What happened to Olympic after Titanic sank? | Analysis of the White Star Sister Ships

In 1913 Olympic underwent a re-fit that would give her a brand new lease on life. This is not an exhaustive list of what changed, but it does tell the story of an awkward part of Olympic's career and how White Star Line was able to overcome the odds!
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Oceanliner Designs explores the design, construction, engineering and operation of history’s greatest ocean liners - from Titanic to Queen Mary but not forgetting the likes of Empress of Ireland or Chusan. Join Mike Brady as he uncovers the myths, explains the timelines, logistics and deep dives into the lives of the people and ships that we all know and love.
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Ship Ocean Liner Oceanliner Designs P&O Strathnaver Maritime History Naval Engineering Ship Engineering Famous Ocean Liners White Star Line Titanic Sinking RMS Olympic Sister Ships

[@FalconFlyer75]

Olympic really was an unsinkable ship, seemed like nothing could keep it down - multiple collisions - took down a submarine - avoided a torpedo attack - survived one of the worst wars in history - survived the titanic’s reputation

[@carlosarredondo3]

You know once the Olympic was actually stuck by a torpedo in the bow during WWI , however the torpedo was defective and didn’t detonate

[@dima343.]

Britannic was even more improved, and still it sank. Not only technical aspects has significant role in ship survival, but also coordinated work of experienced crew. That's why on navy ships were thorough trainings of "damage control". I think Titanic had extremely bad luck, and sunk in it's first voyage due coincidence of unfortunate circumstances. It seems all luck went to Olympic, leaving Titanic and Britannic with nothing

[@ShenLong991]

@@dima343. Britannic also had some problems at the time of sinking... The hole was not much larger than the ones at titanic, but thanks to open bulkheads, for the convenience of the worker, that couldn't be closed due to deformation, the water where free to reach any parts of the hull.

[@Bloodgod40]

She took a rogue wave as well at one point. It broke bridge windows, inundated the wireless room on the boat deck, and damaged the compass platform amidships on the boat deck. Other than that the ship was fine.

[@luisvelez1952]

That means that the rivets had nothing to do with the Titanic sinking, the iceberg impact was more brutal than everyone have thought.

[@billgrandone3552]

When my father died I found a photograph of the Olympic among his effects and could not image why he would have that. Twenty five years later his brother and my Uncle Jim passed and I found the answer. My cousin Mike came to me with a box of odds and ends that my uncle had evidently received from our grandfather. In it was a 2nd Class Boarding pass to the Olympic dated in June of 1921. My grandfather went in grand style to visit his family it Italy and he never mentioned it to anyone.

[@mareknosek996]

Beautiful family story!

[@billgrandone3552]

@@mareknosek996 Yes, but you had to know my grandfather. In the 14years I knew him he spoke less than 10 sentences and lived with my grandparents for the first three years of my life! I don't think that my grandmother knew that he went on the Olympic or at least what it must have cost. My grandparents were not wealthy when they were first married. Grandpa was a coal miner who came to the US from Italy in 1900 after serving in the Italian army. And my grandmother was from a farm family with eight brothers and sisters. They married in 1904 and my grandfather got sick of shoveling coal and when he noticed that three shifts of miners always stopped by the bars before and after their shifts when a dime would buy you a shot and a beer, he decided to go into the tavern business. Well by 1921 he had the money to go to Italy on the Olympic;; He weathered out Prohibition with a clothing store in the tavern (and a tavern in the basement) and had a four bedroom apartment over the tavern. He retired in 1955 and rented out the tavern. He died in 1963 but my grandmother continued to live upstairs and rent out the tavern until her death in 1977 at the age of 92. The bar is still there and operates as a bar and restaurant, owned by a high school friend of mine.

[@mareknosek996]

@@billgrandone3552 Another prof of your wonderful family's history!

[@leonleon2276]

Boring story.

[@mareknosek996]

@@leonleon2276 (Moron)

[@SamuelBoreas]

Imagine if Olympic was closer; Could you imagine waiting to be rescued and here, out of the darkness, comes what appears to be the ship you were just on that sank?

[@goldfing5898]

I think everyone would have been glad to set a foot on any ship that comes for help in this situation. Besides, Olympic with its same size and height would have been perfect for rescue. In the earlier stages of the drama, maybe it would come just aside and load the passengers without even needing the lifeboats.

[@lilmsdrummer]

I know this is a tragedy of incredible proportions, I haven't lost sight of that. But the warped part of my brain, which is most of it, imagines a groundhog day type situation where the people keep getting rescued from one sinking ship, onto an identical sinking ship, which then also sinks and another titanic/olympic/brittanic keeps coming to rescue and then sinks again and keeps on going on and on. These are the things my brain thinks up.... why?!?!

[@Mainyehc]

@@lilmsdrummer why? Likely because of ADHD, of course. ;) I didn’t go as far as imagining an endless stream of sinking ships, but the thought of Olympic sinking with Titanic’s survivors on board, or even sinking in the same night, en route to the site of the accident, due to a rushed rescue attempt, did cross my mind, too. 🙃 And now, because of this exchange, I DID end up considering such a bizarre, Inception-like sequence of events as plausible, and since I realized that each of those ships would be carrying its own original passengers, my brain is also going full xkcd on how many cycles would it take until the first ship sank on its own - i.e. without hitting an iceberg at all - due to excess passenger and crew load right after or in the process of picking up all the accumulated survivors… And should the cycle continue after that threshold was reached? What does that equation look like? 🤔 And guess what, this comment was originally much shorter, but I kept editing and adding more details to it as I went along and came up with them on the fly. That’s the ADHD brain for you! 😂

