Saturday, February 24th, 1912
4:26pm
During an east bound crossing from New York, heading for
Plymouth, Cherbourg, and then Southampton, Olympic was about 750 miles off the
Newfoundland coast when she hit something.
Olympic’s officers would later report that it was likely
a submerged derelict, not uncommon at that time with so many old wooden hulled
vessels still around. Wooden wrecks would often float for a long time just
under the surface and were notoriously difficult to see. When she hit the
derelict, Olympic lost a blade on the port propeller. The engines were
immediately stopped, and the propeller was disengaged to prevent damage to the port
side engine and shafting. Once the damage had been checked, she continued on
her way at a reduced speed and arrived at Southampton a day late. Once
passengers had disembarked, and the ship's cargo had been delivered, Olympic returned
to Belfast for repairs.
On March 1st, Olympic arrived at Carrickfergus, a large town in Northern Ireland just on the north shore of Belfast Lough. Due to missing the tide by only 30 minutes, Olympic had to ride at anchor overnight. Titanic had been withdrawn from the drydock and moved to the fitting out wharf on February 29th, in readiness for the arrival of Olympic. As soon as Olympic was in drydock, workers were transferred from Titanic to complete the repairs. The opportunity was also taken to clean and repaint the lower hull.
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| The three images above show Olympic being placed into the Thompson Drydock at H&W. Titanic waits along side in the Fitting Out Wharf. |
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| H&W workers with Olympic's damaged propeller. |
On March 4th, the repairs on Olympic were completed,
and she was withdrawn from the drydock. However, due to bad weather she was
unable to leave. It was decided to return her to the drydock until the weather
improved, as room in the shipyard was restricted. The next day Harland &
Wolff made the decision to try something very risky. They moved Olympic out of
the drydock, eased Titanic back into the drydock, and then moved Olympic to the
fitting-out wharf, all on the one high tide.
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| Titanic back in the drydock, while Olympic sits in the Fitting Out Warf. |
By March 7th, weather conditions had
improved sufficiently enough for Olympic to leave Belfast and head for
Southampton. On leaving, she briefly went aground near West Twin Island, but
was cleared to sail after divers had checked the hull. The repairs to Olympic forced Titanic's scheduled maiden voyage to be postponed from March 20th to April 10th,
1912.
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| Titanic and Olympic sit side by side for the last time as Olympic prepares to leave for Southampton. March 7, 1912 |