Sitting around a dining room table in 1907, the owners of the White Star Line discussed their competition to the newly-built Cunard liners, Lusitania and Mauretania. From that smoke-filled room came the first designs of three White Star superliners, Olympic, Titanic, and Britannic. Each ship was subtly different. Lessons learned from the service of Olympic were put into practice for Titanic. With the loss, on her maiden voyage, of Titanic, the hull design was radically changed for the third sister ship. The new double hull, however, did not prevent Britannic from sinking in less than an hour in the Aegean after she hit a German mine in 1916. Illustrated with many rare images of all three vessels, only one of which survived in regular service, this is the definitive history of the most famous sister ships of all time.
Sitting around a dining–room table in 1907, the owners of the White Star Line discussed their competition to the newly–built Cunard liners, Lusitania and Mauretania. From that smoke–filled room came the first designs of three White Star superliners. Olympic and Titanic were to be built at Harland & Wolff’s yard in Belfast, while the third ship, Britannic, was to follow after construction had been completed on the first pair of sisters.
Each ship was subtly different. Lessons learned from the service of Olympic were put into practice for Titanic. With the loss, on her maiden voyage, of Titanic, the hull design was radically changed for the third sister ship. The new double hull, however, did not prevent Britannic from sinking in less than an hour in the Aegean after she hit a German mine in 1916.
Illustrated with many rare images of all three vessels, only one of which survived in regular service, this is the definitive history of the most famous sister ships of all time.
Mark Chirnside has researched the history of the White Star Line’s famous sisters for the past decade. He is currently working on a biography of RMS Olympic for Tempus Publishing.
