The ocean liner Britannic is the last of the Olympic series. The fate of three superliners: Titanic, Britannic and Olympic

12.10.2019

It's always some kind of mystery. On the surface, ships rust and turn into terrible monsters, but at the depths they seem to gain new life, overgrown with galaxies of sea creatures. Many ships were lost as a result of wrecks and wars, and each of them has its own story of disaster and its own story of rescue.

The fate of the ocean liner « Britannic"Built before the outbreak of the First World War and considered an unsinkable ship, it is as tragic as its two brothers" Olympic" And " Titanic».

creation of Britannica

During the death of the liner "" on Queens Island at the shipyard " Harland & Wolff"Construction of the third vessel of the series was in full swing" Olympic" Initially, this liner was supposed to be called " Gigantic", but after the death of his predecessor, company representatives " White Star Line"They decided to abandon the mythology of antiquity and named the new ship a patriotic name" Britannic" Its construction was frozen for several months, pending the findings of the British commission of inquiry into the Titanic disaster.

start of construction of Britannic

one of the waterproof partitions

steam turbine rotor

During slipway work on the ship " Britannic» improvements have been made. When creating the ship project, engineers set out to make it unsinkable. To do this, they developed a double internal hull lining. This measure was taken in case of a collision with an iceberg. The second innovation was the installation of five watertight partitions that extended to the upper decks, and were supposed to prevent all the compartments from flooding one after another. The architecture of the aircraft has also undergone some changes. In particular, the well between the superstructure and the poop deck was covered with decking, turning it into a shelter deck, and a superstructure with additional third-class cabins was erected on the poop deck.

Displacement " Britannica" was the largest among the entire trio " White Star Line" and amounted to 48,158 registered tons.

The biggest drawback of the Titanic was the lack of lifeboats, so the Britannic had twice as many. The liner was equipped with five pairs of huge 12-meter davit-cranes, each of which could safely launch five boats at a high roll. In the bow of the boat deck, cranes were installed only on the starboard side. In the peacetime version, the liner was supposed to carry 40 boats, but some of them were never installed due to subsequent events.

Launching of the Royal Mail Steamer (RMS) « Britannic" February 26, 1914 was marked by a bad omen - there was no traditional baptism, but the company announced that the liner would be launched in the spring of next year. The ship was originally built as a transatlantic passenger airliner, but with the outbreak of the First World War it was used for other purposes.

After the outbreak of the First World War " Britannic was requisitioned by the Admiralty and in October 1914, during completion of construction afloat, it was converted into a floating hospital. The ship was equipped with 3,300 beds for the wounded, many operating rooms, storage rooms, cabins for medical staff, a morgue, recreational and gymnasium rooms. Liner received a paint job: a white hull with a wide green stripe and red crosses on the sides, as well as yellow pipes.

On November 13, 1915, the ship was completed, and on December 8, after successful sea trials, it entered service with the British Navy. 12 December " Britannic" moved from Belfast to Southampton, where it was staffed with medical personnel and supplies. December 23 liner " Britannic set off on his maiden voyage, heading to the Mediterranean Sea. Captain liner the best captain of the shipping company, Charles A. Bartlett, was appointed, who oversaw the construction of " Britannica". Then he did not yet know what fate was in store for him and his brainchild.

Britannic in the First World War

In August 1916, Europe was engulfed in the First World War, and the eastern Mediterranean did not escape this fate. The allies England and France began the bloody Dardanelles operation against Germany and Turkey, landing their troops in Gallipoli. The British suffered heavy losses, and reinforcements had to be redeployed. It was also necessary to establish a system for sending the wounded and sick back to Britain. It was for this purpose that “ Britannic. In waters infested with German submarines, a passenger liner was carrying a large batch of wounded British soldiers.

For the entire year 1916 " Britannic"managed to complete five successful flights. More than 13,000 wounded soldiers were transported to England. The fiercer the war at sea became, the greater the danger " Britannic».

In the Aegean Sea, in the strait between Greece and the island of Kea Island, the captains of the U-boat series laid mines in two parallel lines. In the narrows Mediterranean Sea This tactic often worked. The course to the British base on the island of Lemnos lay through this strait.

last way

November 21, 1916 liner " Britannic, following the strait dividing greek islands Key and Kythnos, was on its sixth flight to pick up another batch of wounded. There were 1,134 people on board. Suddenly, at 08:00, a powerful explosion occurred in the area of the bridge on the starboard side, followed by a long roar and vibration of the hull. Captain Bartlett was still having breakfast, without changing his pajamas, he hurriedly ran out to the control room. At first he thought that the ship had hit a mine. The captain tried to turn the ship towards the shore in order to throw himself into shallow water, but it was in vain.