[@MaddocHarrison]

I would wait for the next ship

[@dogboi187]

that actually was speculated, olympic crew thought it was a bad idea to go to titanic because they were concerned that asking the survivors to board an almost exact replica of the ship they were just on would cause panic and fear

[@DarqeDestroyer]

I remember in one of the videos on youtube about Olympic / Titanic, in the comments there was someone who said, around 2010 they were watching the James Cameron movie, "Titanic" on TV at home, and their grandmother who was in her 90s was in the room, and suddenly spoke up and said "I was on that ship". They were like "What?" and she said she recognized the grand staircase, having remembered climbing up and down it. After a little more enquiry, it turned out when she was a schoolgirl in the 1920s she'd been taken on a day trip aboard _Olympic._

[@YgorCortes]

Oh wow this is very impressive!

[@alibee7609]

The Olympic could easily pass off as the Titanic. Looking at their pictures side by side, I can't really tell the difference.

[@dwoolaver1549]

Oh just like the movie lol..

[@miketlane]

I was wating for......then she whipped out a big blue diomond neckless

[@jefflitchfield4950]

Well, the original Olympic became the titanic.

[@dustasdu]

One of the things that fascinates me the most about Olympic is that after her remarkable life in service she is the only one of three sisters that is actually gone. Titanic and Britannic still exists after their tragic and premature endings and they are both accessibles. It's a crazy thing to think about it.

[@ForbiddTV]

No one here seems to be talking about what you speak. There are a few bits in here that suggest it might not be what you think, like what was said during the retrofit at 6:02 "...the liner finally received a cafe parisien like her younger sister had." That part if true completely debunks the version of history you speak of.

[@dustasdu]

​@@ForbiddTV Sorry but I'm not quite getting you... I basically said the Olympic was scrapped. So it is the only one no longer in existence as a ship. On the other hand, Titanic and Britannic still remains. I dont see a version of the story just the facts of these three liners fates. Did I missed something?

[@pandauk2538]

The main ship is gone but there's a hotel in England who bought most of the Olympics interior fixtures after she was decommissioned and scrapped

[@danwat1234]

@@pandauk2538 Yup the White Swan hotel

[@billgrandone3552]

Yeah that is strange. You'd think that White Star would have preserved the Olympic as a museum piece . But that mght have been too difficult for the survivors of the other two great ships to bear. I had a friend who lost his brother and mother on the Luisitania when the Germans torpedoed it off the Head of Kinsale on the Irish Coast. He had a lithograph of the ship on his wall at the dry cleaning store that he ran across the street from my grandmother's apartment. As a kid I always wondered about that picture and when I asked my grandmother about it, she told me the story and told me never to mention it to him because he would still get upset to think about it This was 40 years or more after the sinking.

[@jeo228]

Britannic was the most advanced of the three sisters, and sank after hitting a mine or a torpedo. Titanic was the newer Queen of the seas, the crown jewel of the White Star Line, and sank tragically on her maiden voyage...and then theres big fuckin bessy the olympic. Gets crashed into, serves in a war, has multuple mutinies, and in the end, after having a full career unlike her sisters, she gets scrapped.

[@vodka2432]

You’d think she’d go out in some epic way instead of being scrapped.

[@UnusualRYAN]

Mine

[@Phaaschh]

@@UnusualRYAN "No, it's not yours, number one- this ship belongs-" BOOOM!

[@littlegamer00]

White star line: We may have put tones of cash into you but. TO THE SCRAPYARD

[@Phaaschh]

@James 777 haha! How true.

[@mikedrown2721]

Olympic is my favourite of the 3 sisters because she was the first. To see her arriving in NYC and the largest ship in the world at the time on her maiden voyage. What a sight it must have been!

[@OceanlinerDesigns]

Agreed! ~Mike

[@therealrungholt9535]

My Favorite was Brittanic

[@genb6359]

Yes, and for titanic was a sight that *could’ve* been

[@friendofdorothy9376]

@@genb6359 Yes, should have been. So many mistakes led to the disaster. Going too fast, ignoring and not relaying iceberg warnings and no binoculars in the crow’s nest

[@francesco810]

@@friendofdorothy9376 it was probably just bad luck. having binoculars wouldn’t have changed anything cause they weren’t used to spot things, just to see them better once they were already spotted

[@sparrowlt]

One of the parts of the Titanic history that most people ignore and fascinates me most is not just the fact that Olympic was just as big as Titanic was (only that the later was heavier, but otherwise identical in size) but that until Titanic demise Olympic was actually more famous being the lead ship of the class and allready in service.. To the points that even there is no known photos of Titanic's great stairwell or propellers .. all those ujsed to ilustrate Titanic's were Olympic's .. photographers of the time simply went for the new stuff on Titanic and didnt bothered with shared stuff in the little time they had to cover Titanic

[@peterwilliamallen1063]

There was a third Member of this Class of Ships, the RMS Britannic, which from 1915 became a Hospital Ship HMHS Britannic and was sunk in the Mediterranean sea by a mine, the Olympic was the only one to survive and was Scrapped up North.

[@westnblu]

@@peterwilliamallen1063 what a shame.

[@douglasgriffiths3534]

@@peterwilliamallen1063 Parts of Olympic remain to this day in the White Swan hotel. Part of her aft Grand Staircase, and parts of her First Class dining room. At least some parts of the sisters remain, as well as artifacts from Titanic herself. (Jan Griffiths).

[@shaynewheeler9249]

Titanic

[@th8257]

she wasn't necessarily heavier - when they talk about a ship being so many tons, 'tons' is actually a measurement of the internal dimensions, not the weight.

