Magicats – Witches cats
12 October 2024
Magicats – Why do witches have cats? The popular image of a witch wearing a pointed hat and riding
The Titanic, because of its tragic demise after hitting an iceberg in 1912, has become an icon in the history of seafaring but, did you know that she had two equally gigantic sister ships belonging to the White Star Line which also had their share of misfortune?
First to float off the Harland and Wolff production line in Belfast was the Olympic which was first laid down in 1909 and launched two years later.
About the same dimensions as Titanic, Olympic started work on the transatlantic passage but had the first of a series of accidents in September 1911 when she collided with the warship HMS Hawke in the Solent. The Hawke suffered severe damage to its bows while Olympic ended up with some flooding after sustaining two holes on her starboard side The damage took over six weeks to repair.
In May 1915 Olympic, complete with camouflage paint and guns, was requisitioned by the military and spent the rest of World War I carrying British troops to the Mediterranean, and Canadian and Americans soldiers across the Atlantic. In total, over 200,000 troops were transported and the Olympic covered almost 300,000 km!
The vessel became more closely involved in wartime action in 1918 when it rammed and successfully sunk a German submarine, U-103, as it was about to fire a torpedo at it in the English Channel. Most of the submarine’s crew were rescued by another ship.
After repairs and modifications at the end of the war, which included the conversion of coal-fired engines to oil, Olympic went back into passenger service and enjoyed its heyday carrying people across the Atlantic, although there were further collisions with smaller ships in 1924 and 1934.
By 1935, the Great Depression and tighter immigration laws in the United States had caused a dramatic slump in the passenger liner business and the decision was taken to remove the Olympic from service. Her luxurious interior fittings were auctioned off and she was sold for scrap metal, the dismantling task finally being completed in 1937. During her career she had completed 257 round trips across the Atlantic, carried over 400,000 commercial passengers and travelled almost 2,900,000 kilometres.
The second and, after design modifications, reportedly the safest of the sisters, was originally to be called the Gigantic but the name was changed because of its similarity to the ill-fated Titanic.
Although intended for carrying passengers to the USA, the vessel was not completed until just after the start of World War I in 1914. She too was requisitioned and re-fitted to become a hospital ship incorporating wards and operating theatres. It was painted white with conspicuous red crosses and a green stripe.
Britannic made five successful trips travelling across the Mediterranean, picking up wounded soldiers from the Dardanelles in Turkey and returning them to England. On its sixth voyage out in November 1916, however, it struck a German mine near the Greek island of Kea. Some water flooded in through the damaged hull but the ship stayed afloat for over an hour. Unfortunately she then listed over onto one side and the sea also poured in through port-holes which had been left open for ventilation – something that was against the regulations.
Thirty people lost their lives but over 1,000 were rescued. Thankfully, the lifeboats on board could be launched quickly as the davits that lowered them into the water were powered by electric motors as opposed to deck hands having to lower them in by hand. The ship also went down relatively close to the shore, which meant local fisherman were also on hand to help with the rescue operation.
The exact location of the sunken Britannic was found in 1975 and in 1996 it was purchased by a maritime historian. It remains the largest intact passenger ship on the seabed and is still to be fully explored.
Two people form an unusual link to all three sister ships, stewardess Violet Jessop and stoker Arthur Priest were aboard the Olympic when it collided with HMS Hawke in 1911, survived when the Titanic sank in 1912 and were also rescued when the Britannic went down in 1916.
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Words: John Davis
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