Britannic sinks

Meanwhile, the ship's crew was preparing to leave the ship. Everyone rushed to the boats. As the water filled bow ships, liner began to list to starboard. It became clear that the compartments were flooded one after another. Giant propeller blades came to the surface, turning the two escaping boats and their passengers into a bloody mess, killing 28 people. As the ship disappeared under water, water began to pour through the portholes opened by the medical staff. This was enough to destroy liner. The last to leave the ship, as befits him, was Captain Bartlett. Only 30 people died as victims of this disaster, which spoke of endurance, discipline, as well as coordinated actions of the team and medical staff. The rescued 1,104 passengers were picked up some time later by British destroyer escorts.

versions of the death of Britannic

Britannic became the largest loss of the British merchant fleet in the history of the First World War.

However, it was not the crash that shocked the public." Britannica", where only 30 people died, and under what circumstances this happened. After all, the ship sank in 57 minutes. People simply could not believe the death of another giant.

Newspapers wrote that " Britannic» was a victim of deliberate torpedo attack. However, this message was refuted by the commander of the German submarine U-73, Captain Seyss, who claimed that a mine bank was placed in the strait, which he ran into. This is confirmed by the logbook, which accurately describes that the commander of the submarine did not give the order to torpedo “ Britannic“, but also indicates the fact that several mines were laid near the island where the disaster occurred. The submarine commander saw that there were people on the deck of the ship. They all belonged to the military corps and were dressed in khaki uniforms.

There are two versions sinking of the Britannic. Official - liner was blown up by a mine laid by the German submarine U-73. Second unofficial version was voiced by the expedition of the famous explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau in 1975, according to which illegal weapons were transported on board the liner to Egypt. The ship was supposed to call at the port of Alexandria and unload it. This fact became known to German intelligence, and during bunkering in Naples, an infernal machine was planted in one of the starboard coal bunkers. Four days later, when the storage facilities were fairly empty, the infernal machine went off, causing a secondary explosion of coal dust in all the starboard bunkers. This explains the boom that was felt for some time after the explosion. Fast sinking of the liner Cousteau explains that the tightness was broken by a secondary explosion of coal dust throughout the bunkers. One way or another, secondary detonation could have occurred under the influence of a mine explosion overboard. This is confirmed by the accumulation large quantity coal on the ground scattered around the remains of the ship.

The Olympic liner is the only one of the three twin liners of this class that operated for many years and was decommissioned due to obsolescence, while the Titanic sank due to a collision with an iceberg on its first voyage, and the Britannic (originally called Gigantic ") was blown up by a mine laid by the German submarine U-73 during the First World War.

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There were no casualties. "Olympic" and "Hawk" soon went to sea, but the incident did not end there, but turned into a scandalous court case.
Two months after the accident, the White Star Line accused a Royal Navy commander of ramming his cruiser. The Admiralty did not think of defending itself. It accused Captain Smith of negligence and disregard for navigation rules. A seemingly simple case was complicated by extremely contradictory testimony from witnesses.
White Star Line was found guilty and was ordered to pay compensation.
The cause of the collision was “vessel suction” - the hydrodynamic attraction of ships following parallel courses. The main reason for suction is the specific distribution of zones of high and low water pressure along the hull of a self-propelled motor vessel. A description of suction is included in all modern navigation textbooks [ ], but at the beginning of the 20th century the phenomenon was unstudied. The physical cause of suction is the Venturi effect (the suction effect of flowing water, which is a consequence of Bernoulli’s law). The famous popularizer of science Yakov Perelman described this collision in one of his books as an illustration of this effect.
Suction has a stronger effect on a smaller vessel and leads to a sharp deterioration in controllability, so modern navigation practice requires that a smaller vessel overtake a larger one at the maximum distance and at the minimum possible speed.
Thus, from the point of view of modern navigation practice, the culprit of the collision is the Hawk, which dangerously overtook a vessel of greater length and displacement.

