Olympic
RMS Olympic was the first of the Olympic class of ocean liner built by the White Star Line.
In 1911, Olympic, Captained by none other than Edward Smith, collided with a British navy vessel named the HMS Hawke. She was then moved to the dry-dock for emergency repairs. Consequently, this delayed the maiden voyage of Titanic by three weeks. Had this incident never occurred, Titanic may not have sunk.
On the night of April 15, 1912, Olympic received an SOS from Titanic and rushed to her sister's aid. When she reached about 110 nautical miles of Titanic's sinking location however, she was turned down by Carpathia because the Carpathia's crew had just finished picking up the survivors and feared that the survivors may be traumatized at the sight of a Titanic duplicate appearing off of the horizon and offering them help. Olympic then continued to Southampton as scheduled.
Out of respect, no parties were held and no music was played during Olympic's voyage as it was a time for mourning for the loss of Titanic.
After the loss of Titanic, Mr. Joseph Bruce Ismay added more lifeboats to Olympic.
In 1915, Olympic was taken out of service and placed in the Royal Navy and served as a troop steamer in World War I. She became the only non-offensive vessel to sink a U-boat by ramming it. After losing her second sister Britannic in 1916, she became the only remaining liner of her kind. After the war in 1919, Olympic returned to transatlantic service.
In May 1934, Olympic accidentally rammed into a small lightship called the Nantucket in New York harbor. 7 people were killed in the incident.
In 1934 the White Star Line was bought out by it's rival Cunard Line. Cunard used Olympic until they deemed that the four-funneled ships were no longer efficient. Olympic was controversially scrapped a year later in 1935 to create jobs for the poor.
Differences from Titanic[]
Titanic herself was essentially an exact duplicate of her sister, but there were some differences between the two ships.
They are:
- The Olympic's A-Deck promenade deck is exposed and runs the entire length of the ship. Titanic was originally going to have this feature but was changed in a last minute decision by Mr. Bruce Ismay. In place of this, Titanic's promenade deck was shortened to create private promenade suites. Cal and Rose stayed in one of those suites as shown in the film. This was the most notable difference.
- Titanic had more portholes.
- Titanic had a higher passenger capacity.
- Third-class conditions were better on Olympic.
- Second class B-deck promenade was longer on Olympic, It was shortened on Titanic to allow space for the Café Parisien
Olympic, was in fact, not mentioned by Thomas Andrews in the film as mentioned before.
A small sketch of Olympic appears on the boarding passes that Jack Dawson and Fabrizio De Rossi won in the poker game.
Olympic ended up not being mentioned at all throughout James Cameron’s Titanic.
In an alternate script, the Olympic was however to be featured in a scene answering Titanic's distress call much how she did in real life but the idea scrapped because the Olympic scene was going to use the Titanic set. Being that Olympic's promenade deck was exposed and Titanic's wasn't, refitting the Titanic set would be deemed too much work for a one-minute scene.
Frederick Fleet was among many others to have served on both Titanic and Olympic.
Since the Olympic and Titanic looked virtually the same, and very little film of Titanic exists, footage of Olympic has been used to portray her sister in several early Titanic films. Olympic has often been mistaken for Titanic in photos as well.
There has been a long running and rather infamous conspiracy that Olympic and Titanic were switched after the HMS Hawke incident. Olympic sank and Titanic masqueraded as Olympic for the next 24 years. However this conspiracy was officially debunked in 1998 when a large piece of hull was raised and matched a Titanic blueprint. Some Titanic survivors died believing the ship they were on was the Olympic.