[@TracyA123]

Wow! That was awesome! I'd never considered where the Olympic was on the night of the sinking. I can certainly imagine that the sight of the Olympic would be ghostly to the survivors on the Carpathia. It would almost be cruel to transfer the survivors onto the Olympic. I give great credit to the officers on both ships for considering this. I really enjoyed this video!

[@OceanlinerDesigns]

Thanks Tracy, too kind! ~Mike

[@TracyA123]

@@OceanlinerDesigns You're very welcome sir. Very well done. I wasn't aware of any of that and I've been a Titanic enthusiast since the day it was found. I'm actually embarrassed that I didn't know any of this. You're editing, voiceover and thoroughness is top shelf! I look forward to every video.☺

[@DistractedGlobeGuy]

It wasn't the officers who thought of it-it was Ismay, still frostbitten and clouded up on morphine. As soon as he was rescued, he took a heavy dose to get a few hours' sleep, and when he woke up a scant few hours later, he sent four telegrams. First, he told White Star's New York offices that _Titanic_ had sunk and that the death toll would be staggering. Next, he instructed the staff at White Star's New York docks to hold the ship scheduled to depart in two days, because he wanted to send _Titanic's_ crew home as passengers at his own expense-he didn't want to leave them stranded in New York without jobs, which is what would have happened to them if they had been with a different company. Then, he chartered the freighters CS _Mackay-Bennett_ and SS _Miria_ to load up on ice and formaldehyde and act as floating undertakers' offices to recover the 1,496 corpses of the victims and bring them to Nova Scotia for identification and burial. Finally, after hearing that Haddock was still trying to intercept and pick up the survivors, Ismay instructed him to abort and go back to his original planned course as he felt the sight of _Titanic's_ near-identical sister would traumatise the survivors even worse. After relaying those instructions, Ismay didn't speak another word except to Captain Rostron until he disembarked at Cunard's New York docks on Thursday evening.

[@TracyA123]

@@DistractedGlobeGuy Poor Ismay got such a bad rap. People still think he was a coward. I strongly disagree. First, he didnt get on the first life boat. Second, he was actively assisting passengers board the boats. Third...He was the very last person in that boat. He didn't take a seat from someone else. Murdoch wasn't forcing men to stay in the boat. He was trying to get as many people off as he could. It's quite possible Murdoch motioned for him to get in. People think they know how they will act in a situation like that. I challenge any civilian with a choice between life and death right in front of you to claim they wouldnt get in the boat. Instinct takes over at that point. Thanks for that info on him. It makes me respect him even more.

[@DistractedGlobeGuy]

@@TracyA123 that's more or less what the two criminal inquests determined. One of the commissioners, either Smith or Mersey (I can't remember which), said that the only thing he would have accomplished by staying would have been to increase the number of dead by one. Of course, this was before Mrs Lines decided to speak up about the conversation she claimed to have overheard in the Reception Room on Saturday afternoon, where, she says, Ismay browbeat Vaptain Smith into speeding against the latter's better judgement.

[@nightrider6769]

I knew she went in for a refit but I didn't know it was this major of a refit wow they went all out. Sad that she got scrapped in later years.

[@alan_decker]

Well, it gave jobs to people In need for money

[@SURENITY]

@@alan_decker Temporarily! 😒😒

[@minexer]

it should've been a museum. not in on but be one.

[@minexer]

@@alan_decker could've continued to do so.

[@th8257]

@@SURENITY that's the nature of scrapping a ship. You can't scrap a ship more than once. This was the middle of the depression - people were literally starving. Scrapping the ship gave desperately needed work to a community, for however long. It was a matter of life and death for some families.

[@chrisblockeel1888]

The Olympics main staircases ornamental metal work below the balustrade was saved by Thomas Ward who repurposed it at his Ribblesdale Cement Works' new office building as it's main staircase in 1936 where it still remains to this day and I get to see it as I work there!

[@jackthorton10]

Wow 😯

[@raymondwagenhauser5228]

Please can you share some pics or a link.

[@KentuckyFriedClassic]

i would love to see that!

[@Khonsu1373]

Also the dining room was bought by the White Swan Hotel in Alnwick where it was installed by the same craftsmen who fitted it originally. It remains there today and you can go there for a meal, you don't need to be a guest.

[@shaynewheeler9249]

Rms titanic

[@asa1973100]

One part of the Olympic still exists that anyone can visit. When the ship was being scrapped, anything deemed reusable was auctioned off, and the original dining room in its entirety was purchased, moved and reinstalled in the White Swan Hotel in Alnwick, England including the magnificent Staircase and splendid glass windows

[@sebwilkins]

Lounge, not dining room.

[@brucetownsend691]

I really appreciate your delivery. It’s so nice to hear narration marked by impeccable pronunciation and phrasing with the stresses and pauses all correct and appropriate. For anyone not familiar with it, the accent is “educated Australian”.

[@TheHesK9]

I used to work in a charity store, and we found a part of Olympic in a box of stuff someone donated to us. It was so fascinating to see something from such a historic ship

[@nursestoyland]

what happened to that part?

[@TheHesK9]

@@nursestoyland We put it up for sale on eBay I think

[@gerhardrichter8626]

A good book about the Olympic during the First World War is " Hull Down " by Sir Bertram Hayes. He was the Captain of the Olympic at the time and later the Captain of Britannic's replacement RMS Majestic.

[@OceanlinerDesigns]

Absolutely LOVE this book, a real must! ~Mike

[@sadiedavenport]

Thanks for the recommendation!

