Following completion,
Olympic started her
sea trials on 29 May 1911 during which her manoeuvrability, compass, and wireless telegraphy were tested. No speed test was carried out. She completed her sea trial successfully.
Olympic then left Belfast bound for
Liverpool, her port of
registration, on 31 May 1911. As a
publicity stunt the White Star Line timed the start of this 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. Her arrival generated enthusiasm from her crew and newspapers. The deep-water dock at Southampton, then known as the "
White Star Dock" had been specially constructed to accommodate the new
Olympic-class liners, and had opened in 1911. Her maiden voyage commenced on 14 June 1911 from Southampton, calling at
Cherbourg and
Queenstown, and reaching New York City on 21 June, with 1,313 passengers on board (489 first class, 263 second class and 561 third class). The maiden voyage was captained by
Edward Smith. Designer
Thomas Andrews was present for the passage to New York and return, along with a number of engineers with Bruce Ismay and Harland and Wolff's "Guarantee Group" who were also aboard for them to spot any problems or areas for improvement. Smith and Andrews would also be on board for ''Titanic's'' ill-fated maiden voyage the following year where both men went down with the ship. As the largest ship in the world, and the first in a new class of
superliners,
Olympics 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 8,000 visitors. More than 10,000 spectators watched her depart from New York harbour, for her first return trip. There were 2,301 passengers on board for the return voyage (731 first class, 495 second class and 1,075 third class). During her third crossing,
Leonard Peskett, senior naval architect for
Cunard Line was on board, in search of ideas for their new ship then under construction, the .
Hawke collision )
Olympics first major mishap occurred on her fifth voyage on 20 September 1911, when she collided with the British
cruiser . 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
Hawke by surprise, and he was unable to take sufficient avoiding action. tearing two large holes in
Olympics hull, above and below the waterline, resulting in the flooding of two of her watertight
compartments and a twisted propeller shaft.
Olympic settled slightly by the stern, but in spite of the damage was able to return to Southampton under her own power; no one was killed or seriously injured. HMS
Hawke suffered severe damage to her bow and nearly capsized;
Hawke was repaired, but sunk by the German
U-boat in October 1914.
Captain Edward Smith was in command of
Olympic at the time of the incident. Two crew members, stewardess
Violet Jessop and stoker
Arthur John Priest, survived not only the collision with
Hawke but also the later sinking of
Titanic and the 1916 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
Olympics operator. A legal argument ensued which decided that the blame for the incident lay with
Olympic and, although the ship was technically under the control of the
harbour pilot, the White Star Line was faced with large legal bills and the cost of repairing the ship, and keeping her out of revenue service made matters worse. However, the fact that
Olympic endured such a serious collision and stayed afloat appeared to vindicate the design of the
Olympic-class liners, and reinforced their "unsinkable" reputation. To expedite repairs, Harland and Wolff was obliged to replace
Olympics damaged propeller shaft with one from
Titanic, delaying the latter's completion. By 20 November 1911
Olympic was back in service. On 24 February 1912,
Olympic suffered another setback when she lost a propeller blade on an eastbound voyage from New York. At the time, the extension of Southampton's
Trafalgar Graving Dock was not yet completed.
Olympic therefore had to return to
Thompson Graving Dock at Belfast for repairs. To return her to service as soon as possible, Harland & Wolff again had to pull resources from
Titanic, delaying her maiden voyage by three weeks, from 20 March to 10 April 1912.
Titanic disaster in October 1912 after the
Titanic disaster On 14 April 1912,
Olympic, now under the command of
Herbert James Haddock, was on a return trip from New York.
Wireless operator Ernest James Moore received the distress call from
Titanic, when she was approximately 505 miles
west by south of
Titanics 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 away from
Titanics last known position, she received a message from
Captain Rostron of Cunard's , which had arrived at the scene. Rostron explained that
Olympic continuing on course to
Titanic would gain nothing, as "All boats accounted for. About 675 souls saved [...] Titanic foundered about 2:20 am." who was concerned that asking the survivors to board a virtual mirror-image of
Titanic would cause them distress.
Olympic then resumed her voyage to Southampton, with all concerts cancelled as a mark of respect, arriving on 21 April with her flags at half-mast. Over the next few months,
Olympic assisted with both the
American and
British inquiries into the disaster. Deputations from both inquiries inspected
Olympics 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
Titanic to turn after the iceberg was sighted.
