RMS OLYMPIC
"OLD RELIABLE"
RMS Olympic was a transatlantic ocean liner, the lead ship
and namesake of the White Star Line's trio of Olympic-class liners. Unlike her
younger sister ships, the Olympic enjoyed a long and illustrious career,
spanning 24 years from 1911 to 1935. This included service as a troopship
during World War I, which gained her the nickname "Old Reliable".
Olympic 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.
She was the largest ocean liner in the world for two periods during 1911–13, interrupted only by the brief tenure of the slightly larger
Titanic. Olympic also retained the title of the largest British-built liner
until the RMS Queen Mary was launched in 1934, interrupted only by the short
careers of her slightly larger sister ships.
By contrast with Olympic, the other ships in the class,
Titanic and Britannic, did not have long service lives. On the night between
the fourteenth and the fifteenth of April 1912, Titanic collided with an
iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank, claiming 1,500 lives; Britannic struck a
mine and sank in the Kea Channel on 21 November 1916, killing 30 people.
Background
Built in Belfast, County Antrim, Ireland, the RMS Olympic
was the first of the three Olympic-class ocean liners – the others were the RMS
Titanic and the HMHS Britannic. They were by far the largest vessels of the
British shipping company White Star Line's fleet, which comprised 29 steamers
and tenders in 1912. The three ships had their genesis in a discussion in
mid-1907 between the White Star Line's chairman, J. Bruce Ismay, and the
American financier J. Pierpont Morgan, who controlled the White Star Line's
parent corporation, the International Mercantile Marine Co. The White Star Line
faced a growing challenge from its main rivals Cunard, which had just launched
Lusitania and Mauretania – the fastest passenger ships then in service – and
the German lines Hamburg America and Norddeutscher Lloyd. Ismay preferred to
compete on size rather than speed and proposed to commission a new class of
liners that would be bigger than anything that had gone before as well as being
the last word in comfort and luxury. The company sought an upgrade in their
fleet primarily in response to the Cunard giants but also to replace their
largest and now outclassed ships from 1890, the SS Teutonic and SS Majestic.
The former was replaced by Olympic while Majestic was replaced by Titanic.
Majestic would be brought back into her old spot on White Star's New York
service after Titanic's loss.
The ships were constructed by the Belfast shipbuilders Harland
and Wolff, who had a long-established relationship with the White Star Line
dating back to 1867. Harland and Wolff were given a great deal of latitude in
designing ships for the White Star Line; the usual approach was for the latter
to sketch out a general concept that the former would take away and turn into
a ship design. Cost considerations were relatively low on the agenda and
Harland and Wolff were authorized to spend what it needed on the ships, plus a
five percent profit margin. In the case of the Olympic-class ships, a cost of
£3 million for the first two ships was agreed plus "extras to
contract" and the usual five percent fee.
Harland and Wolff put their leading designers to work
designing the Olympic-class vessels. It was overseen by Lord Pirrie, a director
of both Harland and Wolff and the White Star Line; naval architect Thomas
Andrews, the managing director of Harland and Wolff's design department; Edward
Wilding, Andrews' deputy and responsible for calculating the ship's design,
stability and trim; and Alexander Carlisle, the shipyard's chief draughtsman
and general manager. Carlisle's responsibilities included the decorations,
equipment, and all general arrangements, including the implementation of an
efficient lifeboat davit design.
On 29 July 1908, Harland and Wolff presented the drawings to
J. Bruce Ismay and other White Star Line executives. Ismay approved the design
and signed three "letters of agreement" two days later authorizing
the start of construction. At this point, the first ship – which was later to
become Olympic – had no name, but was referred to simply as "Number
400", as it was Harland and Wolff's four hundredth hull. Titanic was based
on a revised version of the same design and was given the number 401. Bruce Ismay's
father Thomas Henry Ismay had previously planned to build a ship named Olympic
as a sister ship to the Oceanic. The senior Ismay died in 1899 and the order
for the ship was canceled.
Construction of the Olympic began three months before
Titanic to ease pressures on the shipyard. Several years would pass before
Britannic would be launched. In order to accommodate the construction of the
class, Harland and Wolff upgraded their facility in Belfast; the most dramatic
change was the combining of three slipways into two larger ones. Olympic's keel
was laid in December 1908 and she was launched on 20 October 1910. For her
launch, the hull was painted in a light grey color for photographic purposes; a
common practice of the day for the first ship in a new class, as it made the
lines of the ship clearer in the black and white photographs. Her hull was
repainted black following the launch.