[@gerrimilner9448]

my grandfather sailed on the majestic for most of his working life, i have his record book

[@musicpipe]

This Brand New Ship Sailed For Twenty Five Years ... Unfortunately the Olympic was no longer sea worthy before the Titanic was finished ... go figure.

[@bvillafuerte765]

@gerhardrichter8626 Sounds like a very good book, I'll read it. But that person participated in the seventh world war, not the first. Surely he would be impressed to have survived a world war and from his house he would listen to the beginnings and middle of the eighth world war.

[@jonathanhansen3709]

A very good friend of mine , Arthur Pursell, sailed over to WWI aboard the Olympic. It had been converted to a troop ship. This was early in 1918, and Arthur was a Private in the 91st ‘Wild West’ Army division. He saw combat in France and Belgium. He lived to be 95, but always remembered his voyage on the Olympic till the end of his life.

[@C4RL1NN]

Man that’s truly fascinating.. I can only imagine what it would’ve been like to see through his eyes for even a few moments as he boarded the ship, had dinner one of the evenings and went back to his quarters. To feel the cold metal under his palms, smell the 1918 salty air, glance around at the faces of those around him.. it would be an absolutely incredible experience.

[@pinklightninggacha]

Yep she was even armed with guns her sister was a hospital ship she was the hmhs brittanic formerly known as rms gigantic

[@brianchiasson2465]

My own 2x great grandfather made the Atlantic crossing aboard Olympic with the 91st Batt. CEF.

[@levyan4718]

A very good friend that has a huge age difference to you? I don't buy your story

[@thesimslover82884]

@@levyan4718 I have friends that have a big age difference, between me and them. Age doesn't matter too much, when you become an adult.

[@tommyboyz6291]

It's feel heart breaking when u heard your little sister are in dying while you rushing back helplessly to save her in tears.

[@corneliuscrewe677]

Olympic’s story of how she became known as the Old Reliable is indeed a story worthy of being told on it’s own, and I hope to see it.

[@corneliuscrewe677]

@expattaffy1 No one at Harland &Wolfe ever said any such thing, you old fool. What’s wrong, are you missing my company at the Apollo Detectives channel? Isn’t “Bob” taking care of your “special needs?”

[@worthatronproduction]

I saw in a documentary that they also changed Olympic's and Britannic's expansion joints (a gap at the side of the hull to account for the metal expanding and contracting in the heat so preventing the metal from warping or cracking under the tension). The three were originally designed with a wedge-shaped cut, but after Titanic sank rumours speculated she had split in two before she went down. So they changed them from having a pointed end

[@ultraelstudman7210]

There should be a movie of the legendary Olympic.

[@Brinta3]

No. It’s a ship with an interesting history, but there’s nothing in there to turn into a good movie narrative.

[@DANIELLE_BREANNA_LACY]

I’d like to see a movie focusing on the ships that were around the Titanic when she was sinking. The Carpathia of course, but also the Olympic, Frankfurt, Mount Temple, Baltic, Birma, Mesaba, and Virginian.

[@TopHatTITAN]

Interesting how public attention to the Olympic Class shifted over the years. A lot of these shifts were gradual and some were more instant. I believe it goes: Olympic, Titanic and the sinking, Olympic, Slight Britannic before WW1, Olympic, then a period of rather quietness about the class, then Titanic in the 50s, quietness, then Titanic with the wreck discovery in 1985, and finally a continued interest in Titanic helped rebuild interest in Olympic and Britannic since then.

[@brydenholley1904]

I first heard about the Olympic when reading a book about the discovery of the Titanic. Probably around the time the movie came out in 1997, though the book was about the 1985 discovery of the wreck. I remember being amazed to know that all wasn't lost in the sinking after all. There were photos of the Olympic and its interior, which I believe are often used to illustrate how the Titanic would have looked. Even the opening footage in the Titanic movie is actually the Olympic.

[@glenchapman3899]

I can tell you from the 1960s on, there was no quietness about Titanic. The ship was always being discussed and a constant trickle of books appeared. It bubbled along much the same as the case of Jack The Ripper.

[@pandauk2538]

Titanic probably put The white star line back in the spot light as one their biggest disasters since two of the 3 biggest ships on the planet at the time sank but most people don't know about the 11 other ships mostly passenger and cargo that sank before Olympic was built

[@gregmoore3420]

I was always fascinated by the paint schemes of the time. Even Disney was impressed to paint their ships in similar fashion. However, the main reason why most of the ships hulls were painted black was not because of status, it was to hide the thick black coal dust each time it was loaded into the ship. As ships were converted from coal to other fuel sources the side of ships could be painted in other colors. However, since passengers were so use to the black paint scheme and related it to luxury many were never changed.

[@GlamorousTitanic21]

After Titanic sank Olympic’s firemen went on strike and refused to sail without enough lifeboats. So White Star had to strap a few dozen collapsible boats to the deck to appease them.

[@isuckatthesegames7119]

Firemen are officially Heroic

[@johndoe-so2ef]

F J B

[@zhackiethedog]

@@OnlineHarpGaming2009 Legend has it that ships can show emotions.

[@aaronfitzgerald9109]

Those three ships are the most beautiful ships that will ever be, modern ships are an eyesore, I wish ships of this style still existed.

[@andrewjennings7306]

QM2 isn't too bad.

[@noneofyourbizness]

Should cruising return to being the sole preserve of the wealthiest folks on earth, IMO we will also see a return to ships of beautiful design. the ugliness of today's designs are driven by the economics of the mass market being catered to, and obsession with short term share price . (replicable profit per square foot, of EVERY square foot) While being responsible for some/many creative marvels of efficiency, 'pack 'em in' design has never created a single thing of beauty, at least not at sea.