The sinking of the Titanic, changes

The Titanic tragedy and its consequences

On the very first voyage, the Titanic crashed: on the night of April 14-15, 1912, it collided with an iceberg and sank 600 miles from Newfoundland. The iceberg damaged five compartments, the ship received several holes of different sizes over a length of 90 meters. At least 1,496 people died in the disaster, with 712 survivors.

Military service

Service in the Mediterranean

In Belfast, the Olympic met its still-finished brother, the Britannic. They spent the next seven months together until Olympic was called up for Government service. The White Star Line wanted the former commander to remain captain, but as he was busy in Belfast, a new captain was chosen by the Admiralty and Harold Sanderson, the man who had run the White Star Line after Bruce Ismay. The new captain was Bertram Fox Hayes, the former captain of the Adriatic.
Before entering the ocean, "Olympic" received artillery weapons. One 4.7-inch gun was mounted on the forecastle and two similar guns were mounted on the stern. From that time on, the Olympic was listed as a military transport under the number T2810. Olympic's maiden voyage took place on September 24 to Moudros on the island of Lemnos in the Mediterranean. The ship carried approximately 6,000 soldiers.
The results of the war were disappointing: many fast merchant ships were lost. Cunard Line lost 22 ships. Rebuilding the fleet was no easy task. The White Star Line lost its main ships - Titanic, Britannic and Oceanic. There was no ship capable of matching the Olympic, either in size or speed. Before the war, the White Star Line planned to replace the Titanic with the Germanic, but due to the poor financial situation this idea had to be abandoned. But since Great Britain was among the victorious states, it had many advantages. One of them was that Great Britain received the main ships of its opponents as war reparations. At first, White Star Line tried to get the HAPAG Emperor, but it had already been given to Cunard Line, and it became their Berengaria. But there were two other large ships. This is a 35,000-ton liner "
The return flight was supposed to be fun, since the American actor Charlie Chaplin decided to go to the UK on the Olympic for the first time in 20 years. The comedian often used the Turkish bath, gym and swimming pool. He also spent a lot of time in the smoking room, but only as an observer of professional card games.
At the end of 1921, Captain Hayes was appointed to the same post on the Bismarck. When the 56,551-ton ship entered service in 1922, she was renamed Majestic. The ship became a worthy partner for the Olympic, replacing the Britannic. Some time before the arrival of the Majestic, the Columbus, renamed Homeric, replaced the Titanic. Finally, the White Star Line had a trio of large liners on the Southampton-New York line.
After the collision with the cruiser Hawk in 1911, nothing more serious happened to the Olympic until March 22, 1924. It departed from Pier 59 in New York. Olympic crashed into Fort St. George", causing serious damage to it: the main mast was broken, the lifeboats and the deck were significantly damaged to a length of 45 meters. Olympic did not appear to be seriously damaged, but on arrival at Southampton it was discovered that the stern planking was badly damaged and had to be replaced.
One of the creators of the Olympic, Lord Pirrie, died in June 1924 during a voyage from South America. The body was taken on board in New York, where the coffin was loaded onto the Olympic and taken to Queenstown, from where it was conveyed to Belfast. Eight months later Captain Hambleton abandoned the Olympic in favor of Captain William Marshall. Under his command, Olympic received the third distress signal of her career. The small liner Ellenia asked for help when the Olympic left New York only nine hours ago. When he reached the Ellenia, Captain Marshal was informed that she did not require assistance. To make sure, one of the boats was sent from the Olympic with the fourth mate Lowe. When the lifeboat returned forty minutes later, Lowe confirmed that the Ellenia had requested tow to New York. Since the smaller ship was not in danger and several French ships were approaching, Marshall decided to continue the voyage to Southampton.

The main differences between the Olympic and the Titanic
1. The Olympic has a completely open promenade on Deck A, while the Titanic has a glass front on Deck A, up to approximately the second chimney. This is the most significant visual difference by which the liners can be easily distinguished from each other.
2. On Deck B of the Olympic, the aft part of the promenade is more open than that of the Titanic (although this part of the Olympic was often rebuilt).
3. The Titanic had cabin-apartments with private promenade decks for millionaires on deck B in the area of the second funnel, while the Olympic decided not to build them.
4. The Titanic had a Parisian-style cafe in the place where the Olympic had an open promenade aft on Deck B, while the Olympic (at the time of the Titanic's sinking) did not have one.
On the Titanic, the bridge wings extended beyond the bulwarks of Deck A.