Features
The Olympic was designed as a luxury ship; her passenger
facilities, fittings, deck plans, and technical facilities were largely
identical to those of her more famous sister Titanic, although with some small
variations. The first-class passengers enjoyed luxurious cabins, and some were
equipped with private bathrooms. First-class passengers could have meals in the
ship's large and luxurious dining room or in the more intimate A La Carte
Restaurant. There was a lavish Grand Staircase, built only for the
Olympic-class ships, along with three elevators that ran behind the staircase
down to E deck, a Georgian-style smoking room, a Cafe Veranda decorated with
palm trees, a swimming pool, a Turkish bath, a gymnasium, and several other places
for meals and entertainment. The second-class facilities included a smoking room, a
library, a spacious dining room, and an elevator
Finally, the third-class passengers enjoyed reasonable
accommodation compared to other ships, if not up to the second and first
classes. Instead of large dormitories offered by most ships of the time, the
third-class passengers of the Olympic traveled in cabins containing two to ten
bunks. Facilities for the third class included a smoking room, a common area,
and a dining room.
Olympic had a cleaner, sleeker look than other ships of the
day: rather than fitting her with bulky exterior air vents, Harland and Wolff
used smaller air vents with electric fans, with a "dummy" fourth
funnel used for additional ventilation. For the power plant, Harland and Wolff
employed a combination of reciprocating engines with a center low-pressure
turbine, as opposed to the steam turbines used on Cunard's Lusitania and
Mauretania. White Star had successfully tested this engine set up on an earlier
liner SS Laurentic, where it was found to be more economical than expansion
engines or turbines alone. Olympic consumed 650 tons of coal per 24 hours with
an average speed of 21.7 knots on her maiden voyage, compared to 1000 tons of
coal per 24 hours for both the Lusitania and Mauretania.
Although Olympic and Titanic were nearly identical and were
based on the same design, a few alterations were made to Titanic (and later on
Britannic) based on experience gained from Olympic's first year in service. The
most noticeable of these was that the forward half of the Titanic's A Deck
promenade was enclosed by a steel screen with sliding windows, to provide
additional shelter, whereas the Olympic's promenade deck remained open along
its whole length. Also, the promenades on the Titanic's B Deck were reduced in
size, and the space was used for additional cabins and public rooms, including two
luxury suites with private promenades. A number of other variations existed
between the two ships' layouts and fittings. These differences meant that
Titanic had a slightly higher gross tonnage of 46,328 tons, compared to
Olympic's 45,324 tons.
Career
Following completion, Olympic started her sea trials on 29
May 1911, which she successfully completed; Olympic then left Belfast bound for
Liverpool, her port of registration, on 31 May 1911. As a publicity stunt, the
White Star Line deliberately 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. 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, reaching New York on 21 June.
The maiden voyage was captained by Edward Smith who would lose his life the
following year in the Titanic disaster. Designer Thomas Andrews was present for
the passage to New York and return, along with a number of engineers, as part
of Harland and Wolff's "Guarantee Group" to spot any problems or
areas for improvement. Andrews would also lose his life in the Titanic
disaster.
As the largest ship in the world, and the first in a new
class of superliners. Olympic's 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 harbor, for her first return trip.
Hawke Collision
Olympic's first major mishap occurred on her fifth voyage on
20 September 1911, when she collided with a British warship, HMS Hawke off the
Isle of Wight. 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 the Hawke by surprise, and he was
unable to take sufficient avoiding action. The Hawke's bow, which had been
designed to sink ships by ramming them, collided with Olympic's starboard side
near the stern, tearing two large holes in Olympic's hull, below and above the
waterline respectively, resulting in the flooding of two of her watertight
compartments and a twisted propeller shaft. HMS Hawke suffered severe damage to
her bow and nearly capsized. Despite this, Olympic was able to return to
Southampton under her own power, and no one was seriously injured or killed.
Captain Edward Smith was still in command of Olympic at the
time of the incident. One crew member, Violet Jessop, survived not only the
collision with the 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
Olympic's 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 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.
