Since 1853, Harland and Wolff had employed 14,000 workers to build a staggering nine ships at any one time.
#TITANIC AND OLYMPIC SLIPWAYS HOW TO#
The shipbuilders were faced with the problem of how to build ships of unprecedented size. He prepared the scale drawings that would enable work to start. See Titanic Personalities for Thomas Andrews’ biography.īy 1908, he was at the height of his powers. He was the Managing Director of Harland and Wolff’s Design Department. Lord Pirrie's nephew, Thomas Andrews (1873-1912), the distinguished Naval architect, was in charge of design. The “Olympic class” ships should average 21 knots. The Mauretania had already taken advantage of these new technologies and achieved unsurpassed speeds. Lord Pirrie approached the shipbuilders John Brown & Co for the supply of steel, and to secure the use of new turbine technologies far more advanced than theirs. Whilst Ismay and Pirrie had conceived the idea of the three giants, the general responsibility of the design was delegated to Alexander Montgomery Carlisle, General Manager at Harland and Wolff and Lord Pirrie's brother-in-law. An agreement with Harland and Wolff was signed on 31 July. Together with the profits for the year 1909 exceeding £1 million, it was only a matter of time before the project could start.īy the end of July 1908, the directors of the WSL examined the final designs for the two ships.
Early in 1908, the WSL issued £2,500,000 of additional shares to cover the bulk of the estimated £3 million costs. Whilst safety, luxury and comfort were the essential features throughout the plans, all three ships would have to be capable of significant speed. The chosen names ascribed the three ships as being mighty, powerful: the biggest the world had ever seen. The final plans added a fourth “dummy funnel” for ventilation but the ships would only have two masts. Rough drawings were made of the three ships, which envisaged each with two or three masts. Deck Plans of RMS Olympic, RMS Titanic and RMS Britannic As a result, these three ships made the WSL prominent again in both transatlantic and world liner services. The Olympic and the Titanic would be nearly one and a half times larger than the Mauretania and the Lusitania. After the tragic loss of the Titanic, the name Gigantic was changed to Britannic. Harland and Wolff had constructed all the WSL ships.Īfter dinner, Ismay and Pirrie discussed the proposed construction of three sister ships: Titanic, Olympic and Gigantic. Ismay raised the concept of bigger and more luxurious ships in order to surpass this competition.ĭue to the nature of the industry, Harland and Wolff and the WSL had a close association. Both were owned by their rival company, the Cunard Line. The topic of conversation over dinner were the two remarkable new liners: Lusitania and Mauretania. They met Lord Pirrie, who had become Chairman of Harland and Wolff Shipbuilders in 1896, and his wife. Joseph Bruce Ismay, accompanied by his wife went to dine at Downshire House, Belgrave Square in London. Tickets to Titanic Belfast can be purchased online and are based on a timed ticketing.The story of the RMS Olympic began over a dinner in early 1907. More suited to adults and children aged 12+ is the Discovery Tour (separate charge), a walking tour, where visitors can learn about the men who built this famous ship and about its architectural design and hear about the Harland & Wolff Drawing Offices where she was designed.
The Titanic Belfast attraction is located in front of the slipways where the Titanic and her sister ship the Olympic were built and launched and visitors can walk down the Titanic’s actual slipway and then around a life-size plan of her Promenade Deck finding out what the layout of the deck of the liner would have looked like and where lifeboats and funnels and benches would have been positioned. See her berthed in Hamilton Dry Dock and learn about her colourful passengers and gain an insight into maritime and social history on board the only remaining White Star Line ship. Included in the Experience is a visit to the restored SS Nomadic, tender to Titanic.
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