When was the rms olympic launch

The second class facilities included a smoking room, a library, a spacious dining room, and a lift. Finally, the Third Class passengers enjoyed reasonable accommodation compared to other ships, if not up to the second and first classes.

Instead of large dormitories offered by most ships of the time, the third-class passengers of the Olympic travelled in cabins containing two to ten bunks. Facilities for the third class included a smoking room, a common area, and a dining room.

Olympic had a cleaner, sleeker look than other ships of the day: rather than fitting her with bulky exterior air vents, Harland and Wolff used smaller air vents with electric fans, with a "dummy" fourth funnel used for additional ventilation. For the powerplant Harland and Wolff employed a combination of reciprocating engines with a centre low-pressure turbine, as opposed to the steam turbines used on Cunard's Lusitania and Mauretania. White Star claimed the Olympic -class's engine set-up to be more economical than expansion engines or turbines alone.

Olympic consumed tons of coal per twenty four hours with an average speed of Although Olympic and Titanic were largely identical, a few fairly minor changes were made to Titanic and later on the Britannic based on experience gained from the Olympic 's first year in service.

These differences meant that Titanic had a slightly higher gross tonnage of 46, tons, compared to Olympic 's 45, tons. Following completion, Olympic started her sea trials on 29 May , which she successfully completed, Olympic then left Belfast bound for Liverpool, her port of registration, on 31 May As a publicity stunt the White Star Line deliberately timed the start of her first voyage to coincide with the launch of Titanic.

After spending a day in Liverpool, open to the public, Olympic sailed to Southampton , where she arrived on 3 June, to be made ready for her maiden voyage. The maiden voyage was captained by Edward Smith who would lose his life the following year in the Titanic disaster. Designer Thomas Andrews was present for the passage to New York and return, along with a number of engineers, as part of Harland and Wolff's "Guarantee Group" to spot any problems or areas for improvement.

Andrews would also lose his life in the Titanic disaster. As the largest ship in the world, and the first in a new class of superliners, Olympic 's maiden voyage attracted considerable worldwide attention from the press and public.

Following her arrival in New York , Olympic was opened up to the public and received over 8, visitors. More than 10, spectators watched her depart from New York harbour, for her first return trip. Olympic 's first major mishap occurred on her fifth voyage on 20 September , when she collided with a British warship, HMS Hawke off the Isle of Wight.

The collision took place as Olympic and Hawke were running parallel to each other through the Solent. As Olympic turned to starboard, the wide radius of her turn took the commander of the Hawke by surprise, and he was unable to take sufficient avoiding action. The Hawke 's bow, which had been designed to sink ships by ramming them, collided with Olympic 's starboard side near the stern, tearing two large holes in Olympic 's hull, below and.

HMS Hawke suffered severe damage to her bow and nearly capsized. Despite this, Olympic was able to return to Southampton under her own power, and no-one was seriously injured or killed. In command during this incident was Captain Edward Smith , who was lost at sea a year later onboard Titanic. One crew member, Violet Jessop , survived not only the collision with the Hawke but also the later sinking of Titanic and the sinking of Britannic , the third ship of the class.

At the subsequent inquiry the Royal Navy blamed Olympic for the incident, alleging that her large displacement generated a suction that pulled Hawke into her side. The Hawke incident was a financial disaster for Olympic 's operator. A legal argument ensued which decided that the blame for the incident lay with Olympic. The liner endured such a serious collision and stayed afloat, appeared to vindicate the design of the Olympic-class ships and reinforced their "unsinkable" reputation.

It took two weeks for the damage to Olympic to be patched up sufficiently to allow her to return to Belfast for permanent repairs, which took just over six weeks to complete, to speed them up, Harland and Wolff was forced to delay Titanic 's completion in order to use her propeller shaft for Olympic. By 29 November she was back in service, however in February , Olympic suffered another setback when she lost a propeller blade on an eastbound voyage from New York , and once again returned to her builder for repairs.

When the Titanic was finally complete and ready to begin her maiden voyage, several crew members of the Olympic were transferred to the Titanic. Wireless operator Ernest James Moore received the distress call from her sister RMS Titanic , when she was approximately nautical miles km; mi west by south of Titanic 's location.

Haddock calculated a new course, ordered the ship's engines to be set to full power and headed to assist in the rescue. When Olympic was about nautical miles km; mi away from Titanic 's last known position, she received a message from Captain Rostron captain of Cunard Liner RMS Carpathia , explaining that continuing on course to Titanic would gain nothing, as "All boats accounted for.

About souls saved [ He said that he was returning to harbour in New York. Subsequently, the wireless room aboard the Olympic operated as a clearing room for radio messages. When Olympic offered to take on the survivors, she was heatedly turned down by an appalled Rostron, who was concerned that it would cause panic amongst the survivors of the disaster to see a virtual mirror-image of the Titanic appear and ask them to board.

Olympic then resumed her voyage to Southampton, with all concerts cancelled as a mark of respect, arriving on 21 April.

