She was the first of the Olympic class liners to be built for the White Star Line. R.M.S. Olympic launched on 20th October 1910 weighed in at 45,324 tons and was 882 feet long , at that time she was the largest liner afloat . Her scale was immense …92 foot wide , her props measured 23 foot across and she had an incredible 46,000 horse power. Her two Cunard rivals , the Lusitania and Mauritania were 31,500 tons a piece , making the Olympic 14,500 tons their senior , but at 21 knots she was slower , taking an extra day to arrive in New York .
The maiden transatlantic voyage was on June 14th1911. On her fifth departure from Southampton she collided with the British cruiser H.M.S. Hawke and had to return to Belfast’s Harland and Wolff shipyard for repairs . In that collision she damaged two water-tight compartments and after the sinking of the Titanic she returned again to have her double sided bottom and bulkheads extended to above the waterline . Lessons learned after the Titanic disaster saw the Olympic fitted with enough lifeboats to accommodate all passengers and crew . Her tonnage was now raised to 46,359 tons .
The British admiralty requisitioned the Olympic as a troopship in 1915 . During her 22nd voyage on troop carrying convoy duty she was attacked by the German submarine U-103 . Olympics captain swung the ship hard to starboard to miss the incoming torpedo but this put the ship on a collision course with the attacking sub. Olympic rammed her square on , the collision gave U-103 no chance of survival. As these large troopships were given orders never to stop , the American destroyer Davis was ordered to pick up any fortunate submarine survivors .
After the war she returned to Belfast for the re-fitting of her interiors and for the ships boilers to be converted to oil burning . She then returned to Southampton on 25th June 1920 for regular transatlantic crossings for the White Star Line under the command of her most famous captain of all Captain Bertram Hayes . She was a great workhorse but both she and the White Star Line were ageing and were not making money, on 10th May 1934 the White Star Line merged with their long term rivals the Cunard Line . On her first voyage for the new company she collided with the Nantucket lightship while steaming through heavy fog . Seven men were killed in this incident .
Cunard knew that the Olympic and the older Mauritania were their oldest ships and in April 1935 both were laid up at Southampton , all of their fixtures and fittings were put up for auction . Many of these were bought for the White Swan Hotel in the town of Alnwick , England and can still be seen there today . The Olympic was partially dismantled at Jarrow in England then her hull was towed to Inverkeithing in Scotland for scrapping , that was to be completed by 19th September 1937 . The last of the Olympic class liners , she had served only 25 years .
A sad end to what once was a beautiful ship .