After the film won 11 Oscars D. Cameron“Titanic mania” began in the world. But not many people know that the legendary superliner had two twin brothers - the Olympic, launched about a year before the Titanic, and the Britannic, which left the stocks after its tragic death, but did not escape the same terrible fate.

Following the Titanic

Construction of the Britannic had already begun when news of the Titanic's sinking reached the Heartland. To avoid such a tragedy, the ship's creators made a number of changes to its drawings: the height of the watertight bulkheads was increased, the ship's double bottom was made thicker, and the space between the outer and inner bottoms was divided into compartments. In addition, giant davits were built - winches for lowering boats, which were so lacking on the Titanic.

The company that owned the liner announced that the ship would begin service on the Southampton-New York route, the same route as the Titanic, in 1915. But due to World War I, the British Navy commandeered the Britannic and they made it a hospital ship.

“His Majesty's Hospital Ship Britannic” Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
Survive three disasters

The hospital ship was crossing the Aegean Sea with 1,134 people on board.

Immediately after the end of morning mass on November 21, 1916, a young Irish maid Violet Jessop I heard a dull roar. Let us add that by this time she had already survived the accident on the Olympic in 1911 and miraculously escaped in 1912 during the sinking of the Titanic. It was this woman who became the prototype for Rose, the heroine of D. Cameron's epic. “It was as if an inexplicable explosion had gone through the ship,” Jessop recalls, “it caused a continuous vibration along the entire length of the ship.”

Sinking Britannic. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
The captain, trying to steer the ship into shallower waters, ordered the engines to work at full power and go full speed ahead. He did not know that the ship’s propellers, rotating at great speed, pulled the boats into the whirlpool and crushed the passengers.

Survivors of the sinking of the Britannic. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / Royal Navy
Jessop jumped out of the boat to avoid the deadly propellers. And after some time I watched as another great ship went under the water. “The white pride of the oceanic medical world dipped its nose slightly, then sank deeper and deeper,” Jessop wrote in her memoir, Titanic Survivor, published in 1997.

Riddles at the bottom

Soon after the tragedy, the British government put forward two official hypotheses: the ship was either torpedoed or was blown up by a German mine.

In 1976 Jacques Cousteau 64 kilometers south of Athens discovered the exact location of the remains of the Britannica. The ship (about 270 meters in length and with a displacement of 48,000 tons) lies on its side at a depth of 119 meters, almost intact. The fracture caused by the impact on the bottom is clearly visible.

Cousteau's dive to the Britannic wreck. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / U.S. Navy Cousteau discovered that the ship was 6.75 nautical miles from the site declared by the British Admiralty in 1916. According to Simon Mills, cameraman and amateur maritime historian, who bought the wreckage for $25,000 in 1996 from another shipwreck collector Mark Bamford, this discrepancy has given rise to several theories. It got to the point that some researchers even suggested that the British government itself sank the ship as a propaganda move to involve the United States in the war.
There are no unsinkable ships

But other questions remain: why did the Britannic, whose safety was greatly enhanced after the Titanic tragedy, sank in 57 minutes? - three times faster than the Titanic?

Organ on board the Britannic. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
The head of one of the five expeditions, Nick Hope assured that he found no traces of German mine explosions. One of Hope's crew members entered the fire tunnel to ascertain whether the sealed hatches in the ship's bulkheads were battened down. He discovered that one hatch was open. “Another version,” says Hope, “the portholes near the waterline were open...”

Nick Hope said: “We spent 1,600 minutes around the wreckage. — record time for underwater observation, including photography and filming.” And it will help, Simon Mills hopes, to find the key to a mystery as big as a murder mystery. John F. Kennedy.

Robert Ballard, marine explorer who found the wreck of the Titanic in North Atlantic, also examined the site of the Britannic sinking in 1995. They discovered several holes in the ship's hull.