It took two weeks for the damage to Olympic to be patched up
sufficiently to allow her to return to Belfast for permanent repairs, which
took just over six weeks to complete. To speed up the repairs, Harland and
Wolff were forced to delay the Titanic's completion in order to use her propeller
shaft for Olympic. By 29 November she was back in service, however, in February
1912, Olympic suffered another setback when she lost a propeller blade on an
eastbound voyage from New York, and once again returned to her builder for
repairs. To get her back to service as soon as possible, Harland & Wolff
again had to pull resources from the Titanic, delaying her maiden voyage from 20
March 1912 to 10 April 1912.
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 her sister Titanic when she was
approximately 500 nautical miles (930 km; 580 mi) west by south of the Titanic's
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 100 nautical miles (190 km; 120 mi)
away from Titanic's last known position, she received a message from Captain
Rostron captain of Cunard Liner RMS Carpathia, explaining that continuing on
course to Titanic would gain nothing, as "All boats accounted for. About
675 souls were saved. Titanic foundered about 2.20 am." Rostron requested that
the message be forwarded to White Star and Cunard. He said that he was
returning to the harbor in New York. Subsequently, the wireless room aboard the
Olympic operated as a clearing room for radio messages.
When Olympic offered to take on the survivors, she was
heatedly turned down by an appalled Rostron, who was concerned that it would
cause panic amongst the survivors of the disaster to see a virtual mirror image of the Titanic appear and ask them to board. Olympic then resumed her voyage to
Southampton, with all concerts canceled as a mark of respect, arriving on 21
April.
Over the next few months, Olympic assisted with both the
American and British inquiries into the disaster. Deputations from both
inquiries inspected Olympic's lifeboats, watertight doors and bulkheads, and
other equipment which were identical to those on Titanic. Sea tests were
performed for the British inquiry in May 1912, to establish how quickly the
ship could turn two points at various speeds, and to approximate how long it would
have taken the Titanic to turn when it sighted the iceberg.
1912 "Mutiny"
Olympic, like Titanic, did not carry enough lifeboats for
everyone on board and was hurriedly equipped with additional, second-hand
collapsible lifeboats following her return to Britain. Toward the end of April
1912, as she was about to sail from Southampton to New York, 284 of the ship's
firemen went on strike because of fears that the ship's new collapsible
lifeboats were not seaworthy. 100 non-union crew were hastily hired from
Southampton as replacements, with more being hired from Liverpool.
The 40 collapsible lifeboats were secondhand, having been
transferred from troopships, and many were rotten and could 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.
On 25 April a deputation of strikers witnessed a test of
four of the collapsible boats. Only one was unseaworthy and they said that they
were prepared to recommend the men return to work if it was replaced. However, the strikers now objected to the non-union strikebreaker crew which had come on
board and demanded that they be dismissed, which the White Star Line refused.
54 sailors then left the ship, objecting to the non-union crew who they claimed
were unqualified and therefore dangerous, and refused to sail with them. This
led to the scheduled sailing being canceled.
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 the
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 be refitted to incorporate
lessons learned from the Titanic disaster 6 months prior, and improve safety.
The number of lifeboats carried by Olympic was increased from twenty to sixty-four (per Carlisle's original number), and extra davits were installed along
the boat deck to accommodate them. Also, an inner watertight skin was
constructed in the boiler and engine rooms, to create 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 the Titanic's 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, Olympic's B-Deck underwent a refit, which
necessitated deleting her B-Deck promenades – one of the few features that
separated her from her sister ship. The refit included extra cabins (the parlor
suites which proved popular on the Titanic were added to the Olympic), more
cabins were fitted with private bathing facilities, and a Cafe Parisian
(another addition that had proved popular on the Titanic) was added, offering
another dining option to first-class passengers. With these changes, Olympic's
gross tonnage rose to 46,359 tons, 31 tons more than Titanic's.
In March 1913, Olympic returned to service and briefly
regained the title of largest ocean liner in the world, until the German liner
SS Imperator entered passenger service in June 1913. Following her refit,
Olympic was marketed as the "new" Olympic and her improved safety
features were featured prominently in advertisements.
World War I
In August 1914 World War I began. Olympic initially remained
in commercial service under Captain Herbert James Haddock. As a wartime
measure, Olympic was painted in a grey color 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, although 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.
Audacious Incident
On the sixth day of her voyage, 27 October, as the Olympic
passed near Lough Swilly off the north coast of Ireland, she received distress
signals from the battleship HMS Audacious, which had struck a mine off Tory
Island and was taking on water.
