RMS Olympic Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids History
RMS Olympic on her sea trials in Belfast in 1911
United Kingdom
Name	Olympic
Owner	White Star Line 1911–1934 Cunard White Star Line 1934–1935
Port of registry	Liverpool, United Kingdom
Route	Southampton to New York City
Ordered	1907
Builder	Harland and Wolff, Belfast
Cost	$7.5 million (USD) ($195.1 million in 2018)
Yard number	400
Laid down	16 December 1908
Launched	20 October 1910
Completed	31 May 1911
Acquired	31 May 1911
Maiden voyage	14 June 1911
In service	1911
Out of service	1935
Identification	Official Number 131346 Code Letters HSRP Radio callsign "MKC"
Fate	Retired at Southampton after 24 years service & scrapped. Superstructure dismantled at Jarrow, England, and the hull at Inverkeithing, Scotland.
Status	Scrapped
General characteristics
Class and type	Olympic-class ocean liner
Tonnage	45,324 gross register tons; 46,358 after 1913; 46,439 after 1920
Displacement	52,067 tons
Length	882 ft 9 in (269.1 m)
Beam	92 ft 9 in (28.3 m)
Height	175 ft (53.4 m) (keel to top of funnels)
Draught	34 ft 7 in (10.5 m)
Decks	9 decks (8 for passengers and 1 for crew)
Installed power	24 double-ended (six furnace) and 5 single-ended (three furnace) Scotch boilers. Two four-cylinder triple-expansion reciprocating engines each producing 15,000 hp for the two outboard wing propellers at 75 revolutions per minute. One low-pressure turbine producing 16,000 h. 59,000 hp produced at maximum revolutions.
Propulsion	Two bronze three-bladed wing propellers. One bronze four-bladed centre propeller.
Speed	21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph) 24.2 knots (45 km/h; 28 mph)
Capacity	2,435 passengers
Crew	950
Notes	First in a trio of Olympic-class ocean liners for White Star Line and the only one to have a successful career. Elder sister to RMS Titanic and HMHS Britannic.

RMS Olympic was a British transatlantic crossing ocean liner, the lead ship of the White Star Line's trio of Olympic-class liners. Unlike the other ships in the class, Olympic had a long career spanning 24 years from 1911 to 1935. This included service as a troopship during the First World War, which gained her the nickname "Old Reliable". She 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.

Olympic 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 (which had the same dimensions but higher gross tonnage owing to revised interior configurations), before she was then surpassed by SS Imperator. Olympic also retained the title of the largest British-built liner until RMS Queen Mary was launched in 1934, interrupted only by the short careers of her slightly larger sister ships.

The Olympic was withdrawn from service and sold for scrap in 1935; demolition was completed in 1937. Decorative elements of Olympic were removed and sold at auction before she was scrapped, and now adorn buildings and a cruise ship.

By contrast with Olympic, the other two ships in the class, Titanic and Britannic, did not have long service lives. Titanic collided with an iceberg in the North Atlantic on her maiden voyage and sank, while Britannic struck a mine and sank in the Kea Channel in Greece in 1916. Britannic never served her intended role as a passenger ship.

Images for kids

{{{1}}} Titanic]]'s keel is visible to the left
{{{1}}} Titanic]] under construction, is visible to the left
The launch of Olympic on 20 October 1910
An image of the propellers of the Olympic, 1911
The boat deck of Olympic, with her original lifeboat configuration, seen from the ship's starboard side
The Grand Staircase of Olympic
Olympic (left) being manoeuvred into dry dock in Belfast for repairs on the morning of 2 March 1912 after throwing a propeller blade. Titanic (right) is moored at the fitting-out wharf. Olympic would sail for Southampton on 7 March, concluding the last time the two ships would be photographed together
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Olympic photographed near the Isle of Wight in October 1912, six months after the Titanic disaster
Olympic's new lifeboats, ready to be installed. Another source posits that they are Titanic's remaining lifeboats having been brought back to Southampton by Olympic
Olympic as she appeared after her refit following the Titanic disaster, with an increased complement of lifeboats, on a Fred Pansing painting, c. 1912
HMT Olympic in grey colour scheme
The crew of the battleship HMS Audacious take to lifeboats; amateur photograph taken by Mabel and Edith Smith, passengers on Olympic
HMT Olympic in dazzle camouflage while in service as a troopship during the First World War
Olympic in dazzle at Pier 2 in Halifax, Nova Scotia painted by Arthur Lismer
Olympic, photographed in 1922
Olympic's list of first-class passengers, 1923
Olympic at Southampton in 1929
Matchsafe, circa 1911
Olympic in 1934, passing the Lightship Nantucket, the same ship she would strike and sink a few months later
Olympic (left) and Mauretania (right) laid up in Southampton prior to their scrapping
Olympic arriving at Jarrow for scrapping on 13 October 1935
Fittings from the ship installed in the Olympic Suite at the White Swan Hotel, Alnwick

RMS Olympic facts for kids

Images for kids

See also