Over the next few months, Olympic assisted with both the American and British inquiries into the disaster. Deputations from both inquiries inspected Olympic 's lifeboats, watertight doors and bulkheads and other equipment which were identical to those on Titanic. Sea tests were performed for the British enquiry in May , to establish how quickly the ship could turn two points at various speeds, to approximate how long it would have taken the Titanic to turn when it sighted the iceberg.

Olympic , like Titanic , did not carry enough lifeboats for everyone on board, and was hurriedly equipped with additional, second-hand collapsible lifeboats following her return to England.

Toward the end of April , as she was about to sail from Southampton to New York, of the ship's firemen went on strike because of fears that the ship's new collapsible lifeboats were not seaworthy. The 40 collapsible lifeboats were secondhand, having been transferred from troopships, and many were rotten and could not open. The crewmen instead sent a request to the Southampton manager of the White Star Line that the collapsible boats be replaced by wooden lifeboats; the manager replied that this was impossible and that the collapsible boats had been passed as seaworthy by a Board of Trade inspector.

The men were not satisfied and ceased work in protest. On April 25th, a deputation of strikers witnessed a test of four of the collapsible boats. Only one was unseaworthy and they said that they were prepared to recommend the men return to work if it was replaced. However the strikers now objected to the non-union strikebreaker crew which had come on board, and demanded that they be dismissed, which the White Star Line refused. This led to the scheduled sailing being cancelled.

All 54 sailors were arrested on a charge of mutiny when they went ashore. On 4 May Portsmouth magistrates found the charges against the mutineers were proven, but discharged them without imprisonment or fine due to the special circumstances of the case.

Fearing that public opinion would be on the side of the strikers, the White Star Line let them return to work and the Olympic sailed on 15 May. Olympic as she appeared after her refit following Titanic disaster, with an increased complement of lifeboats, on a Fred Pansing painting, c.

On October 9th, White Star withdrew Olympic from service and returned her to her builders at Belfast to be refitted to incorporate lessons learned from the Titanic disaster, and improve safety. The number of lifeboats carried by Olympic was increased from twenty to sixty four, and extra davits were installed along the boat deck to accommodate them.

Also, an inner watertight skin was constructed in the boiler and engine rooms. Five of the Watertight Bulkheads were extended up to B-deck, and an extra bulkhead was added to subdivide the electrical dynamo room, bringing the total number of watertight compartments to These modifications now meant that the Olympic could survive a collision similar to that of the Titanic in that her first six compartments could be breached and the ship could remain afloat.

At the same time, Olympic 's B Deck was refitted with extra cabins and public rooms, this necessitated deleting her B-Deck promenades — one of the few features that separated her from her sister ship. With these changes, Olympic 's gross tonnage rose to 46, tons, 31 tons more than Titanic 's. In March , Olympic returned to service and briefly regained the title of largest ocean liner in the world, until the German liner SS Imperator entered passenger service in June Following her refit, Olympic was marketed as the "new" Olympic and her improved safety features were featured prominently in advertisements.

Continuing the growing trend of all three ships. Britannic was the largest of all three liners. Britannic launched on February 26th , as a passenger liner between Southampton and New York but her course would alter greatly with the outbreak of World War 1.

She was requisitioned by the admiralty and officially completed as a hospital ship. The original fixtures and fittings that were to be placed on the Britannic were stored for after the war and were fitted out to resemble a hospital. The first-class dining rooms were converted into operating theatres and main wards. B deck would house the medical officers and other staff. The ship was fitted to carry 3, people.

On December 12th she was ready for war service. Obviously following the greatest maritime disaster of all time would lead to changes in the construction of Britannic.

One major difference was the layout of the lifeboats. She was designed to carry 48 open lifeboats. Forty-six of them would be 34 foot long making them the largest lifeboats ever placed on a ship before. Two of the 46 would be motor propelled and would carry wireless sets for communications.

The other two were foot cutters placed at both sides of the bridge. Britannic would take her maiden voyage as a military vessel to Mudros Greece. After three trips to the Mediterranean, Britannic was laid up in April and decommissioned a month later. However, before she was completely refitted for passenger service, she was recalled to hospital ship duty and resumed that service in September.

On her third trip after being recalled, she struck a mine off Kea Island on 21 November and sank 55 minutes later. She was then moored, ready for fitting out, at Alexandria Wharf. Here her propellers were installed and her hull painted. Note: the duration and speed of the crossing, reported consistently for almost a century, have more recently been questioned. Possible errors in calculating the duration between start and finish, which occurred in differing time zones, reflect evidence from Captain Smith that Olympic sailed around 3 hours late.

A new calculation, researched and written for the Titanic International Society and published in , propose the following corrections:. In addition, following the Titanic disaster time was required to implement safety changes, such as the installation of a double hull along the engine and boiler rooms, and raising six of 15 watertight bulkheads to a higher deck.

Because she was requisitioned for use in the war effort, Britannic would never carry a single fare-paying passenger. She took a fearful plunge, her stern rearing hundreds of feet into the air until with a final roar, she disappeared into the depths… -Survivor Violet Jessop, a nurse aboard HMHS Britannic, describing the moment the ship disappeared beneath the surface of the Aegean.