Ballard would like to turn the Britannic into a kind of underwater museum, with movie cameras on board that would transmit images to shore. Now many people are turning to him with a proposal to raise the Britannic. But Ballard's wish is to leave the ship where it is, as another shrouded in mystery reminder that no ship is unsinkable.
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Olympic arrives in New York on June 22, 1911.
In a few minutes it will moor at pier No. 59, owned by White Star
On May 12, 1918, a unique story took place in the English Channel - the Titanic sistership, the world's largest passenger liner Olympic (displacement 46,358 tons), chased the German submarine U-103, which was five times shorter and 55 times lighter, caught up with her and cut her in half.
I called the Olympic the largest ocean passenger liner in the world (at that time), because unlike the larger German Imperator and Vaterland, it continued to operate on the Transatlantic route throughout the First World War, while the Germans stood on fun in New York and Hamburg.
"Olympic" is a ship with a unique destiny, undeservedly left in the shadow of its "classmates" "Titanic" and, in part, "Britanica", which sank during the war in the Mediterranean Sea after a mine explosion. Throughout his career, he found himself in critical situations akin to those that cost the “lives” of his “sisters” (on both sides) and constantly came out of them safely. And in terms of the number of collisions with something floating, it was a mile ahead of any other liner of its time. Reading his biography, you constantly remember the number of the “Chekhov Duet” about a man who insured his life in order to get a solid jackpot, but instead found absolute health. Perhaps some saint responsible for the soul of ships decided to take the Olympic through all the trials that its sisterships could not endure.
Look: Olympic entered service on June 14, 1911 and immediately set off for New York. Bruce Ismay was on board. The same one! Do you know who commanded the ship? You guessed it - Edward Smith. The same one that will later stand on the captain’s bridge of the Titanic on “a night to be remembered” (c). And nothing happened! No, it actually happened. A few days later, powerful jets of water from the Olympic's propellers pull a small tug under the stern. The tug is damaged, there are scratches on the stern of the Olympic.
On September 20, 1911, off the Isle of Wight, the British armored cruiser Hauk crashed into the Olympic (October 15, 1914, it was sunk by the German submarine U-9, the same one that three weeks earlier in the English Channel sent it to the bottom within a few minutes three armored cruisers).
"Hauk" has a crumpled nose, "Olympic" has such a... hole. By the way, the legendary Violet Jessop (1883-1971) was already on board the ship. Let me remind you that it will subsequently survive the sinking of the Titanic and Britannic. It is little known that there was another person who survived the crashes and accidents of all three liners - fireman Arthur Priest.
OK. February 24, 1912 Olympic loses part of its propeller in the Atlantic, en route to Brittany. It is known that it was this accident that led to the delay in the departure of the Titanic on its inauguration voyage.
On the night the Titanic sank, the Olympic was sailing from New York to Southampton. The captain of the ship, Herbert Hadcock, gave the order to immediately go to rescue the passengers, although he was 580 miles from the dying ship and it took him more than a day to get to the scene of the disaster. When there were 120 miles left to the site of the sinking of the Titanic, the captain of the Carpathia Rostron contacted Hadcock and asked him not to approach his ship so that the rescued passengers would not panic from contemplating a complete copy of the ship from which they had just escaped.
Well, about the mutiny of part of the crew in the same April 1912, after which it was finally decided to provide for all passengers lifeboats I think everyone familiar with the history of navigation knows.
In 1914, the First World War began and the Olympic remained one of the few transatlantic liners that remained on the lines throughout the hostilities (by the way, during the Second World War, passenger shipping across the Atlantic was quickly stopped - the family of the US Ambassador to Great Britain Joseph Kennedy ( including Bobby) reached New York on September 21, 1939, on the last flight of the Dutch transatlantic liner Amsterdam. The British, French and Poles (Poland had two small liners, but shh. Officially the country was rotting in poverty) no longer went Until the spring of 1940, Italian liners sailed in the USA, but for obvious reasons they were also taken off the lines).
On October 9, 1914, Olympic simultaneously almost anticipated the fate of Britannic and more than repeated the actions of Carpathia. On this day he walked into a German minefield. And from the other end, the British battleship Odeisies entered it. I walked in and ran into a mine. The Olympic boats removed the ENTIRE crew from the battleship, which capsized and exploded as it sank. "Olympic" safely left the minefield and delivered the sailors to the port.
Boats from the "Olympic" remove the crew of the "Odeishis"
A year later, in the Mediterranean, the Olympic would rescue the crew of the French transport Provence, despite the fact that Austrian submarines were circling around. It happened this time too.
Well, the finest hour of the Titanic sistership came exactly 98 years ago. He was making another flight from New York accompanied by 4 American cruisers (at a time when unrestricted submarine warfare was raging). And then a small convoy enters the English Channel and Hadcock sees a submarine through binoculars. “German,” the captain thought and ordered the crews of the onboard guns to open fire on it, but here’s the problem - the sides are high and it’s impossible to get into the boat. The boat stood charging the batteries and the Germans literally slept through the approach of the Allies. The problem with submarines of that time was that they sank very slowly, some models took up to an hour. Therefore, the captain tried to zigzag away from the Olympic, but Hadcock, tugging on a glass of single malt and taking a drag from a strong Virginia cigar, moved the helmsman, personally stood at the helm of the liner and, muttering something like “Schazz dear, don’t move, daddy will kiss you” or something even dirtier, he chased the Germans. This only happens in cartoons - a huge (though no longer white) liner rushes across a stormy sea behind a tiny boat. A few minutes later, the sound of cracking frames breaking, muffled by the water and the bulk of the liner, was heard, Hadcock grunted with satisfaction - “Radio operator, tell the Yankees to collect meat from the sea, and I’ll go to the cabin. Work on the documents,” and taking with him an open bottle of whiskey, a pint and a half of contraband coke - cola, the remaining liter of Barbera from the Mediterranean company and the shaker are gone. This is how the “Drunk Stewardess” cocktail was born; later, however, Coca-Cola was replaced with tonic. The cruiser was lifted from the surface of the sea by 31 German sailors.
