RMS Olympic: The Titanic That Didn't Sink (Right Away)

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[brandonholmes]

This was one incredible ship and another victim of short sighted politicians and businessmen. There were plans to preserve her as a floating hotel in France, but that fell through. Olympic was far more worthy of preservation than Queen Mary in my opinion. They'd make so much money off of this ship as a museum today.

[mdavid]

The 1913 refit in Belfast was a major reconstruction..Double hull added to critical areas, 5 of the water tight bulk heads extended up to B deck, major reconfiguration of the emergency pumps, plus the improved amenities for passengers. and added lifeboats.

[TomKeown]

On another note, the RMS Britannic, still in the docks under construction, was given multiple upgrades designed from the lessons learned from the sinking of her elder sister RMS Titanic. These included water tight bulkheads that extended all the way to the top of their compartments as well as a complete secondary hull. During World War I, she allegedly struck a mine or was torpedoed, and in spite of the improvements to her water tight integrity, sank in 56 minutes - twice as fast as RMS Titanic.

[twstf]

It was the Olympic, the Titanic, and the Brittanic. (Not the "Brittanica")

The Olympic was finished in 1911, the Titanic in 1912, and the Britannic in 1915.

(Designed to be the largest and most luxurious passenger ships in the world, and give White Star Line an advantage in the transatlantic passenger trade.)

Just FYI ✌

Edit; to be fair, you did get it right at 9:19 👍 (not that the extra "a" is all _that_ important lol I just love making myself sound clever. (Apparently 😇)

[thomasackerman]

The RMS Olympic certainly stayed as one of the largest ships in the world, till the end when she was scrapped, but she only stayed the largest until her ill-fated sister ship, Titanic was launched, and then the Olympic-class in general was surpassed by the German trio of Imperator, Vaterland, and Bismark by 1914.

[johniwan]

2:02 Britannic-A??? Come on guys, Britannica is an encyclopedia. I thought everyone knew the names of these three ships.

[hewhoshallnotbenamed]

A new ship class is usually named after the first ship in the class, thus why the Olympic is in the OLYMPIC class as it was the first.

[ignitionfrn]

1:00 - Chapter 1 - Design & construction
4:05 - Mid roll ads
5:35 - Chapter 2 - Career
12:10 - Chapter 3 - The end of an era
- Chapter 4 -
- Chapter 5 -
- Chapter 6 -

[kimpatz]

This should have been titled "What the Titanic wants to be." Not the other way around. As the Titanic is only a sister to the elder Olympic. Olympic is not a Titanic class liner, she IS the lead ship of the Olympic class liner wherein the Titanic and Brittanic belongs to. Do not mess this up as the Olympic gets the honor to be nicknamed "Old Reliable"representing her endearing career and the only civilian liner to have ever sunk a submarine in combat.

[metox]

"So lets take a closer look at the vessel that was for 20 years the largest passenger ship in the world".
Never heared of the imperator class? The first ship of this class, SS Imperator, was in service in 1913 and was already much larger than any ship of the Olympic class... All 3 ships survived the war and were in service until the late 30s.

[gusbert]

The rearmost smoke stack was a dummy, it was not connected to any furnace. It was used for ventilation to the first class smoking room, so ironically smoke did come out of it!

[BoldonBigLad]

Part of the dismantling process was carried out in my home town of Jarrow on the river Tyne. Around 1935 I believe. My grandfather was one of the crew who worked on it. The White Swan in Alnwick has an Olympic restaurant containing some original panelling, mirrors, ceiling and stained glass salvaged from RMS Olympic.

[andrewolson]

I wish I could find it, but about 10 years ago, I read an article that had some snippets from an interview with one of the engineers that served on the RMS Olympic during her last few voyages. He said the engines had been recently refitted and we're delivering better fuel economy than many of the smaller ships in the fleet. It was also mentioned that there were relatively few repairs that were needed on her overall superstructure, indicating that she was still structurally sound and could have stayed in service for many more years than she got.

[jamesgroccia]

"Olympic: The Titanic that Never Sank"
There, fixed your title

[roborapter]

Hi Simon, just to make one small correction. The smoke stacks on both The Olympic and the Titanic were three working and the fourth was purely for aesthetic reasons. But love the videos!

[MikeKojoteStone]

2:04 - Uhm, Simon, you don't 'often see that with ships'. That's how the naming conventions work. If you got a series of ships based on the same design, the first ship's name is the name of the class. That's no coincidence.

[RMSTitanicWSL]

Some notes. It was the "Brittanic" not the 'Brittanica". Just like on the Titanic, her fourth funnel was a dummy. Three funnels were considered unlucky. Also, they were the largest British-flagged passenger liners, but not the largest passenger liners in the world for more than a couple years. She was rapidly eclipsed by the German ship SS Vaterland, which was shortly eclipsed by the SS Leviathan class ships. By 1922, the RMS Majestic had bumped her from the top three largest liners, British or otherwise.

[thomasackerman]

Another thing. The Titanic wasn't actually heavier in displacement tonnage, she was larger in terms of gross tonnage, or the measurement of enclosed space. One gross ton equaling 100 cubic feet of volume. Because of improvements on Titanic, especially the late addition of screens on the forward promenade deck, the Titanic came in 1, 000 GRT larger. The Britannic would be larger still because of the addition of further improvements like the covering of the after well deck and an enlarged 3rd class smoking room.

[janetizzy]

Only three working smoke stacks, the fourth was just for ascetics and to impress the potential customers.

[dontcallmebaby]

I stayed in a pub in the UK that claimed to have one of the bars of the Olympic. A massive wooden bar, very ornate. The barkeep told how they had to do massive renovations to the flooring and supports to accomodate the weight before it was installed.