic in Belfast - where later the other two ships would be
built as well. During this time the White Star Line shipping
company was in fierce competition for the title of fastest and biggest ocean liner in
the world. The latter was already held by 7 of their
ships before the Olympic would reclaim the title an 8th time from the RMS Mauretania
of the Cunard line. However, despite popular belief, the Olympic
class liners were with 23kn never the fastest ships - they weren't even designed to be as
the main goals were size, luxury and travel comfort. As a result, the blue ribbon for fastest crossing
on the transatlantic run stayed with the Mauretania till 1929. The ambition to not only build the first ship
over 40000 GRT but to build multiple ones was even for an established shipping company
like the White star line a financial risk. The necessary funds for this mammoth project
came in part from American financial tycoon JP Morgan, one of the richest and most influential
bankers of his time, who had indirectly bought the White Star Line in 1902. Still, almost nothing could be allowed to
go wrong. Olympic launched on October 20th 1910. As was the custom with the White Star Line
no christening ceremony was performed beforehand. Over the next few months, thousands of workers
transformed the empty hull into a working ship. Following completion, The Olympic completed
her maiden voyage from Southhampton to new york on 21 June 1911 successfully
Her maiden voyage attracted considerable attention both from the press around the world and also
the public. In New york alone, tens of thousands of people
came to see the biggest ship in the world first hand. Things seemed to be going according to plan. but it wasn't long till disaster struck. Only 3 months into her service on Sept 20
1911 the Olympic under the command of Captain Edward Smith was involved in a collision with
cruiser HMS Hawke. as they passed each other in the Osborne Bay the Hawke was sucked into
the side of the Olympic near the stern. This was likely caused by a suction generated
by the much bigger Olympic after she had started to turn. the Hawke's bow, which had been designed to
sink ships by ramming them, tore a huge hole into the Olympic and flooded 2 of the watertight
compartments. Despite this, she didn't sink which only reinforced
the "unsinkable" reputation of the Olympic class liners. Still, After returning to Belfast she had
to be costly repaired for over 3 months. During the repair, the Titanic was still under
final construction, which also delayed her completion by weeks. who was at fault was never definitely proven. But because the Royal Navy blaming Olympic
for the incident, gained a court verdict in its favour, the White Star Line had to cover
the cost of repairing the ship themselves. This cost the company over 25000$ which was
the equivalent of the forecasted profits of the first two years in service. An internal investigation, however, found
no fault with captain Smiths actions, so as a gesture of trust he was again appointed
to command the newest ship the Titanic on her maiden voyage. according to some rumours, this was to be
his last trip before his retirement, and in a sense, this is what happened. He died during the sinking of the ship on
the 15. april. 1912 together with the other roughly 1500
victims - 70% of everyone on board. With a cost of 1.5 million pounds, roughly
150 million dollars in today's money the sinking of the Titanic was the second financial disaster
for the White Star in only half a year. During the collision, the Olympic was around
930 km southwest on her way back to England. after receiving the distress calls, they immediately
set course to help but by the time all survivors were rescued they were still 190km away. The offer to take on the survivors was refused
as Captain Rostron who was on the scene feared it would cause panic amongst the survivors
seeing a mirror-image of Titanic appear and telling them to board. After the Titanic disaster, Olympic underwent
various safety improvements, such as the installation of a double hull, reinforced bulkheads and
44 additional lifeboats. Similar changes were made RMS Brittanic, the
third ship of the Olympic class, which was still under construction in Belfast. Despite these improvements, the loss of the
companies' reputation resulted in passenger numbers falling short of expectations in the
following years. as in addition to that in 1914 with the outbreak
of world war I submarine attacks became a real danger, bookings plummeted to a minimum. by the End of the year, the White Star Line
had no choice but to withdraw Olympic from commercial service. In May 1915, because of ship shortages, the
Olympic was requisitioned by the Royal Navy to be used for moving troops. for that, the ship was armed with 12-pounders
and 4.7-inch guns. carrying up to 6000 troops respectively the
Olympic then made several trooping journeys to Greece Turkey and other eastern Mediterranean
countries. One notable event During this time was when
she picked up 34 survivors from the French ship Provincia, which was sunk by a german
uboat, On October 1, 1915. Because the Olympics best defence against
U-boat attacks was her speed Captain Hayes was heavily criticized by the Admiralty for
stopping and risking the ship for only 34 souls. the French however later awarded him the medal