The war is over. "Olympic" was completely modernized (the boilers became oil, and the capacity of the lifeboats exceeded 3000 people, which far exceeded the capacity of the ship) sailed from Great Britain to New York and South America until 1935. Cunard bought out the White Line and Olympic finally became a purely British ship. During the 16 years of post-war peaceful service, the ship managed to sink a lightship, ram a French steamer right into New York harbor, and slightly saved another Frenchman. People disappeared on board, one of its developers died, and, to top it all off, right above the site of the sinking of the Titanic, the Olympic was caught in an underwater earthquake.
Hotel "White Swan"
And in 1935 it was cut into metal, not forgetting to sell all the interior furnishings at auction. If someone during their travels finds themselves in the British town of Alnwick, in Northumberland, then go to the White Swan Hotel there, one of the oldest (and perhaps the oldest) continuously operating hotel in the world (it is over 300 years old). Most of the situation there from the Olympic.
When you look at the history of the Olympic, you get the feeling that the ship, after ramming and saving other ships for many years, never met its most important enemy - the iceberg, and everything that happened to it during its 24 years of operation was nothing more than training before the main one, a meeting that never took place.
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Once upon a time there were three twin liners in the world: Olympic, Titanic and Britannic. Today there is a post about them.
During the sinking of the Titanic, the captain of the Olympic offered to transfer passengers to his ship, but the crew refused. It was thought that it would be a shock for the victims to see the recently sunken liner afloat again.
At the end of the 19th century, the White Star Line was the most powerful transport company In Great Britain. Steamship communication was carried out not only with America, but also with Australia and South Africa.
In 1902, the company was bought by the American Pierpont Morgan. American capital and cooperation with one of the best shipbuilding companies, Harland and Wolff, contributed to the start of the construction of three huge ships: Olympic, Titanic and Britannic.
1. Olympic. "Darling".
"Olympic" was the first of a series of three liners of the same class. Along with the Titanic and Britannic, it was conceived as a competitor to the ships of other transatlantic companies.
At first, the White Star Line saw two large liners with three funnels. This construction was supposed to leave competitors far behind. But the duo of liners was turned into a trio. Three pipes were replaced by four to better convince passengers that a ship with four pipes was safer
In 1908, the keel of the future Olympic was laid. The ship was 268 m long, 28 m wide and 18.4 m high from the waterline to the boat deck. 16 waterproof compartments protected the ship from damage. The giant engines, together with the turbine, produced approximately 50,000 horsepower. and reached a speed of 21 knots.
Launching
On Thursday, October 20, 1910, at 11:00 am, the Olympic was launched. The ship reached a speed of 12.5 knots within 62 seconds. Finishing could begin.
Tests in 1911
After tests that exceeded all expectations, the ship was ready to go to sea.
According to tradition, after all tests were completed, Olympic arrived in Liverpool for public viewing. Although the port of departure was later changed to Southampton, the words "Liverpool" will always be visible on the stern of Olympic and her two brothers.
First Class Grand Staircase
The “trick” of all three liners was unsinkability. This fact was published in all newspapers during the construction of the ships.
Unsinkability was ensured by 16 waterproof compartments and sealed doors.
Interior The Olympics were elegant. The style of the premises, unlike the German ships, was not so pretentious, but more modest, and therefore more attractive.
Second Class Dining Hall
On Wednesday, June 14, 1911, the Olympic cast mooring lines and headed from Southampton to New York. Its captain was the experienced Edward John Smith. On Thursday, June 22, the ship docked at a pier in America.
In the first years of operation, a number of minor failures occurred with the Olympic. The ship either collided with other ships or was damaged. For example, on February 24, 1912, the liner lost a propeller blade on its way to England. The Olympic had to return to Belfast for repairs, which delayed the Titanic's maiden voyage.
Third class cabin
The lessons of the Titanic were not in vain. The ship was equipped with lifeboats. True, this was done after the team revolted. The crew refused to continue the voyages without the normal number of boats.
The First World War found the Olympic on its way to New York. In America, the liner was painted gray.
From that time on, the Olympic was listed as a military transport and was equipped with massive weapons. A little later, she became a transport ship between Great Britain and Canada.
After the war, having undergone modernization, the ship returned to its previous occupation - transporting passengers across the Atlantic.
On May 15, 1934, the Olympic was sailing through thick fog in New York waters at a speed of ten knots. Despite the low speed and lights, the lightship was not noticed on the ship. The huge Olympic cut the lighthouse in half. Seven men aboard the lightship died and only four survived.
Olympic is outdated. Now it was only a matter of time before he was taken off the line.
On October 11, 1935, Olympic left Southampton for the last time to be cut up. All interior decorations sold at auction. Most of all the furniture and decoration went to the hotels.
2. Titanic. "Damn".
The most famous and saddest ship in the series. Was the largest passenger airliner world at the time of construction.
Length 269.1 m, width - 28.19 m, height from the waterline to the boat deck - 18.4 m.
Laid down on March 31, 1909 at the shipyards in Northern Ireland and was built together with Olympic. Already on May 31, 1911 it was launched.