1912 strike Olympic, like
Titanic, did not carry enough lifeboats for everyone on board, and so was hurriedly equipped with additional, second-hand collapsible lifeboats following her return to Britain. 100 non-
union crew were hastily hired from Southampton as replacements, with more being hired from Liverpool. The 40 collapsible lifeboats were transferred from troopships and put on
Olympic, and many were rotten and would 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. All 54 sailors were arrested on a charge of mutiny when they went ashore. On 4 May 1912, 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
Olympic sailed on 15 May.
Post-Titanic refit On 9 October 1912, White Star withdrew
Olympic from service and returned her to her builders at Belfast to have modifications added to incorporate lessons learned from the
Titanic disaster six months prior, and improve safety. The number of lifeboats carried by
Olympic was increased from twenty to sixty-eight, and extra
davits were installed along the boat deck to accommodate them. An inner watertight skin was also constructed in the boiler and engine rooms, which created a
double hull. Five of the watertight
bulkheads were extended up to B-Deck, extending to the entire height of the hull. This corrected a flaw in the original design, in which the bulkheads only rose up as far as E or D-Deck, a short distance above the waterline. This flaw had been exposed during
Titanics sinking, where water spilled over the top of the bulkheads as the ship sank and flooded subsequent compartments. In addition, an extra bulkhead was added to subdivide the electrical dynamo room, bringing the total number of
watertight compartments to seventeen. Improvements were also made to the ship's pumping apparatus. These modifications meant that
Olympic could survive a collision similar to that of
Titanic, in that her first six compartments could be breached and the ship could remain afloat. At the same time,
Olympics B Deck underwent a refit, which included extra cabins in place of the covered promenade, more private bathing facilities, an enlarged
Á La Carte restaurant, and a
Café Parisien (another addition that had proved popular on
Titanic) was added, offering another dining option to first class passengers. With these changes (and a second refit in 1919 after the war),
Olympics gross register tonnage rose to 46,439 tons, 111 tons more than
Titanics. In March 1913,
Olympic returned to service and briefly regained the title of largest ocean liner in the world, until the German liner 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.
First World War On 4 August 1914, Britain entered the
First World War.
Olympic initially remained in commercial service under Captain Herbert James Haddock. As a wartime measure,
Olympic was painted in a grey colour scheme, portholes were blocked, and lights on deck were turned off to make the ship less visible. The schedule was hastily altered to terminate at
Liverpool rather than Southampton, and this was later altered again to
Glasgow. The first few wartime voyages were packed with Americans trapped in Europe, eager to return home; the eastbound journeys carried few passengers. By mid-October, bookings had fallen sharply as the threat from German U-boats became increasingly serious, and White Star Line decided to withdraw
Olympic from commercial service. On 21 October 1914, she left New York for Glasgow on her last commercial voyage of the war, though carrying only 153 passengers.
Naval service while in service as a
troopship during the First World War Following
Olympics return to Britain, the White Star Line intended to lay her up in Belfast until the war was over, but in May 1915 she was requisitioned by the
Admiralty, to be used as a troop transport, along with the Cunard liners and . The Admiralty had initially been reluctant to use large ocean liners as
troop transports because of their vulnerability to enemy attack; however, a shortage of ships gave them little choice. At the same time,
Olympics other sister ship
Britannic, which had not yet been completed, was requisitioned as a
hospital ship. Operating in that role she would strike a
German naval mine and sink in the
Aegean Sea on 21 November 1916. Stripped of her peacetime fittings and now armed with 12-pounders and 4.7-inch guns,
Olympic was converted to a troopship, with the capacity to transport up to 6,000 troops. On 24 September 1915, the newly designated HMT (Hired Military Transport) 2810, now under the command of
Bertram Fox Hayes, left Liverpool carrying 6,000 soldiers to
Moudros, Greece for the
Gallipoli Campaign. On 1 October, lifeboats from the French ship
Provincia which had been sunk by a U-boat that morning off
Cape Matapan were sighted and 34 survivors rescued by
Olympic. Hayes was criticised for this action by the British Admiralty, who accused him of putting the ship in danger by stopping her in waters where enemy U-boats were active. The ship's speed was considered to be her best defence against U-boat attack, and such a large ship stopped would have made an unmissable target. However, the French Vice-Admiral
Louis Dartige du Fournet took a different view, and awarded Hayes with the
Gold Medal of Honour.