of honour After the Gallipoli Campaign was ended in
1916t Olympic was chartered by Canada to transport troops from Halifax nova scotia to Britain. For that, she received a dazzle camouflage
to make it harder for the enemy to judge her size and speed. Her many save crossings in the following year
made her a favourite symbol in Halifax where even today places like Olympic Gardens or
the Olympic Hall Community Centre are named in her honour. But the Olympic isn't the only thing that
links Halifax and the Titanic. Halifax is only 1,100 kilometres west of the
spot where the Titanic sank. And many of the dead bodies later found were
brought there for the families to identify and bury them. That's why Halifax is the final resting place
of more victims of the Titanic than any other place. 150 of the Titanic's dead are buried here. among them is a man named J. Dawson. Sound familiar? J Dawson was the man played by Leonardo DiCaprio
in 1997s titanic. Of course, Jack Dawson was an entirely fictional
character and not based on the Joseph Dawson, who was buried here, who was a coal shipper
on broad the ship. But because his grave simply reads J. Dawson
many people thought it was the movie characters grave. This misunderstanding made his grave the most
visited of all the Titanic's victims. After the film's release, countless fathers
reportedly brought their mourning daughters here, who would often leave flowers and love
notes. After in 1917 the United States entered the
war the Olympic also transported many American troops to Europe. on one of these runs in May 1918 Captain Hayes
spotted a surfaced German u-boat that prepared to torpedo them But seemed to have technical
difficulties. He quickly ordered to ram the submarine which
successfully sank it before it could fire. An action for which he was later awarded the
DSO, a military decoration of the United Kingdom. Throughout the war, the Olympic reportedly
carried up to 200,000 troops and other personnel, which restored her image and earned her the
nickname Old Reliable After the war had ended in 1918 she returned
to Belfast for restoration where she was modernised before returning to civilian service. Her youngest sister the RMS Britannic, on
the other hand, didn't make it through the war. Before her final completion the war had already
broken out and she was requisitioned by the Royal Navy and made into a hospital ship. For that, she was repainted white with large
red crosses. After completing five successful voyages to
the Mediterranean Sea and back to the United Kingdom transporting the sick and wounded,
Britannic struck a mine on November 21 1916 in the Kea Channel in Greece. Despite her having the same improved safety
features that were installed on the Olympic, the Britannic began to sink and even faster
than the Titanic. In less than 1 hour she had disappeared completely
sharing the fate of her older sister and making her the largest ship lost in the First World
war. However, due to the higher water temperatures,
more lifeboats available and faster help 1006 of the 1036 people on board could be saved. most of the 30 deaths came from two lifeboats,
that launched without permission and were sucked into the emerged propellers that were
still running in an attempt to beach the ship. One of the few occupants of those lifeboats
that survived was the nurse Violet Jessop, who managed to jump out of her boat just in
time. What makes this story even more amazing is
that she was also onboard the Olympic during the collision with the HMS Hawke and on top
of that was one of the few survivors of the Titanic disaster. As a requisitioned ship that was in the service
of Crown as it sank, the wreck of the Britannic belonged to the British Government for the
next 80 years. till In 1996 it was sold to renowned British
maritime historian Simon Mills for 15 000 pounds. Olympic, on the other hand, became a popular
and fashionable ship after the war carrying thousands of passengers a year on the transatlantic
route, including the rich and famous like Charlie Chaplin and Prince Edward. This, however, didn't change the fact that
the Olympic class was a financial disaster for the white star line of which it never
recovered. The Shipping Company and their ships were
subsequently sold multiple times and during the great depression, the white star line
eventually agreed to fuse with the Cunard line, their main competitor, so both companies
could receive much-needed subsidies from the British government. As a result of that merger and with a new
flagship the RMS Queen Mary near completion the fleet of older liners was gradually retired. But not before Olympics back luck returned
for a last time. on 15th May 1934 one year before she was withdrawn
from transatlantic service Olympic inbound in heavy fog rammed the Nantucket lightship,
one of the ships that marked the path into the new york harbour, which it broke it apart
and sank it. The collision cost 7 of the 11 crewmembers
of the lightship their lives. One year later on 5th April 1935 Olympic left
New York to return to Britain for the last time. Her final demolition was in 1937 - 26 years
after her maiden voyage - alongside the Mauretania, her biggest rival during her early career. On all her commercial voyages the Olympic
transported around 430,000 passengers on 257 round trips across the Atlantic travelling
a total of over 2.8 million kilometres.
