The catastrophe of the ocean liner "Titanic", which sank on the maiden voyage after the collision with an iceberg, is well known all over the world thanks to films.
But the Titanic was one of only three ships of this class built in a British shipyard in the early 20th century, and the other two are much less known. The first was the Olympic, the second was the Titanic, and the third was the Giant.
At the beginning of the 20th century, shipping companies, competing with each other, tried to shorten the duration of the transatlantic voyage at any cost. The championship was held by the Kunard steamship company thanks to the two steamers Lusitania and Mauritania. The company built three huge liners at the Harland & Wolf shipyard that surpassed all competitors' vessels, if not in speed, then certainly in size, luxury of finishes and class of service. The most unlucky of the three ocean giants was, of course, "Titanic", but the fate of two similar liners turned out to be unenviable - they also did not escape disasters.
The first of the three was the Olympic (length 269 m, displacement 45 thousand tons), and almost at the same time the Titanic was being built. The designs of both ships are completely identical, but outwardly they were noticeably different: the Olympic had an open promenade deck, while the Titanic had a closed one. The launching of the Olympic was magnificently celebrated on October 20, 1910, and the Titanic left the slipway on May 31, 1911.
The first voyage of the Olympic from Southampton to New York on June 14, 1911 went smoothly, only in port it damaged the tug. Trouble began with the fifth flight. On September 20, 1911, the bulky liner collided with the British cruiser Hawk and crushed its entire bow. The Olympic received two holes, one below the waterline, and the water completely filled two isolated compartments. The liner's right propeller became unusable from the impact. Passengers from the "Olympic" had to be evacuated, although death in the depths of the waters did not threaten the ship. For several months the liner was under repair at the Harland & Wolf shipyard.
In April 1912, when news of the Titanic disaster came, the Olympic was en route from New York to Southampton. Since the Olympic was a ship of the same type as the sunken Titanic, its reputation suffered greatly. Passengers did not buy tickets for it, and the crew members were afraid to board the liner and demanded a full set of lifeboats. To calm the frightened people, the shipowners ordered to clutter the decks of the Olympic with an incredible amount of all kinds of boats and rescue equipment.
In the winter of 1912-1913, the liner was thoroughly rebuilt and refurbished. The second bottom was raised above the waterline, the watertight bulkheads were made stronger and higher, and additional lifeboats were placed on the boat deck. For convenience, davits were installed on the Olympic for the simultaneous launching of two boats.
When World War I broke out, passenger liners were requisitioned for use as military transport ships. Gray-yellow spots were applied to the sides of the Olympic for camouflage. On May 12, 1918, the Olympic was attacked by the German submarine U-103. However, the fast liner managed to evade the German torpedoes. He even rammed a submarine and sank it. Until the end of the war, Olympic had managed to transport 41,000 civilians, 66,000 US and Canadian servicemen, 12,000 Chinese from labor battalions, rescued the crew of the British ship Odeishez (Brave), which was blown up by a mine, and also delivered a large amount of military supplies. He covered a distance of a total of 184 thousand nautical miles and burned 347 thousand tons of coal.
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After the war, the Olympic was sent to Belfast for a major overhaul. The veteran veteran was the first of the transatlantic steamers to be converted to a new type of fuel - fuel oil, which cost the White Star Line £ 2.5 million.
In the 1930s, during the economic depression, the financial position of shipping companies was shaken. In 1933, the Olympic was put into dry dock for repairs, but there was not enough money for its complete modernization. In 1934, the White Star Line and Cunard Steamship Companies merged, and the board decided to sell some of the ships, including the Olympic. On one of the last flights on May 15, 1934, he collided in the fog on the way to New York with the floating lighthouse Nantucket and sank it along with a crew of seven.
In April 1935, the Olympic ended up in Southampton. There were various rumors about the future of the liner, but everything ended in the most prosaic way: the Olympic was sold for scrap, and two years later the ocean giant came to an end. Of the three steamers of the same type, he sailed the longest.
When the tragedy of the Titanic struck, the third liner had not yet been completed, and in light of the tragic events on this ship, security measures were significantly increased. From the name "Gigantic", which is similar in meaning to "Titanic", the shipowners abandoned and renamed the ship "Britannic".
From the spring of 1915, he was supposed to run on the Southampton - New York line, but the world war was already going on. On November 13, 1915, the Britannic was requisitioned by the British Navy and converted into a hospital ship. The liner has installed 2,034 hospital beds, 1,035 camp beds. It accommodated 52 officers, 101 nurses, 336 orderlies and another 675 people who were part of the team and the hospital staff.
On December 23, 1915, the Britannic under the command of Captain Charles A. Barth-let left Liverpool on its maiden voyage. His path lay through Naples, where they replenished the supply of coal, to the island of Lemnos in the Aegean Sea. Near the island, he took on board 3,300 wounded. In January 1916, the Britannic brought the wounded to England, then made a second flight of the same kind and was converted into a mail-passenger ship. But soon the Britannic was again sent for the wounded in the Mediterranean.
On November 21, 1916, in clear weather, on the way to the Aegean Sea at about eight o'clock in the morning, a powerful explosion occurred on board the Britannic. The captain tried to reach the island of Kea, but after 55 minutes the liner sank. Of the 1,100 people, 1,070 survived on boats, and 30 people died when one lifeboat was pulled into a funnel and ground by a rotating propeller.
The reason for the death of the ship remained unclear. In 1976, explorer Jacques Cousteau discovered the wreck of the Britannica at the bottom of the sea and examined it. The explosion and impact on the seabed made the ship's hull look like the wreck of the Titanic. In photographs, it is indistinguishable from the Titanic, only the white hull with three red crosses and a green stripe proves that it is a hospital ship. The magnificent Britannic, built as a comfortable liner for transatlantic flights, ironically, was never used as a passenger steamer and generally existed for less than a year.