[@abhinay4779]

@@andrewjennings7306 QM2 is amazing. It’s a true liner.

[@NBSV1]

These ships were designed to be sleek and fast as the main purpose was transport since fast mass air travel wasn’t really a thing then. Modern passenger ships are mostly just cruise ships where mostly being on the ship is the idea. So, they build them like lumbering floating hotels to maximize profit.

[@patrickryan6065]

Most people understand that he first and only Captain of Titanic was EJ Smith. In fact Titanic’s first captain was Herbert Haddock during her first sea trials out of Belfast. EJ, was then in command to take her to Southampton to get ready for her maiden voyage.

[@patrickryan6065]

@@HMS.Margate great reply Stuart. Unfortunately if we look at the whole thing, it’s just a huge long chain of events that led to that moment mid Atlantic. Right from the time of laying the keel, the Olympic - Hawk accident, departure delay’s at Southampton just to name a few. Everyone has their opinion on how, when and why it happened, and it’s always good to read these and see the whole event from someone else’s point of view. For me, my view of the reason the accident happened at the time and place it did, is down to the Marconi operators. Unfortunately I (my personal opinion of a life time of studying this) hold them responsible.

[@patrickryan6065]

@@HMS.Margate the things we have missed regarding steam ships is staggering. What a grand time it would have been to experience.

[@mdj3121]

You do a great job on these videos. You are informative and concise, never wasting time on unimportant information as many KZbinr do. Thank you for creating these videos.

[@TheMrTomkennedy]

I've never really thought much about the classic ocean liners until one of your videos came up in my YT suggestions. Now I can't get enough of the topic. You have made me an enthusiast. Well done young man!!

[@foxstarline4997]

Olympic :The Real Unsinkable Ship!!!

[@feldpolizeivonpreuen5833]

@Vegesther I believe you may be referring to when the Olympic had a collision with the Royal Navy Cruiser HMS Hawke, the collision did cause some light damage to the Olympic above the waterline whereas the section of hull below the waterline that was struck did receive some harsh battering as the Hawke had a ram. (meaning that it was designed to ram ships and cause damage) Although, the Hawke received more damage in the collision as its bow was flattened. But not one of the two ships involved ever sunk as a result and both would eventually receive repairs.

[@brettcannon74]

@@feldpolizeivonpreuen5833 it wasn't light damage. The damage below the waterline was worse. It bent her stern also which was never fixed 100%

[@turricanedtc3764]

@@brettcannon74 - Respectfully, it didn't bend anything major, because HMS Hawke's draught (i.e. the depth of the bottom of her hull, including the ram on the bow) was too shallow to affect Olympic's keel (by over 10 feet), and the impact was glancing and twisting rather than a direct 90 degree collision. That said, the damage wasn't trivial, it opened the hull between two watertight compartments and bent the starboard propeller shaft - but it wasn't anything H&W couldn't fix completely within several weeks of work (which they did).

[@titan-tm7kl]

@Vegesther Olympic never sank that's why she was called old reliable she served a full life and became part of Cunard and was superceded pretty much around the time of the Queen Mary I think Olympic was put out of service and scrapped around 1935

[@comradekenya37]

Not unscrappable though

[@zahirsookoor2673]

I did not know about the exhaustive list of changes, remodeling, improvements and adjustments the White Star line made to Olympic!! I didn't even stop of think of the public's perception and reaction to her since she was so eerily similar to Titanic. Well presented vid, clearly explained while learning a lot. Great job 👏

[@joegallagherr]

A really interesting part of history that I've never really thought about! It would be brilliant to hear about the coal strikes and mutinies! They are pretty fabled here in Belfast!

[@OceanlinerDesigns]

Yess will definitely be approaching this one soon. I don't blame the mutineers one bit! ~Mike

[@SMHman666]

Thanks for an interesting doco'. Your easy pace, pauses and clear diction make it really enjoyable too, unlike some who seem to be on a mission to spit out as many words as they can in the shortest time possible. New sub.

[@pauljay828]

I've always followed the history of the Titanic and her sisters but never knew this about the Olympic's refit. Loving your channel.

[@TechnologicallyTechnical]

Olympic actually underwent many refits throughout her career. In early 1912, her reception room was enlarged, in 1920 her boilers were converted from coal burning to oil burning, and in 1929, her dining saloon and parisien cafe were given a parquet dance floor and many of her staterooms were given private bathrooms (these aren't all of the refits Olympic underwent, just the most notable ones).

[@OceanlinerDesigns]

Cheers Paul! ~Mike

[@shanemac5199]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/pJDHkHp7rp2fqJI

[@victorsamsung2921]

@@OceanlinerDesigns Just recently I've come onto your videos, in part, by accident, of Titanic's 25th anniversary, when Cameron's movie premiered on December 19th 1997. Your video on the behind-the-scenes production of the movie got recommended to me. And I loved it. Then, I ended up loving your other detailed videos as well, such as the Empress of Ireland, the rogue waves recorded in history and a Titanic alternate universe as well. Keep up the good work. Cheers from a fellow Aussie in Sydney.

[@BaltimoreAndOhioRR]

This was really interesting. Nicely presented. I didnt realize it came out a basically different ship, rather than a couple reinforcements/improvements. 🚢⚓👍

[@MrFister84]

2:02 I love photos like this that show off the intricate riveting pattern ships of the past had, true bloody hard workmanship!