The Olympic took off 250 of the Audacious' crew, then the
destroyer HMS Fury managed to attach a tow cable between Audacious and Olympic
and they headed west for Lough Swilly. However, the cable parted after the
Audacious' steering gear failed. A second attempt was made to tow the warship,
but the cable became tangled in HMS Liverpool's propellers and was severed. A
third attempt was tried but also failed when the cable gave way. By 17:00 the
Audacious' quarterdeck was awash and it was decided to evacuate the remaining
crew members to Olympic and Liverpool, and at 20:55 there was an explosion
aboard the Audacious and she sank.
Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, Commander of the Home Fleet, was
anxious to suppress the news of the sinking of Audacious, for fear of the
demoralizing effect it could have on the British public, so ordered Olympic to
be held in custody at Lough Swilly. No communications were permitted and passengers
were not allowed to leave the ship. The only people departing her were the crew
of the Audacious and Chief Surgeon John Beaumont, who was transferring to RMS
Celtic. Steel tycoon Charles M. Schwab, who was traveling aboard the liner,
sent word to Jellicoe that he had urgent business in London with the Admiralty,
and Jellicoe agreed to release Schwab if he remained silent about the fate of
Audacious. Finally, on 2 November, Olympic was allowed to go to Belfast where
the passengers disembarked.
Naval Service
Following Olympic's 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 Mauretania and Aquitania. 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, Olympic's other sister ship Britannic, which had not
yet been completed, was requisitioned as a hospital ship. In that role she
would strike a mine and sink the following year.
Stripped of her peacetime fittings, and 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 Mudros, Greece for
the Gallipoli Campaign. On 1 October she sighted lifeboats from the French ship
Provincia which had been sunk by a U-boat that morning off Cape Matapan and
picked up 34 survivors. Hayes was heavily criticized for this action by the
British Admiralty, who accused him of putting the ship in danger by stopping it
in waters where enemy U-boats were active. The ship's speed was considered to
be its best defense against a 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
Honor. Olympic made several more trooping journeys to the Mediterranean until
early 1916 when the Gallipoli Campaign was abandoned.
In 1916, considerations were made to use Olympic to
transport troops to India via the Cape. However, during the investigation, it turned out
she was unsuitable for this role, because her 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 colors were brown, dark blue, light blue, and white.
Her many visits to Halifax Harbor carrying Canadian troops safely overseas, and
back home after the war, made her a favorite symbol in the City of Halifax.
Noted Group of Seven artist Arthur Lismer made several paintings of her in
Halifax. A large dance hall, "Olympic Gardens" was also named in her
honor. After the United States declared war on Germany in 1917, Olympic also
transported thousands of U.S. troops to Britain.
In the early hours of 12 May 1918, while en route for France
with US troops under the command of Captain Hayes, Olympic sighted a surfaced
U-boat 500 m (1,600 ft) ahead. Her gunners opened fire at once, and she turned
to ram the submarine, which immediately crash-dived to 30 m (98 ft) and turned
to a parallel course. Almost immediately afterward Olympic struck the
submarine just aft of her conning tower and her port propeller sliced through
U-103's pressure hull. The crew of U-103 blew her ballast tanks, scuttled and
abandoned the submarine. Olympic returned to Southampton with at least two hull
plates dented and her prow twisted to one side, but not breached.
Olympic did not stop to pick up survivors but continued on
to Cherbourg. The USS Davis sighted a distress flare and picked up 31 survivors
from U-103. It was discovered that U-103 had been preparing to torpedo the
Olympic when she was sighted, but the crew could not flood the two stern
torpedo tubes. Some American soldiers on board paid for a plaque to be placed
in one of Olympic's 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 the Olympic on May 12th, 1918 in latitude 49
degrees 16 minutes north and 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 traveling
about 184,000 miles. Her impressive World War I service earned her the nickname
Old Reliable.
Post-war
In August 1919 Olympic returned to Belfast for restoration
to civilian service. Her interior was modernized and her boilers were converted
to burn oil rather than coal. Oil was cheaper than coal, it lowered the
refueling time from days to hours, and allowed the engine room personnel to be
reduced from 350 to 60 people. During the conversion work and dry docking, a dent
with a crack at the center was discovered below her waterline which was later
concluded to have been caused by a torpedo that had failed to detonate.
Olympic emerged from her 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 Line's Aquitania was slightly longer. In 1920
she returned to passenger service, on one voyage that year carrying 2,249
passengers. Olympic transported a record 38,000 passengers during 1921, which
proved to be the peak year of her career. From 1922 she was joined for an express
service by Majestic and Homeric; two former German liners which had been ceded
to Britain as war reparations, operating successfully until the Great
Depression reduced demand after 1930.
