LostLiners.com - RMS Olympic

When the Cunard introduced Lusitania and Mauretania in 1907, the White Star Line immediately felt the pinch as more and more people flocked to sail on the new Cunard leviathans. Bruce Ismay, the managing director of International Mercantile Marine; White Star's parent company, knew that his line would have to build ships far superior to Cunard's, both in size and luxury if they were compete. Speed would not be the issue. Lusitania and her sister were extremely fast but both were also notorious for noise and vibration. Ismay wanted big and glamorous. His giants would certainly be swift, but his intent was that their interiors rival even the most regal of palaces. The would be the most elegant ships ever to sail the oceans.

Ismay turned to White Star's ship builders at the Harland & Wolff Ship Yards in Belfast, Ireland. Lord William J. Pirrie, the managing director and controlling chairman of Harland & Wolff sat down with Ismay one summer evening and over some fine brandy or scotch, drew up preliminary plans for three ships that would impact the history of ocean liners in ways neither man could imagine at the time.

Ismay's dream was of three ocean greyhounds 900 feet in length adorned with the finest of everything; silk, oak, crystal and gold. The vessels would be "...the largest moving object(s) ever created by the hand of man." As I have and will continue to point out, this phrase became somewhat passé towards the 1920's as just about every ship built seemed to claim it.

Lord Pirrie took Ismay's sketches back to his engineers. His nephew, Thomas Andrews was managing director of the design department. Andrews and his team drafted the plans for the vessels. At first three funnels were called for with four masts. However, numerous masts were the mark of a sailing vessel; these ships were to be the queens of a new era. A fourth funnel, a dummy that could be used for ventilation, was added. The public felt that vessels with four stacks were safer because they were larger and sturdier. The number of masts was reduced to two, one fore and one aft. The antenna for the marconi wireless apparatus would be strung between the masts. Fifteen vertical bulkheads spanning the width of each ship would divide the length of the hull into watertight compartments. Accessible to each other through doors that could closed from the bridge, the compartments could be sealed off in the event of an emergency. Any four (or the first five) could be flooded and the ship would stay afloat.