"Olympic" and "Titanic" on the slipways of Harland and Wolf
Before launching
Place of death
On April 4, 1912, she collided with an iceberg and sank 2 hours 40 minutes later. There were 1,316 passengers and 908 crew members on board, for a total of 2,224 people. Of these, only 711 people were saved.
The three ships closest to the Titanic were the Californian, the Carpathia, and the Mount Temple. The Californian and Mount Temple were trapped in ice, so only the Carpathia was able to come to the aid of the dying titan.
However, she arrived too late: the Titanic had already sank 2 hours ago. The Carpathia loaded the surviving passengers on board and set sail for New York.
3. Britannic. "Forgotten".
Britannic is the third and last ship of the Olympic class. Initially it was built under the name "Gigantik".
Planned appearance
Length 269 m, width 28 m, height from waterline to boat deck 18.4 m
After the sinking of the Titanic, construction on the third ship was immediately stopped, and the intended name Gigantic was replaced by Britannic.

Britannic launched.
Work on Britannic continued throughout 1912. The launch was delayed several times, and it was not until February 26, 1914, that Britannic was launched. In keeping with White Star Line tradition, there was no ceremony and no champagne bottle was broken on the bow of the ship.
Britannic was supposed to be one of the majestic liners, but then the First World War struck. World War.
On November 13, 1915, she was requisitioned by the Admiralty as a hospital ship. Work to transform the unfinished liner was in full swing. The cabins on the upper decks have been converted into chambers. The Dining Room and First Class Lounge were converted into operating rooms and the main ward.
The ship was painted in the international colors of a hospital ship: white side, green stripe along the hull with red crosses. These colors guaranteed Britannic status as inviolable for all warships, according to the Geneva Agreement. The failed liner was sent to serve in the Mediterranean Sea.
On November 21, 1916, the Britannic struck a German mine between the island of Kea and mainland Greece. The ship capsized to starboard and sank after 55 minutes. The casualties were few.

Sinking Britannic
Interestingly, Violet Jessop, a nurse, was on board the Britannic. She was pulled under the propeller of a sinking ship, but the woman survived.
Violet safely survived the death of the Britannic's older brother, the Titanic. What's even more amazing is that she was a flight attendant on the Olympic.
Three liners were named in honor of the heroes of Greek mythology: Olympians, Titans and Giants. It is curious that the Titans and giants were defeated by the Olympians. Perhaps that is why Olympic is the only one that did not crash?