Olympic, a ship of the
, started life at Harland and Wolff's shipyard in
. During her successful maiden voyage in 1911, she was captained by
. He would lose his life the following year when Olympic's sister ship,
, struck
and sank.
RMS Olympic continued her duties as a royal mail ship and passenger liner, crossing the
many times in that capacity. When war broke out in 1914 she continued in this capacity, until late that year when she took up the job of
, whilst her other sister ship,
, served as a
. Working mostly between
in the UK, and
in Canada, Olympic gained the sobriquet "Old Reliable", for her ability to keep to more or less regular schedule, despite the dangers of wartime.
Olympic, by then designated HMT (His Majesty's Transport), became the sole survivor of her class when her remaining sister ship struck
in the
in November 1916.
Under the command of
, Olympic carried more
to Europe than any other single ship; continued to carry the mail throughout the war; and rammed a U-boat in 1918, causing its crew to scuttle and abandon their vessel. She also carried returning wounded, non-combatants, Chinese labourers and, after April 1917,
.
Returning to peacetime voyages, Olympic enjoyed several more years as the largest British built liner afloat, until eclipsed in the 1930s by the
. Around the same time, her parent shipping line merged with the
, parent of the newer vessel, and by the end of 1935, Olympic had been withdrawn from service and designated for scrap.
