#RMS Olympic

[rms-mauretanic]

Can’t even run over smaller ships when they get in my way anymore. Because of woke.

[ivx2810]

People need to understand that the Titanic was NOT a revolutionary ship. There seems to be some kind of stigma in media that the Titanic was a state of the art ship with all sorts of amenities that had never been seen on another ship before. No, that was the OLYMPIC. Titanic was literally just a COPY OF OLYMPIC with some changes here and there, such as the addition of a few more first class staterooms and extended public rooms. That's why there's so few images and videos of her. She was literally just another Olympic. Did you know we've never seen the Titanic's Grand Staircase; we've only ever seen the Olympic's? That's because- you guessed it- Titanic's staircase was a clone of Olympic's!!!

[coloursteelsexappeal]

HMT Olympic, 1918

[oceanlinersmodeller]

"A Well-Known Subject at Southampton" By artist Bernard Finnigan Gribble (1872–1962) Southampton City Art Gallery

This is a painting I fell in love with, depicting RMS Olympic on the floating dry dock in the 1930s.

[lil-meilian]

"The Ship of Dreams"

Unfortunately notorious for her disastrous maiden voyage, Titanic (or Tita, as I have always called her) has a livelier personality than her older sister.

Less wise than Olympic, but more mature than Britannic, Titanic is undoubtedly the most elegant of the sisters, but also the most quarrelsome.

Next, HMHS Britannic... ✨

[grimm-the-tiger]

I made this post a little while ago listing some facts about shipwrecks that probably only I find interesting, so now I’m back to talk about some of them. Specifically, the Olympic. The Olympic was the namesake of the Olympic-class liners, whose most notable member was the Titanic. Out of the three Olympic-class ships - Titanic, Olympic, and Britannic - only one of them was actually unsinkable, and that was the Olympic. 

Over the more than 20 years of its existence, the Olympic was never once in real danger. The Olympic was the danger. On its fifth voyage in September 1911, Olympic was running parallel to the HMS Hawke, a British warship designed specifically for ramming things. Olympic suddenly turned to starboard (right side of the ship if you were facing towards its front), catching Hawke’s commanding officer off-guard; he wasn’t able to avoid the collision and ended up ramming the other ship. Olympic was left with a substantial hole beneath the water line (although flooding was for the most part averted due to its bulkheads actually working properly, *cough* Titanic *cough*) and a slightly less substantial hole above it. Hawke, meanwhile, had its entire bow caved in. Olympic made it back to port just fine under her own power, while Hawke almost capsized. Somehow, no one was seriously hurt or killed. 

Three fun facts about this situation: Violet Jessop, a woman famous for surviving the sinkings of both of the Olympic’s sister ships, was onboard the Olympic when this happened. This incident also reinforced the idea that the Olympic-class was unsinkable. The famous postponement of the Titanic’s maiden voyage also occurred because of this incident; a propeller shaft was damaged in the collision, they needed a new one ASAP, and, well, the Titanic was right there... 

Four years later, WWI broke out. The Olympic was requisitioned as a troop ship, given 6-inch naval guns, and sent on its way. In 1918, while travelling to France with a literal boatload of American soldiers, Olympic spotted U-103, a German U-boat chilling on the surface of the ocean. Olympic opened fire on U-103, which immediately crash dived to keep from dying, then turned to ram the U-boat. Olympic hit U-103′s conning tower and tore open the hull with its propellers. U-103′s crew decided “fuck this” and abandoned ship; Olympic didn’t bother to stop to pick them up, so a nearby American warship did instead. It was later found that U-103 was preparing to torpedo Olympic when they’d been spotted, but they couldn’t flood the torpedo tubes in time. Olympic remains the only merchant vessel in WWI recorded to have sunk an enemy vessel (which would become a more common occurrence during WWII, to the extent that the Nazis apparently tried and hanged at least one captured British merchant captain for ramming one of their U-boats. The Nazis were ones to talk, considering they rehired the man who sank the Carpathia and was notorious for war crimes that included things like “drowning surrendered enemy crews by forcing them to strip and stand on the roof of his submarine, then diving the submarine” and “attacking designated hospital ships that made it very obvious they were hospital ships”). 

Following WWI, while Olympic was being refit for civilian service, a sizeable dent was discovered below the waterline. It was later concluded to have been caused by a faulty torpedo, most likely fired by U-53 while the Olympic was travelling through the English Channel. 

Olympic collided with another, smaller ship, Fort St. George, in New York Harbor on March 22, 1924. There’s not much information on how badly Olympic fucked Fort St. George up, just that Olympic apparently fucked around a little too much and found out, because the collision broke its sternpost (support post in the back of the ship; think of it like a central pillar in a structure), forcing the entire stern frame to be replaced. 

On November 18, 1929, Olympic was cruising not far from the Titanic’s wreck site when the whole thing began shaking for two minutes. This was later found to have been caused by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Newfoundland. 

