ANSWERS: 4
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Yes. The White Star line decided to build three identical ships, from the one set of plans that the Harland and Wolff company was preparing. These ships were later given the names "Titanic", "Olympic", and "Britannic". It was common for steamship companies to build several ships from the same plans. A lot of money was saved since the engineers only had to draw up one set of drawings. And more important, it allowed steamship lines to offer "balanced weekly service". Of course, as the ships are built, the newer ships are modified to improve on the earlier ones. Olympic came out in 1911, and when the Titanic made her maiden voyage in 1912, several changes were made in the latter ship's design including the addition of more luxury suites and enclosing the forward Promenade deck. The third ship, named Britannic, was heavily modified in light of the Titanic disaster, with additional watertight bulkheads and new lifeboat arrangements.
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WickedWillie is all over the right anwser. Good on ya! The other poster who mentioned "They're called the Queen Mary, Olympic, and Britannic" only got it 2/3s correct. The Queen Mary was not at all a sister ship to the RMS Titanic. In fact, the Queen Mary was built over a generation after (in the 1930s) the Titanic, which sank in 1911. They also sailed for different lines. The Titanic was White Star Line, while the QM sailed for Cunard (which later aquired the assets of White Star in 1934). The RMS Olympic (launched in 1910) and the HMHS Britannic (launced in 1914, were the true sister ships to the ill fated RMS Titanic. They were all "Olympic class liners" and were a trilogy of ships planned by the White Star president to dominate the North Atlantic. For more information on these ships, these sites are excellent: http://www.ocean-liners.com/ http://www.greatoceanliners.net/ http://www.lostliners.com/ This is a nice enthusiast site about the Olympic class ships- http://members.aol.com/wakkow5/titnsis.html
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Yes, the Olympic and the Britannic The Olympic made her maiden voyage in June of 1911 and served on the Southampton – New York run until the outbreak of the First World War in August of 1914. During the war, the Olympic served principally as a troop transport, carrying American and Australian men to the front lines in Europe. At the end of the war in 1918, the process was reversed and Olympic returned the troops to their country of origin. In 1919, the Olympic resumed her transatlantic passenger crossings but by the 1930s, the ship’s age and changing economic conditions were catching up with her. In 1934 the great British rivals, the Cunard and the White Star Lines, merged in an attempt to survive the world depression. The new company, now called Cunard White Star, carefully reviewed its ships for "superannuated and redundant tonnage". A decision was then made to sell off all the older ships in the fleet, eight in all, and among them was the venerable, old Olympic. The fate of obsolete British ships at this time was to be taken to northern England or Scotland to be scrapped. On October 11, 1935, the Olympic left Southampton for Inverkeithing in Scotland for systematic demolition by the Thomas Ward Company. First, a public auction was held offering the Olympic’s furniture, spare parts, rugs, and souvenirs for sale to the public. The auction was conducted deck-by-deck and lasted ten days. At the end of the sale, the Olympic’s hull was broken apart and the steel melted down and recycled. The Britannic was launched on February 26, 1914 but was not finished in time for passenger service. The ship was taken over by the British government as a hospital ship and was sunk off the Greek island of Kea in the Aegean Sea on November 21, 1915 with the loss of 30 lives. Also, some claim that the Britannic was supposed to be called the Gigantic. After the sinking of the Titanic, White Star chairman Bruce Ismay denied ever considering the name "Gigantic" for the new ship; however, the name "Gigantic" does appear in the technical press in the months before the loss of Titanic. Although there is no direct documentation for it, it is reasonable that the name "Gigantic" was felt to be too arrogant after the loss of the Titanic, and the more conventional and patriotic name "Britannic" substituted in its place.
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The Titanic had a sister ship named the Olympia and the Titanic sunk April 14, 1912.
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