Bruce Ismay and Lord Pirrie were quick to set into motion the events that would lead to the creation of the super liners they envisioned that summer evening in London. Pirrie took the preliminary sketches and diagrams to his best draftsmen and charged them with turning the idea into reality. In charge of the development team was Pirrie’s nephew, Thomas Andrews. Not even forty years old, Andrews was a brilliant engineer and his dedication to shipbuilding was undeniable. He could often be found at the ship yards before dawn, blueprints stuffed in his pocksets. Andrews would oversee every aspect of construction, from the first design draft to the final rivet.

     Ismay’s original concept called for three funnels and four masts on the new ships. Noting that most of White Star’s competitors used four funnels on their ships, Pirrie altered the design to four funnels, three of which would be functional. The fourth would be used for ventilation. Pirrie felt that four funnels were absolutely necessary to provide a more commanding presence. The funnels would also be raked back to give the illusion of speed. Pirrie further altered the plans to include only two masts; one fore and one aft of the funnels. Any more, he felt, would make the ships look too much like sailing vessels. Harland & Wolff drew up a contract with the White Star Line that provided for the ships to be built on a "cost plus" basis. This meant that no matter how high the cost of the vessels rose due to changes in specification or increase in the cost of building materials, the shipbuilder was guaranteed to make a profit on the deal. The average profit margin in contracts such as this was 5% and often paid for in share stock in the contracting company.

     As the designs for the ships progressed, the issue of where to construct them was of great concern to Ismay and Pirrie. Harland & Wolff had no facilities for building such enormous vessels. The complex was comprised of four individual shipbuilding yards; Musgrave, Queen’s, Albercorn and Victoria. The board of directors at Harland & Wolff determined that the best way to proceed would be to demolish the three existing slipways at the Queen’s shipyard and replace them with two larger ones. As the construction proceeded, there was yet another challenge; building gantries large enough to facilitate the construction of the new ships. The gantries would be larger than anything ever constructed and dominate the Belfast skyline. A competition was held and various construction companies vied for the contract. The winning design was submitted by Thomas Arrol and Company of Glasgow. Harland & Wolff’s board of directors felt Arrol's design would best serve their needs and the contract was awarded. By Arrol’s design, each slipway would be surmounted with it’s own self-contained and independent gantry. The gantries would be 840 ft. in length, 150 ft. wide and 100 ft. tall, topped with mobile cranes capable of lifting 3 tons each. In addition to the gantry and land mounted cranes, a large floating crane was purchased from a German shipbuilder. This enormous crane could lift 250 tons and be mounted on a large pontoon. It would be used to lift the heavy machinery into the hulls at the fitting out wharf. Pirrie used his power and influence to convince the Belfast Harbour Commision to fund the building of a new dry dock to accommodate the new ships upon their completion. (Dry docks were also referred to as "graving docks" because their depth and rectangular shape resembled a grave.)

     It was decided that the ships would not utilize the double-skin hull that had been used in previous vessels. Instead the hull would incorporate a double-bottom instead. In lieu of the double-hull extending all the way up the side of the ship, vertical bulkheads would extend up above the waterline, dividing the length of the vessel into watertight compartments. Emergency doors between the compartments could be closed with the flick of a switch from the bridge in the event of an emergency. The ships would be able to stay afloat with any two of the compartments flooded; a scenario only likely in the event of a broadside collision with another vessel. Additionally, the vessels would float with the forward four compartments flooded, since they were smaller than the rest. There were to be fifteen bulkheads, dividing the ship’s lower hull into sixteen compartments. Despite the fact that Cunard’s newest ships used four propellers, Titanic’s designers decided to go with a three-prop design. The two outboard propellers, triple-bladed, would be driven by two reciprocating engines. The center propeller, with four blades, would run off of steam pressure generated by the engines. This design was far more economic and again Ismay stated that speed was not so much the selling point on these ships as was their sheer size, luxury and safety. The ships would claim no speed records on their crossings but would ferry their passengers across the ocean in style and grace unmatched by even the finest hotels in Europe.

     In addition to Thomas Andrews’ keen supervision of the design process, Bruce Ismay played an active role, insisting on being consulted on any changes to the design. Although Andrews was the managing director of the design department, Ismay had the final say on all decisions regarding the development of the Olympic Class liners. In early 1908 the designs were finished. In March of that year, the order for two vessels (the third, Gigantic would be constructed later) was officially placed with Harland & Wolff. As soon as construction on the new gantries was completed, the two new shipyards were assigned hull numbers; 400 for Olympic and 401 for Titanic. Olympic’s keel was laid on December 16th, 1908 amid much interest from the general public, other shipyards and other shipping companies as well. Everyone wanted to watch the massive vessel come into being. Most people just simply could not grasp the enormity of the new ship. As it’s framework rose up over Belfast, visitors to the shipyard would stand and stare, mouths wide open in awe of the ocean-going leviathan know as Olympic. On March 31st, 1909, the keel for Titanic was laid alongside her sister and the construction of the two ships progressed at break-neck speed...