[@arthur-db9if]

The quality of your videos is so good, given the fact that you just began this channel! Interesting topics too, keep up this work dude!!!!

[@Firemarioflower]

1:08 ....................... that actually made me tear up...... to see this ship just vanish like that. 😥As though the ship was an actual living being that lost a sibling that she once saw in their home port, Southampton. 😪

[@kaiserwilhelmii5109]

I enjoyed that. Very well done Mr. Brady. I always look forward to see what is in store when you post a new video.

[@OceanlinerDesigns]

Thanks so much Mr 6th Nightguard! ~Mike

[@richardhumby8704]

Great work! As an ex ship’s officer 1973-83 The Bankline. Maybe expand your field to incorporate the golden age of the cargo ship companies. At marine college many companies were represented. Ellermans, Maggie Booths, Bankline, Union Castle, the list goes on! Again well done!

[@Sebi076]

I learned a lot of new stuff in this video about Olympic, I've always have been more so fixated on Titanic and knew not much about her sisters. Thank you!

[@geoffpilcher2460]

Excellent to camera narration one of the best along with curious droid! Clear voice no theatrics with great information. Have subscribed.

[@c3cubed]

Almost two decades ago, a number of Olympic artefacts were auctioned off by the Haltwhistle Paint Factory. Included on the list were a number of items previously installed into the factory boardroom; they were originally purchased after Olympic was scrapped. Pleased to say, I won the final gavel after a bidding war with a Titanic Museum located in Florida USA. Since then, I've been a proud owner of one of the beautiful and intricately carved, oak newel post panels from Olympic's First Class Grand Staircase. The real pleasure in having this item, is knowing the likelihood of the same pair of skilled hands that carved the same pattern, also did so for the Titanic. I'm not sure what it is worth today, but at that time, I paid over 2.7K pounds for it.

[@c3cubed]

@@ne1124 Thank you. It hangs beside a preserved edition of the famous New York Times "Titanic Sinks Four Hours After Hitting Iceberg" headline paper. That item was even more something of a 'holy grail' to find at a special auction (!)

[@Middy_37]

Just imagine that.. your a passenger of the Titanic, and you're over the icy waters waiting for someone to save you.. and then a huge ship looking exactly like the one that you were just on, comes to save you

[@minexer]

better that than nothing if that would've been the case.

[@DANIELLE_BREANNA_LACY]

@@minexer And that probably would’ve been the case for some of the survivors if it weren’t for Harold Cottam staying up later than usual and wearing his headphones while on no official duty at all, just in the process of getting undressed for bed.

[@writerspen010]

I'd often wondered about this after learning about Titanic's sister ships. Thanks so much for this overview!

[@derangedband]

these videos are all so facinating! i cant imagine how much research went into them all! thank you for posting all of them :)

[@jlamp45]

I don't know if some of what I am commenting on has already been covered in one of the other comments. There are nearly 1400 comments posted as of this date, so it is possible. The Olympic was scrapped in 1935 after a service life of 24 years. Just prior to her being taken out of service she was involved in one more of the tragedies which seem to mark the history of the Olympic sister ships. Late in the morning of May 15, 1934 the Olympic struck and sank the United States Lightship "Nantucket", (LV 117). The collision occurred in a dense fog off the southern coast of Nantucket Island, where the lightship was stationed to warn ships of the Nantucket shoals, as the Olympic was heading to New York. Four of the lightships crew went down with the ship and seven were rescued by the Olympic. Unfortunately, three of those died of their injuries. My association with this incident involves my father. He was a member of the Lightship Service, which later came under the United States Coast Guard, and was a crew member on LV 117. Fate was with him at that time. Because of the isolation of the duty station crew members worked on a rotating basis, two months on station and one month off. One third of the crew was off duty in any given month. My father was on his one month off when the lightship was sunk. He later went on to serve on the replacement vessel constructed to replace LV 117. The replacement lightship, designated LV 112, and also named "Nantucket" since the ship designation refers to the duty station, was constructed by Pusey & Jones of Wilmington, Delaware and was paid for by the British Government as reparation for the collision and sinking of the LV 117. After 39 years of service LV 112, which was the largest lightship constructed, was taken out of service. It has undergone renovation and preservation and to my knowledge is moored in the Boston harbor area. I don't know if it is available for visitors. I have pictures of my father during his time in the Lightship Service including one taken of the LV 112 when she was going out to station after being commissioned.

[@OceanlinerDesigns]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing!

[@kermitefrog64]

What an incredible update in safety. They learned from Titanic and made the technological changes.

[@toddbonin6926]

This documentary is brilliant. It's as polished and professional and informative - if not moreso - than anything produced by the BBC. Bravo!!!!

[@vitalknife_]

I found this channel last week and have appreciated it alot. Keep it up sir

[@randomrazr]

a shame olympic wasnt saved but we all know how big of an expense and pain in the ass it is to preserve a ship. aka queen mary

[@WezzRail]

depends how it's stored, if they preserved her in a dry dock then the costs wouldn't have been as high as she wouldn't have needed to remain floating in salt water, so the structure wouldn't rust as badly.

[@DJ118USMC]

@@WezzRail Imagine the Olympic in drydock next to the Nomadic. What a sight that would be....

[@Johntheripper87]

@@WezzRail large ships are designed to depend on the buoyancy of the water. The structure would eventually collapse on itself. Normadic is a smaller vessel. I still dont think keeping her in drydock is a good idea. A great idea would be flooding the dry dock permenantly with fresh water and a filtration system like a large pool. Fresh water will take a lot longer to rust the ship up. USS Cod went about 60 years in Lake Erie before needing a dry dock.

