RMS Olympic

RMS Olympic arriving at New York on her maiden voyage, 21 June 1911
History
United Kingdom
NameRMS Olympic
Owner
Operator
Port of registryLiverpool
RouteSouthamptonCherbourgQueenstownNew York City
Ordered1907
BuilderHarland & Wolff, Belfast
Cost$7.5 million (USD)
Yard number400
Way number347
Laid down16 December 1908
Launched20 October 1910
Completed31 May 1911
Maiden voyage14 June 1911
In service1911–1935
Out of service12 April 1935
Identification
FateScrapped 1935–37
General characteristics
Class and typeOlympic-class ocean liner
Tonnage45,324 gross register tons; 46,358 after 1913; 46,439 after 1920
Displacement52,067 tons
Length882 ft 9 in (269.1 m)[1]
Beam92 ft 9 in (28.3 m)
Height175 ft (53.4 m) (keel to top of funnels)
Draught34 ft 7 in (10.5 m)
Decks9 decks (8 for passengers and 1 for crew)
Installed power24 double-ended (six furnace) and 5 single-ended (three furnace) Scotch boilers originally coal burning, later converted to oil fired in 1919. Two four-cylinder triple-expansion reciprocating engines each producing 15,000 hp for the two outboard wing propellers at 85 revolutions per minute. One low-pressure turbine producing 16,000 hp. Total 46,000 hp,[3] however capable of 59,000 hp at full speed.[4]
PropulsionTwo bronze three-bladed wing propellers. One bronze four-bladed centre propeller (1911-1913). One bronze three-bladed centre propeller (1914-1935).
Speed
  • 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph) (service, 1911)
  • 23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph) (service, 1933)
  • 24.2 knots (45 km/h; 28 mph) (Max Speed)[2]
Capacity2,435 passengers
Crew950

RMS Olympic was a British ocean liner and the lead ship of the White Star Line's trio of Olympic-class liners. Olympic had a career spanning 24 years from 1911 to 1935, in contrast to her short-lived sister ships, Titanic and Britannic. This included service as a troopship during the First World War, which gained her the nickname "Old Reliable", and during which she rammed and sank the U-boat U-103. She returned to civilian service after the war, and served successfully as an ocean liner throughout the 1920s and into the first half of the 1930s, although increased competition, and the slump in trade during the Great Depression after 1930, made her operation increasingly unprofitable. Olympic was withdrawn from service and sold for scrapping on 12 April 1935 which was completed in 1937.

Olympic was the largest ocean liner in the world for two periods during 1910–13, interrupted only by the brief tenure of the slightly larger Titanic, which had the same dimensions but higher gross register tonnage, before the German SS Imperator went into service in June 1913. Olympic also held the title of the largest British-built liner until RMS Queen Mary was launched in 1934, interrupted only by the short careers of Titanic and Britannic.[5][6] The other two ships in the class had short service lives: in 1912, Titanic collided with an iceberg on her maiden voyage and sank in the North Atlantic; Britannic never operated in her intended role as a passenger ship, instead serving as a hospital ship during the First World War until she hit a mine and sank in the Aegean Sea in 1916.

  1. ^ Chirnside 2015, p. 34.
  2. ^ Chirnside 2015, p. 246.
  3. ^ Chirnside 2004, pp. 43–44.
  4. ^ Chirnside 2015, p. 39.
  5. ^ Chirnside, Mark, RMS Olympic Specification File (November 2007)
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference thegreatoceanliners was invoked but never defined (see the help page).