Olympic made several more trooping journeys to the
Mediterranean until early 1916, when the Gallipoli Campaign was abandoned. in
Halifax, Nova Scotia, painted by Arthur Lismer In 1916, considerations were made to use
Olympic to transport troops to
India via the
Cape of Good Hope. However, on investigation it was decided that the ship was unsuitable for this role, because the coal bunkers, which had been designed for transatlantic runs, lacked the capacity for such a long journey at a reasonable speed. Instead, from 1916 to 1917,
Olympic was chartered by the
Canadian government to transport troops from
Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Britain. In 1917, she gained 6-inch guns and was painted with a
dazzle camouflage scheme to make it more difficult for observers to estimate her speed and heading. Her dazzle colours were brown, dark blue, light blue, and white. Her many visits to
Halifax Harbour carrying Canadian troops safely overseas, and back home after the war at
Pier 2, made her a favourite symbol in the city of Halifax. Noted
Group of Seven artist
Arthur Lismer made several paintings of
Olympic in Halifax. A large dance hall, the "Olympic Gardens", was also named in her honour. After the United States declared war on Germany,
Olympic transported thousands of American troops to Britain.
Sinking of U-103 In the early hours of 12 May 1918, while en route for France in the
English Channel with U.S. troops under the command of Captain Hayes,
Olympic sighted a surfaced U-boat ahead.
Olympics gunners opened fire at once, and the ship turned to ram the submarine, which immediately crash dived to and turned to a parallel course. Almost immediately afterwards,
Olympic struck the submarine just aft of her conning tower with her port propeller slicing through 's pressure hull. The crew of
U-103 blew her ballast tanks, scuttled and abandoned the submarine.
Olympic did not stop to pick up survivors, but continued on to Cherbourg. Meanwhile, had sighted a distress flare and picked up 31 survivors from
U-103.
Olympic returned to Southampton with at least two hull plates dented and her prow twisted to one side, but not breached. It was subsequently discovered that
U-103 had been preparing to torpedo
Olympic when she was sighted, but the crew were not able to flood the two stern torpedo tubes. For his service, Captain Hayes was awarded the
DSO. Some American soldiers on board paid for a
plaque to be placed in one of
Olympics lounges to commemorate the event, it read: This tablet presented by the
59th Regiment United States Infantry commemorates the sinking of the German submarine U103 by
Olympic on May 12th 1918 in latitude 49 degrees 16 minutes north longitude 4 degrees 51 minutes west on the voyage from New York to Southampton with American troops... During the war,
Olympic is reported to have carried up to 201,000 troops and other personnel, burning 347,000 tons of coal and travelling about .
Olympics war service earned her the nickname
Old Reliable. Her captain was knighted in 1919 for "valuable services in connection with the transport of troops".
Olympic holds the distinction of being the only passenger liner to ram – and sink – a German U-Boat during the First World War.
Post-war In August 1919,
Olympic returned to Belfast for restoration to civilian service. The interiors were modernised and the boilers were converted to oil firing rather than coal burning. This modification would reduce the refuelling time from days to 5 or 6 hours; it also gave a steadier engine R.P.M. and allowed the engine room personnel to be reduced from 350 to 60 people. During the conversion work and drydocking, a dent with a crack at the centre was discovered below her waterline which was later concluded to have been caused by a torpedo that had failed to detonate. The historian Mark Chirnside concluded that the faulty torpedo had been fired by the U-boat
SM U-53 on 4 September 1918, while
Olympic was in the English Channel.
Olympic emerged from refit with an increased tonnage of 46,439, allowing her to retain her claim to the title of largest British-built liner afloat, although the Cunard Lines was slightly longer. On 25 June 1920 she returned to passenger service, on one voyage that year carrying 2,249 passengers, and carried more than 28,000 passengers throughout the second half of 1920.
Olympic transported a record 38,000 passengers during 1921, which proved to be the peak year of her career. With the loss of the
Titanic and
Britannic,
Olympic initially lacked any suitable running mates for the express service; however, in 1922, White Star obtained two former German liners, and , which had been given to Britain as
war reparations. These joined
Olympic as running mates, operating successfully until the
Great Depression reduced demand after 1930. During the 1920s,
Olympic remained a popular and fashionable liner, and often attracted the rich and famous of the day;
Marie Curie, Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle,
Charlie Chaplin,
Mary Pickford and
Douglas Fairbanks, and
Prince Edward, then
Prince of Wales, were among the celebrities that she carried. Prince Edward and Captain Howarth were filmed on the bridge of
Olympic for
Pathé News. According to his autobiography, and confirmed by US Immigration records,
Cary Grant, then 16-year-old Archibald Leach, first set sail to New York on
Olympic on 21 July 1920 on the same voyage on which Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford were celebrating their honeymoon. One of the attractions of
Olympic was that she was nearly identical to
Titanic, and many passengers sailed on
Olympic as a way of vicariously experiencing the voyage of her sister ship. On 22 March 1924,
Olympic was involved in another collision with a ship, this time at New York. As
Olympic was reversing from her berth at New York harbour, her stern collided with the smaller liner
Fort St George, which had crossed into her path. The collision caused extensive damage to the smaller ship. At first it appeared that
Olympic had sustained only minor damage, but it was later revealed that her
sternpost had been fractured, necessitating the replacement of her entire stern frame. On 7 June, Lord Pirrie died on a business trip aboard in the
Caribbean off
Cuba. On 13 June '''' reached New York; UK ships in the port of New York lowered their flags to
half-mast; and Pirrie's body was transferred to
Olympic to be repatriated to the UK. Changes in immigration laws in the United States in the 1920s greatly restricted the number of immigrants allowed to enter. The law limited the number of immigrants to about 160,000 per year in 1924. This led to a major reduction in the immigrant trade for the shipping lines, forcing them to cater to the tourist trade to survive.
