Britannic and Olympic

During the golden age of ocean liners it was common for shipping companies to build several ships from the same plans. The reason for this was simple economics – the engineers only had to draw up one set of blueprints for the whole series of ships.

It also allowed for a more regular service. Three almost identical ships operating the same line between Southampton and New York meant that the operating companies could run a schedule service once every seven days - such was the demand for sea travel before days of the transatlantic aeroplane.

The White Star Line built two more ‘sister’ ships identical to the Titanic. Fabricated by the Harland and Wolff shipyard, the siblings were named the Olympic and Britannic. Sadly, all three sisters met unhappy ends.

The Britannic was launched in February 1914, six months before the start of the First World War. Since its luxurious interior was unfinished by the onset of war that August, the liner was commissioned by the British government as a hospital ship.

HMHS Britannic (His Majesty’s Hospital Ship) was lost on only her sixth voyage, in November 1916 - never having carried a paying passenger.

Tragic Loss
The Britannic was on route to pick up Allied casualties on the Greek island of Lemnos to take them back to England, but sank off the island of Kea, about forty miles south east of Athens.

Out of 1,134 people on board, just thirty perished in the Aegean Sea. Tragically, many of these were killed when their lifeboats were sucked under by the ship’s still-turning propeller, as the stern of the Britannic reared out of the water.

The Olympic faired a little better, making her maiden voyage in June of 1911. Initially serving on the Southampton – New York White Star line, she was converted into a troop carrier after the outbreak of war in 1914.

The Olympic resumed her transatlantic passenger crossings in 1919. By the 1930s, however, the world was in a global recession and the changing economic conditions were beginning to swamp her. In 1934, Cunard and the White Star Lines merged and the fleet’s older ships were scrapped.

The Olympic’s furniture was auctioned deck by deck and its hull demolished. The golden age of the ocean liner was drawing to a close.