The Construction of the Giants:
Olympic and Titanic
[Titanic under Construction at Harland & Wolff] [The Titanic and Olympic next to each other]
The R.M.S. Titanic and the R.M.S. Olympic were built at the Belfast-based Harland & Wolff shipyard, which built all of White Star Line's ships. They were designed to compete with the Cunard Line ships Lusitania and Mauretania for the coveted Blue Riband, the prize awarded the fastest ship in existence.
The two ships were built side by side in the Belfast yard. They were almost 900 feet long, and required 220 foot high gantries to build them. Olympic was started in December of 1908. On October 20, 1910, the Olympic slid down into the water while a select list of observers watched. She weighed 24,600 tons when she was launched, and would weigh over 46,000 tons when fully fitted out.
The two ships were originally planned to have three funnels, but had a dummy funnel installed. This made them look safer and more powerful, and Lusitania and Mauretania had four funnels, too.
The Titanic during it's fitting out period. The
picture on the right shows the Titanic befor her funnels were put on the ship. The picture
on the left shows her during the final fitting out. Note the completed funnels.
(right) One of Titanic's four huge funnels. They
were assembled off site and later placed on the ship.
(left) This photograph of the 1st Class Grand Staircase shows the extreme luxury that the Titanic was designed for (at least in 1st Class). When the Titanic's wreck was located, all of the woodwork, including the famous clock, were eaten away by worms.
Another luxury onboard was the four elevators. One elevator was reserved expressly for the use of the Second Class passengers, an unheard of luxury back then. She also had a swimming pool (the first ever on a ship), a restaurant called the Cafe Parisien, a Turkish Bath, and a gymnasium with a mechanical camel and rowing machines.