[@SURENITY]

@@WezzRail Exactly!

[@SURENITY]

@@Johntheripper87 That is a great idea!

[@JACCO20082012]

I had no idea Olympic received Titanic's distress signals. How heartbreaking.

[@J0hnnieP]

A ton of information AND you have a good delivery. Well done.

[@clemnorman4025]

I really enjoyed this video, I would love to see more stories on her aspecially during her war-time service :D

[@Pez1979]

What a great video, don't get me wrong - I love a good Titanic video, but I don't like that she overshadows her Sisters so much, the Olympic and the Britannic were both beautiful and groundbreaking ships in their own right and deserve just as much attention. More please :D

[@BillyAlabama]

What a wonderful narrative!! Excellent. Just ran across this and I’m glad I did.

[@billmarsano3404]

Kudos to you for a fine original approach to the world of the Titanic and her sisters. Well done! 1

[@Dorito8052]

Mike Brady, if you haven’t already *PLEASE MAKE A VIDEO DEBUNKING THE TITANIC OLYMPIC SWITCH THEORY* please, we need it.

[@Dorito8052]

If you do this, potentially hundreds, maybe even thousands of people who have been believing a lie would be able to finally stop flooding the comments of every video even mentioning Titanic with the bogus theory.

[@carlhallowell3421]

He has a couple up now.

[@zijielim4652]

These three sisters are the most beautiful ships ever

[@trypticon3293]

That ship should really have been kept as a sort of museum, an ode to the old world, and a reminder of what was lost. Criminal that they scrapped her! She deserved better!

[@straswa]

Great work Oceanliner Designs, very insightful.

[@damnedman0455]

I’d be amazing if you did an entire video of Olympic. I’ve weirdly enough been almost more interested with Olympic than Titanic just because of her vast career.

[@andrewbrendan1579]

Fascinating video with so much spoken and visual information. This may seem to be a small point but I especially noticed the comment that when the Olympic returned to service in May of 1912 there were only 500 passengers and 900 crew. Ordinarily there would have been a huge number of people in steerage. I wonder how many Third Class passengers, if any, were aboard the Olympic for that crossing. It would be interesting to know how far in advance Third Class passengers were booked and where those passengers were that would have been aboard the Olympic had not the Titanic sank. Maybe travel agents or White Star staff re-routed those people to other liners in the White Star fleet or even to the ships of other lines if White Star was out of space?

[@randomrazr]

wut

[@OceanlinerDesigns]

Thanks Andrew! You raise good points here - I'm not sure on the Class split for that voyage in particular, I'll do some reading into that! ~Mike

[@stockbrk0153]

Love your videos. Can’t stop watching and learning about these ships.

[@mjcjaelryan9171]

That is awesome that you're keeping history alive Keep up the good work Bud

[@TornadoHarry]

Great video as always!

[@alan_decker]

Oh, tornado Harry.

[@brendanmatelan2129]

I would love to see a video about Olympic's role during the First World War and her eventual retirement.

[@keighlancoe5933]

She was a pretty badass ship, she even sank a German Uboat by ramming it after it shot a torpedo at her

[@mrb.5610]

Interesting and informative video - been looking forward to one on this subject for a while !

[@leaturk11]

Very nicely put together, well done sir.

[@theshipenthusiast]

I’m glad so many people have been covering this topic. I did a few months ago but that was a very short and summarized version

[@seaboardairlineproductions7185]

Fantastic video! I’ll be looking out for more!

[@mssixty3426]

😆😆 " . . . was under the command of Captain Herbert Haddock and his magnificent set of muttonchops." Oh my gosh, that's hilarious! 😆😆

[@ARG0T]

Glad I discovered your channel a few weeks ago, man. Absolutely amazing and already up there with some of my favorite oceanliner content creators. :)

[@shanemac5199]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/pJDHkHp7rp2fqJI

[@jacenskywalker507]

In my own honest opinion, the Olympic is my favorite of the three Olympic-class White Star Liner sisters. I get that Titanic is more famous and all, and I also *really* like her as well, but there's just something about the oldest of the three sisters that makes her stand out more to me.

[@chrishickory7907]

The amount of comments about the false switch of Titanic and Olympic is mind numbing. I believe in elves more than that.

[@STho205]

The refit lends to these crude guesses. Several very visible and photographed changes looked identical to Titanic and weren't on original Olympic. If you didn't know about the refit....then a wild guess makes sense.

[@itsharshjain]

Very well researched video. Appreciate your efforts

[@jamesfrost7465]

Good job Sir. Your narration is very professional. Steady as she goes mate.

[@badensnaxx5804]

How about Violet Jessop, the nurse who survived the sinkings of Titanic & her other sister ship, the Brittanic. It never stopped her going to sea, she continued working well into her sixties.

[@gerrycoogan6544]

I often wonder if she was subsequently thought of as a jinx. On the other hand, if I found myself on a ship along with Violet, I'd stay close to her at all times since she seemed to be one most likely to survive!

[@regalgs51]

I have been fascinated with the Titanic, Olympic, and Britannic for over 25 years. In every single documentary, book, and article, it is always mentioned that the watertight bulkheads in the Titanic did not reach high enough to prevent water from spilling over the top of each bulkhead. I have never seen a picture of the top of any of the bulkheads. Do you know if there is a picture out there that shows the top of a bulkhead not reaching high enough to prevent water from spilling over? I would love to see what it actually looks like versus envisioning it incorrectly in my mind.