During the 1920s, Olympic remained a popular and fashionable
ship, and often attracted the rich and famous of the day; Charlie Chaplin, Mary
Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and Prince Edward were among the celebrities
that she carried. Prince Edward and Captain Howarth were filmed on the
bridge of the Olympic for Pathé News. One of the attractions of the Olympic was
the fact that she was nearly identical to the Titanic, and many passengers
sailed on the Olympic as a way of vicariously experiencing the voyage of the
Olympic's ill-fated sister ship.
On 22 March 1924, Olympic was involved in another collision
with a ship, this time in New York. As Olympic was reversing from her berth at
New York harbor, 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.
Changes in immigration laws in the United States in the
1920s greatly restricted the number of immigrants allowed to enter. This led to
a major reduction in the immigrant trade for the shipping lines, forcing them
to cater for the tourist trade to survive. At the turn of 1927–28, Olympic was
converted to carry tourist third cabin passengers as well as first, second, and
third class. Tourist third cabin was an attempt to attract travelers who
desired comfort without the accompanying high ticket price. New public rooms
were constructed for this class, although tourist third cabin and second class
would merge to become 'tourist' by late 1931.
One year later, Olympic's first-class cabins were again
improved by adding more bathrooms, a dance floor was fitted in the enlarged
first-class dining saloon, and a number of new suites with private facilities
were installed forward on B-deck. More improvements would follow in a later
refit, but 1929 saw Olympic's best average passenger lists since 1925.
On 18 November 1929, as the Olympic was traveling westbound
near Titanic's last known position, the ship suddenly started to vibrate
violently, and the vibrations continued for two minutes. It was later
determined that this had been caused by the 1929 Grand Banks earthquake.
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 reduced 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 SS
Bremen and SS Europa, Italy's SS Rex and France's SS Île de France, and the
remaining passengers tended to prefer the more up to date ships. Olympic averaged around 1,000 passengers per journey until 1930, but this declined by
more than half by 1932.
Olympic's running mate Homeric was withdrawn from the
transatlantic route as early as 1932, leaving only Olympic and Majestic
maintaining White Star Line's Southampton-New York service.
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 in 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 23 knots, 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. 1933 was Olympic's worst year of business –
carrying just over 9,000 passengers in total. Passenger numbers rose
slightly in 1934, but many crossings still lost money.
Lightship Collision
In 1934, Olympic again struck a 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, Olympic, inbound in heavy fog,
was homing in on the radio beacon of Nantucket Lightship LV-117. Now under the
command of Captain John 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, thus there were seven fatalities out of a crew of eleven. The
lightship's surviving crew and the Olympic's captain were interviewed soon
after reaching shore. One crewman said it all happened so quickly that they
didn't know how it happened. The captain was very sorry it happened but said
the Olympic reacted very quickly lowering boats to rescue the crew, which was
confirmed by an injured crewman.
Retirement
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 RMS Queen
Mary and RMS Queen Elizabeth. When completed, these two new ships would handle
Cunard White Star's transatlantic business, and so their fleet of older liners
became redundant and was gradually retired.
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. Her new owners 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 Mauretania, she was sold to Sir John Jarvis a Member of Parliament for £97,500, to be partially demolished at Jarrow to
provide work for the depressed region. Her superstructure was demolished in
1936, and in 1937, Olympic's hull was towed to Inverkeithing to T.W. Ward's
yard for final demolition.
By the time of her retirement, Olympic had completed 257
round trips across the Atlantic, transporting 430,000 passengers on her
commercial voyages, traveling 1.8 million miles.
Olympic Artifacts
The Olympic's fittings were auctioned off immediately before
she was scrapped; some of her fittings, namely those of the first-class lounge
and part of the aft grand staircase, can be found in the White Swan Hotel, in
Alnwick, Northumberland, England. The rest of her fittings found homes in
scattered places throughout Great Britain.
In 2000, Celebrity Cruises purchased some of Olympic's
original wooden panels and created the RMS Olympic restaurant on board their
newest cruise ship at the time, Millennium. According to Celebrity Cruise Line,
this wood paneling once lined Olympic's à la carte restaurant.
The clock depicting "Honor and Glory Crowning
Time" from Olympic's grand staircase is on display at Southampton's Sea
City Museum.