Last years The shipping trade was badly affected by the Great Depression. Until 1930 there had generally been around one million passengers a year on the transatlantic route, but by 1934 this had dropped by more than half. Furthermore, by the early 1930s, increased competition emerged, in the form of a new generation of larger and faster liners such as Germany's and , Italy's and France's , and the remaining passengers tended to prefer the more up-to-date ships.
Olympic had averaged around 1,000 passengers per journey until 1930, but this declined by more than half by 1932.
Olympics running mate was withdrawn from the transatlantic route as early as 1932, leaving only
Olympic and maintaining White Star Line's Southampton-New York service, although this was occasionally augmented during the summer months by either or . During slack periods in the summer,
Olympic and fleet mate
Majestic were employed in summer recreational cruises from New York to
Pier 21 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. At the end of 1932, with passenger traffic in decline,
Olympic went for an overhaul and refit that took four months. She returned to service on 5 March 1933 described by her owners as "looking like new." Her engines were performing at their best and she repeatedly recorded speeds in excess of , despite averaging less than that in regular transatlantic service. Passenger capacities were given as 618 first class, 447 tourist class and only 382 third class after the decline of the immigrant trade. Despite this, during 1933 and 1934,
Olympic ran at a net operating loss for the first time.
Olympics Grand Staircase was painted avocado green along with pathways and pillars and the yellow line at the hull was lowered to look more similar to
Majestic and
Homeric during a 1933 refit. 1933 was
Olympics worst year of business – carrying just over 9,000 passengers in total. Passenger numbers rose slightly in 1934, but many crossings still lost money.
Nantucket lightship collision In 1934,
Olympic again struck another ship. The approaches to New York were marked by
lightships and
Olympic, like other liners, had been known to pass close by these vessels. On 15 May 1934 (11:06 am),
Olympic, inbound in heavy fog, was homing in on the radio beacon of
Nantucket Lightship LV-117. Now under the command of Captain John W. Binks, the ship failed to turn in time and sliced through the smaller vessel, which broke apart and sank. Four of the lightship's crew went down with the vessel and seven were rescued, of whom three died of their injuries, seven fatalities out of a crew of 11. The lightship's surviving crew and
Olympics captain were interviewed soon after reaching shore. One crewman said it all happened so quickly that they did not know how it happened.
Olympic reacted quickly lowering boats to rescue the crew, which was confirmed by an injured crewman.
Retirement prior to their scrapping In 1934, the
White Star Line merged with the
Cunard Line at the instigation of the British government, to form
Cunard White Star. This merger allowed funds to be granted for the completion of the future and . When completed, these two new ships would handle Cunard White Star's express service; so their fleet of older liners became redundant and were gradually retired. for scrapping on 13 October 1935
Olympic was withdrawn from the transatlantic service, and left New York for the last time on 5 April 1935, returning to Britain to be laid up in Southampton. The new company considered using her for summer cruises for a short while, but this idea was abandoned and she was put up for sale. Among the potential buyers was a syndicate who proposed to turn her into a floating hotel off the south coast of France, but this came to nothing. After being laid up for five months alongside her former rival , she was sold to
Sir John Jarvis – Member of Parliament – for £97,500, to be partially demolished at
Jarrow to provide work for the depressed region. On 11 October 1935,
Olympic left Southampton for the last time and arrived in Jarrow two days later. The scrapping began after the ship's fittings were auctioned off. Between 1935 and 1937,
Olympics superstructure and upper hull were demolished, and then on 19 September 1937, the remaining hulk was towed to
Thos. W. Ward's yard at
Inverkeithing for final demolition, which was most likely finished by late 1938 or early 1939. The
Olympic was removed from the
Shipping Registry on 4 February 1939. At that time, the ship's chief engineer commented, "I could understand the necessity if the 'Old Lady' had lost her efficiency, but the engines are as sound as they ever were". == Artefacts ==