[@sirnevliin9283]

From what I have read about the sinking the problem was not water spilling directly over the bulkheads but rather it reaching the deck above. From E deck it could then flow into the next watertight compartment. But this seemed to not have had any mayor impact on the speed of Titanic sinking in comparison to the rapidly rising water levels at the bow of the ship. I'm sorry I couldn't provide any pictures of the top of the bulkheads except for this one www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/files/1/wt-Fig1-app.png which shows, as far as I know, one of the bulkheads on Olympic. If someone knows more about it feel free to correct me in case I got it wrong.

[@davidfuller581]

@@sirnevliin9283 No, it did have some impact - it meant that it sank substantially faster. In Titanic, because they only came up to E deck it meant that progressive flooding would happen much sooner, meaning the ship foundered sooner.

[@stuart8663]

Great delivery and excellent video, mate.

[@JacKnife3705]

Idk there is something so sweet and uplifting and heroic when you hear about ships racing to help a stricken vessel. There is just something so heroic about it. The idea of a ship hearing about the potential loss of a vessel and its people and deciding to race to it to aid it just shows that no matter all the war, disputes, genocide and murder that us humans commit on each other, there is always the humane ones willing to give a helping hand.

[@silvertbird1]

I’ve always found it tragic that amongst feral cats the survival rate for kittens is at best one out of three. So it seems for some fleets of ocean liners.

[@yoranw4608]

RMS Olympic gained extra plus value due to the historic connection to Titanic and Britannic. Sadly, it was not observed by the owners or potential saviors, before its fate was decided towards scrapping. She would worth 10 times more, today, if it had been preserved. Now, an odd and off-the-topic comment which from I bet i will get heavily criticized; boy you’re handsome and charming.

[@DerpyPossum]

might be hard to believe, but back when the Olympic existed, Titanic’s sinking wasn’t really that famous. if anything, people still wanted to forget that such a disaster had occurred. Titanic’s fame wouldn’t resurface until the 1950s, and then it would go quiet until the 1980s, then it would skyrocket in the 1990s, and then it would gradually rise and fall from there.

[@OWOT-re5jf]

Great information!!! They practically built a new ship! Cool vest and tie.

[@JB-rt4mx]

OK, you got me hooked. GREAT CONTENT...BRAVO !!

[@noahhh07]

Brilliant Video

[@noahhh07]

Literally the best Olympic History video i have watched.

[@OceanlinerDesigns]

Too kind Noah! ~Mike

[@deejayimm]

J.P. Morgan didn't die in 1913, he just went back to hell for a while.

[@taurussel]

You’re awesome! ❤❤. Your videos are great. I never knew that stuff about Olympic.

[@xXGunther627Xx]

Another wonderful video to watch. I'm going to enjoy this as I've enjoyed the others. Thanks, Mike! I still happily look forward to the SS Princess Alice video! - Romny

[@OceanlinerDesigns]

Cheers Gunther! Princess Alice definitely on the list :) ~Mike

[@sangbum60090]

He looks like he's cosplaying as one of those wireless operators

[@C4RL1NN]

Wireless operators? What do you mean??

[@brianborstein8456]

@@C4RL1NN the wireless operators sent and received messages aboard these ships that were sent by telegraph, I believe.

[@andrewolson5471]

It's almost ironic that the Olympic was so heavily scrutinized after her sister's sinking. She was built to withstand darn near any conceivable accident and remain afloat. And her rebuild took her safety well beyond anything that had ever been built before, making her sort of the prototype for how all modern cruise ships would be built.

[@vtadventures6477]

Great work! I am facinated by ocean liners.

[@kendemers8821]

Well done. I learned a lot about Olympic and Titanic in this video.

[@hb4174]

Pls do a video debunking the titanic olympic switch theory, the fact people are still making hundreds of comments going “DONT YOU MEAN LOYMPICC SINKING!!!!!” Makes me angry

[@TorontoJediMaster]

I've always thought that the addition of the extra lifeboats all along the Boat Deck actually improved her aesthetics. Was her 1912-1913 refit when the B-Deck promenade was removed and cabins extended to the sides of the ship? Or was that done during her conversion to oil, following the World War?

[@DistractedGlobeGuy]

That was immediate. Andrews noticed on her first crossing that nobody used the B-deck one. That's why he had _Titanic's_ closed off and her cabins expanded in the first place. _Olympic_ being laid up for a safety overhaul just gave H&W time to do the conversion for her as well. Actually, if you look closely, you can even see on the illustration where the aft part of B-deck has been closed off.

[@juanesmirez]

The addition of suites on the B deck promenade was done in 1929.

[@JeffAM1986]

Man it really helps how good looking you are, makes these videos just that much better.

[@nerissacrawford8017]

A video on the Olympic mutiny would be interesting.

[@doctoremil2678]

Olympic: *spots a U-boat* Also Olympic: "Call Davy Jones, but not for me."

[@hotelesplanade239]

as a Tintin-fan I like the fact that Olympic´s captain was named Captain Haddock

[@DANIELLE_BREANNA_LACY]

Herbert Haddock was actually the original captain of the Titanic too.

[@cranegantry868]

Very intelligently put, loved this.

[@drkmagneto]

Cool video!!! Did not know about the changes to Olympic! Cool!

[@WhatALoadOfTosca]

Love your videos. Thank you. Belfast "loff" is Lough, pronounced Lock.

[@OceanlinerDesigns]

Thanks for that note Graham! Another in the long list of words I have seen written down but have never before had to pronounce out loud! ~Mike

[@WhatALoadOfTosca]

@@OceanlinerDesigns It's not one we use often either and I live a quarter of a mile from Harland and Wolff ;)