The Olympic’s last hurrah (and casualty) was on May 15, 1934, when it collided with the lightship LV-117. Olympic had known the lightship was in the area, but didn’t know where exactly it was until they were right on top of it. Olympic’s captain immediately ordered a hard turn and the engines slowed, so Olympic wasn’t moving particularly fast when it did hit LV-117 (about 3 and a half miles per hour), but Olympic was fucking huge, and the people onboard barely noticed when they practically crushed the lightship under them. Only four of the eleven crew aboard LV-117 survived; four went down with the ship and three died in Olympic’s hospital (yes, these things had hospitals; I told you there were fucking huge). 

Olympic was fully scrapped in 1937, forever going down in history as both the only Olympic-class ship that was actually unsinkable and the one with the longest reign of terror. Good God, man. I understand sinking the U-boat, but you didn’t need to bring like four other ships down with you. 

[your-resident-boat-person]

In honor of the Anniversary, I'd like to share this video. Lots of common myths, misconceptions, and straight up conspiracy theories about Titanic are often talked about as though they're objective fact, and I've even seen a lot of those things parroted on this website. This video cuts through a lot of that, and presents an extremely thoroughly researched and well produced documentary on Titanic, how she worked, and the mentality that went into her design and construction. Even if you think you know everything there is to know, and that nothing you know could ever be wrong, in the age of AI where misinformation spreads faster and more reliably than ever, please, watch this video.

The sinking of the RMS Titanic was not a case of a bunch of evil billionaires "getting what they deserved", it was not a case of extreme hubris (at least, not more so than we currently exhibit today), and it was not a case of extreme negligence. It was a tragedy, that happened in spite of the monumental efforts of the people who fought to prevent it. In the century since it happened, sensational tabloids and news stories have perverted the reality of what happened that April night. If you watch this video, many of your preconceived ideas that you've known since childhood will likely be challenged. The story of a dangerous ship that was doomed before she even set sail is as ubiquitous as Romeo and Juliet. But it's just not reality. Please, I beg of you, as someone who cares about the tens of thousands of human lives that helped make her, show her and her passengers who perished that night just an hour and a half hours of your time. They are worth more than the convenience of the narrative they are used to push.

[rmsfranconia]

Shout out to this guy who makes like, some of the greatest ship colorizations I’ve ever seen

Like, these are genuinely gorgeous

He’s even done some of the Beatles too

(two of my favorite things colliding together)

The guys name is Oceanic Star Line Colorization btw

[charonsferry]

happy birthday rms olympic!! if maiden voyages count as that

i am so normal abt her

[toot-uncommons]

What’s ur favourite core?

Idk maybe Olympic photobombing other ships core

[rms-mauretanic]

This is my favorite piece of “evidence” for the Titanic switch conspiracy. I genuinely lose my mind laughing whenever I look at it.

At first glance, the issue is obvious, right? The ship in the top picture is Titanic, mislabeled as Olympic. Titanic had an enclosed A-deck promenade while Olympic’s was left open. They just switched the names and called it “evidence.”

That’s silly enough as it is, but it gets better. See how the ship in the second picture doesn’t have any funnels?

Titanic wasn’t launched in her final configuration - originally, her A-deck promenade was open, just like her sister’s, and was enclosed later on during the fitting-out process. This is what she looked like right after launch (we know this is Titanic and not Olympic because Olympic was painted light grey for her launch):

Yeah, that’s right. Both of those pictures are of Titanic.

They switched the Titanic with the Titanic.

[ivx2810]

Ever wanted to see genuine coloured images of your favourite ocean liners?

BOOM

Let me reiterate that these aren't black and white photos that were colourised by someone. They were actually taken in colour. The Olympic one is with a coloured photo technique patented in 1903 called "autochrome", and to be honest I'm not sure about the Mauretania (feat. olympic) one. But still. COOL

[rendellstreet]

[coloursteelsexappeal]

RMS Olympic, 1925

[lonestarbattleship]

RMS Olympic arrives in New York on her maiden voyage.

Note: the paint peeling off at her water line. She encountered a storm during her voyage.

Like hitting a curb, Olympic catches the corner of the pier as tugboats maneuver her into her berth, leaving behind a long scrape near her water line.

View from the pier as onlookers and families greet the largest ship in the world to New York City.

Photographed on June 21, 1911.

Bain News Service

Library of Congress: LC-B2- 2218-1, LC-B2- 2218-16, LC-B2- 2218-5, LC-B2- 2218-2, LC-B2- 2212-16, LC-B2- 2218-8, LC-B2- 2390-6, LC-B2- 2390-8

[lil-meilian]

Oly and Maury in the 1930s ❤️

The postwar period was not easy for them.

After the clash with U-103 , Olympic ended up with a damaged eye and her vision dropped dramatically until she became completely blind, forcing her to wear an eye patch.

Mauretania for its part, had difficulty in resuming service, no longer being able to achieve the same pre-war speed. This threw her into a deep despondency that only worsened when the Blue Riband was wrested from her by the Bremen.

Just being together helped the two gain strength amid the traumas of war and the loss of their sisters.