The Olympic Class Ships

Sitting around a dining room table in 1907, the owners of the White Star Line discussed their competition to the newly-built Cunard liners, Lusitania and Mauretania. From that smoke-filled room came the first designs of three White Star superliners, Olympic, Titanic, and Britannic. Each ship was subtly different. Lessons learned from the service of Olympic were put into practice for Titanic. With the loss, on her maiden voyage, of Titanic, the hull design was radically changed for the third sister ship. The new double hull, however, did not prevent Britannic from sinking in less than an hour in the Aegean after she hit a German mine in 1916. Illustrated with many rare images of all three vessels, only one of which survived in regular service, this is the definitive history of the most famous sister ships of all time.

A pictorial celebration of the world-famous sister ships: the Olympic-class liners A maritime expert tells the story of the sister ships using previously unseen pictures, passenger diaries, and deck plans, illustrating Olympic's successful career; the premature ends of her two unfortunate sisters; and the experiences of those onboard. Designed for passenger comfort, they were intended to provide luxurious surroundings and safe, reliable transport rather than record-breaking speed. Ironically, fate decreed that only Olympic would ever complete a single commercial voyage and she went on to serve for a quarter of a century in peace and war. Titanic's name would become infamous after she sank on her maiden voyage. The third sister, Britannic, saw a brief and commendable career as a hospital ship during World War I, sinking in the Aegean Sea in 1916.

Sitting around a dining-room table in 1907, the owners of the White Star Line discussed their competition to the newly-built Cunard liners, Lusitania and Mauretania. From that smoke-filled room came the first designs of three White Star superliners. Olympic and Titanic were to be built at Harland & Wolff's yard in Belfast, while the third ship was to follow after construction had been completed on the first pair of sisters. The only ship to make a return passenger voyage was Olympic and she was always overshadowed by her younger sisters. This is the definitive story of Titanic's sister RMS Olympic. First published in 2004 to critical acclaim, this new edition presents a revised expanded work from one the most successful maritime authors at work in Britain today.

The Titanic is one of the most famous maritime disasters of all time, but did the Titanic really sink on the morning of 15 April 1912? Titanic's older sister, the nearly identical Olympic, was involved in a serious accident in September 1911 – an accident that may have made her a liability to her owners the White Star Line. Since 1912 rumours of a conspiracy to switch the two sisters in an elaborate insurance scam has always loomed behind the tragic story of the Titanic. Could the White Star Line have really switched the Olympic with her near identical sister in a ruse to intentionally sink their mortally damaged flagship in April 1912, in order to cash in on the insurance policy? Laying bare the famous conspiracy theory, world-respected Titanic researchers investigate claims that the sister ships were switched in an insurance scam and provide definitive proof for whether it could - or could not - have happened.

The first book on this prestigious and exceptional liner, the pinnacle of ship-building in her day

The Titanic. The Britannic. The Olympic. They are some of the most famous ships in history, but for the wrong reasons. The Olympic Class liners were conceived as the largest, grandest ships ever to set sail. Of the three ships built, the first only lost the record for being the largest because she was beaten by the second, and they were both beaten by the third. The class was meant to secure the White Star Line's reputation as the greatest shipping company on earth. Instead, with the loss of both the Titanic and the Britannic in their first year of service, it guaranteed White Star's infamy. This unique book tells the extraordinary story of these three extraordinary ships from the bottom up, starting with their conception and construction (and later their modification) and following their very different careers. Behind the technical details of these magnificent ships lies a tragic human story – not just of the lives lost aboard the Titanic and Britannic, but of the designers pushing the limits beyond what was actually possible, engineers unable to prepare for every twist of fate, and ship owners and crew who truly believed a ship could be unsinkable. This fascinating story is told with rare photographs, new computer-generated recreations of the ships, and unique wreck images that explore how well the ships were designed and built. Simon Mills offers unparalleled access to shipbuilders Harland & Wolff's specification book for the Olympic Class, including original blueprints and - being made widely available for the first time - large fold-out technical drawings showing how these extensive plans were meant to be seen.

The ShipCraft series explores the iconic pleasure vessels Titanic, Olympic, and Britannic in fully illustrated detail for building your own model ship. In the first of the ShipCraft series to cover non-naval vessels, this meticulously researched and illustrated volume looks at the legendary cruise ship RMS Titanic and her sisters, Olympic and Britannic. Written for the serious model ship builder, this book not only covers the many model kits available, but a concise history of the ship’s class, including every detail that contributed to the ship’s creation. Accompanied by hundreds of photographs of models in various scales, the text covers paint colors, line drawings, and scale plans, as well as the differences in the ships’ appearance over time. An invaluable resource on available models, their pros and cons, and ways to modify and customize each one, this ShipCraft title concludes with a reference section essential to any modeler.