White Star Line RMS Olympic Titanic Rare Snapshot Photo

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SHIPPING COST IS LISTED IN DESCRIPTION (At the very bottom)- PLEASE READ BELOW. This is a pair of unique real snapshot photographs of the White Star Line RMS Olympic, sister ship of course to the Titanic and Britannic. One measures 2 X 2 1/4 inches and the other is 2 3/8 X 3 3/8. Smaller one (stern view) has a very light crease in the lower right corner. Larger one has a creased lower right corner, a little paper loss to the upper right corner. Excellent shape otherwise. The small ship in the foreground of the larger pic is named "Margaret." Both images are crystal clear although they may appear not so in this listing. Taken by a passenger on the White Star Liner Baltic during the early 1920's. When compared to other Olympic snap shots that pop up on Ebay every so often I think this ( and the other photo's taken at the same time for sale! ) have a lot of ambiance - the man leaning on the railing of the Baltic as it disembarks with The Olympic in the background at her berth in New York, the White Star Line Pier, People waving good bye etc. I think photos of the Olympic are always a lot better when t is something going on - the human touch. If you are not familiar with the Olympic I have included a biography from Wikipedia below. Please see the other Olympic photo's taken on the same day also listed. If you have any questions I would be more than happy to answer them. Many thanks and happy bidding! RMS Olympic was the lead ship of the Olympic class ocean liners built for the White Star Line , which also included Titanic and Britannic . Unlike her sisters, Olympic served a long and illustrious career (1911 to 1935), becoming known as "Old Reliable." The Olympic class ships were originally to be named Olympic , Titanic and Gigantic , after Greek mythological races: the Olympians , the Titans , and the Giants . Gigantic was renamed Britannic following the sinking of Titanic . J. Bruce Ismay , the chairman of White Star Line , and William Pirrie , the chairman of Harland and Wolff shipyard , intended the Olympic -class ships to surpass rival Cunard's largest ships, the RMS Lusitania and RMS Mauretania in size and luxury. Olympic was to be built first, followed by Titanic and Gigantic (the latter renamed Britannic after Titanic's sinking). In order to accommodate the construction of the class, Harland and Wolff upgraded their facility in Belfast; the most dramatic change was the combining of three slipways into two larger ones. Olympic's keel was laid in December 1908 and she was launched on 20 October 1910 . For her launch, the hull was painted in a light grey colour for photographic purposes (a common practice of the day for the first ship in a new class, as it made the lines of the ship clearer in the black and white photographs). Her hull was repainted following the launch. Her maiden voyage commenced on 14 June 1911 . Designer Thomas Andrews was present for the passage to New York and return, along with a number of engineers, as part of Harland and Wolff's "Guarantee Group" to spot areas for improvement. Olympic had a cleaner, sleeker look than other ships of the day: rather than fitting her with bulky exterior air vents, Harland and Wolff used smaller air vents with electric fans, with a "dummy" fourth funnel used for additional ventilation. For the powerplant Harland and Wolff employed a combination of reciprocating engines with a centre low-pressure turbine, as opposed to the steam turbines used on Cunard's Lusitania and Mauretania . White Star claimed the Olympic class's engine set-up to be more economical than expansion engines or turbines alone. Olympic consumed about 650 tons of coal a day at 21.7 knots on her maiden voyage, compared to 1000 tons of coal a day for the Lusitania and Mauretania .[2] Hawke incident Olympic's first major mishap occurred on 20 September 1911 , when it collided with a British warship, HMS Hawke off the Isle of Wight . Although the incident resulted in the flooding of two of her compartments and a twisted propeller shaft, Olympic was abl... read more

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