RARE PHOTOS

OF THE CONSTRUCTION

OF

THE OLYMPIC AND THE TITANIC

By

Søren Nielsen

2023

The construction of Olympic and Titanic took place virtually in parallel, with Olympic's keel laid down on December 16, 1908 and Titanic's laid down on March 31, 1909. 

Both ships took about 26 months to build.

Building Titanic.

Olympic’s keel was laid first, with Titanic’s following a number of months later. The sisters were built in close proximity – and, when completed, registered in at approximately 45,500 gross tons and measured 882ft 9in long and 92ft 6in wide at the maximum breadth of the ship. 

The cost for both ships was £3 million for the pair (£322 million in today’s money). Harland & Wolff’s usual arrangement with the White Star Line for ship construction was by their usual terms, "Cost plus 3 per cent".

Titanic’s four huge funnels rose 72ft above the topmost deck, with the after one being a dummy used purely for ventilation. This gave the illusion of power and stability, which the public wanted, and also followed the four-funnel arrangement seen on some of the competitors’ ships. 

The engines were capable of giving a service speed of 21–21½ knots. The steam required to power the ships was provided by 29 boilers that comprised 159 furnaces.

To feed these massive boilers, the coal bunkers had a combined capacity of 6,611 tons and, operating at 21–22 knots, could consume 620–640 tons of coal per day.

Practically unsinkable.

Titanic’s hull was divided into 16 watertight compartments, considered a safety feature that drew the phrase "practically unsinkable". 

She could withstand damage sustained through any collision that was probable in the minds of the maritime community at the time. 

It was believed that the ship could remain afloat long enough to shuttle the passengers and crew to another ship using the lifeboats on board.

After successfully completing her sea trials on 2 April 1912, "Titanic" departed Belfast for Southampton. 

She arrived late the following evening and docked alongside Berth 44 just after midnight. Everything appeared to be exactly as it should be. 

Sadly her designers discovered the sad truth when the unthinkable happened and "Titanic" struck an iceberg. 

It took her just over two and a half hours to sink.

The Construction.

The order to begin construction was given on 17 September 1908.

Construction of Titanic began on March 31, 1909 when designer James Andrews laid the first keel plate in the Harland & Wolff Shipyards Belfast, Ireland.

Titanic’s sister ship The Olympic had begun some three months earlier and the two ships were essentially constructed side by side by over 15,000 workers, constructing the Titanic would cost 8 employees their life working on such a mammoth and often dangerous construction site.

Hull of the Olympic in the foreground and the keel of the Titanic in the background. 

This is what the Titanic and the Olympic looked like while it was under construction 1910.

A rare view of Titanic’s internal construction, 1910.

The Olympic and The Titanic

Olympic and Titanic’s empty hulls have been under construction beneath the gantry for 2 years.

Preparations are almost complete for the launch of Titanic on 31 May 1911.

Titanic in the Great Gantry under construction at Harland and Wolff shipyards in Belfast.

Hydraulic rams for launching, 1911.

Titanic’s Engines.

Harland and Wolff, the builders of the Olympic-class liners, had very little experience with the relatively new turbines, and White Star had to settle for a traditional system of two huge triple-expansion steam engines, powering the port and starboard wing propellers, together with a small turbine driving the center propeller. 

It wasn’t exactly state-of-the-art, but it was proven and reliable, two factors that were of immense importance to a company with a reputation for quality, not speed. One of Titanic’s massive engines lies almost compete in the Harland and Wolff Machine Shop.

A triple-expansion steam engine works by re-using steam that would otherwise be wasted as exhaust, like in a steam locomotive, or it would be returned to the condenser, to be turned back into water to be used again. 

This extracts the maximum amount of energy out of the steam, and also provides a better level of economy, using less coal, less firemen, less boilers, etc.

Side view of both of Titanic’s reciprocating steam engines in Harland & Wolff’s Engine Works, May 1911.

Once the steam leaves the boilers, it is continually expanding, yet dropping in pressure and power. Therefore, each cylinder is slightly larger as the steam passes through the engine to provide a greater piston surface area for the reduction in pressure, which offsets the reduction in pressure somewhat.

Titanic’s Turbine Rotor.

Turbine casing used on the Britannic, same as that used on the Titanic.

Titanics Propellers.

The Olympic-class liners had a system of propulsion which was really a compromise between the old way and the new. 

This system comprised of two three-bladed wing propellers each independently driven by a four cylinder triple expansion reciprocating steam engine, and a four-blade center propeller which was driven by a small low-pressure steam turbine using exhaust steam from the two main engines. 

The center propeller was made from manganese bronze, and cast in one piece, whereas the two outer propellers were cast in sections.

The weight of the outer propellers was about 38 tons, whilst the smaller center prop. weighed in at 22 tons.

And this is what one of the Titanic's smokestacks looked like before being put on the ship. 

Note the tiny little man in the corner:

Construction of the Titanic. Transporting funnel.

Titanic had three functional funnels. The fourth was purely aesthetic to make the ship look more imposing.

Fitting-out, 1911–12.

Titanic, side view.

By late January 1912 the date of Titanic’s maiden voyage had been officially announced as 10 April 1912.

Titanic fitting-out at the deepwater wharf early in 1912. 

The Last Time The Titanic and The Olympic side by side.

The Olympic and the Titanic.

Olympic (left) being maneuvered into dry dock in Belfast for repairs on the morning of March 2, 1912, after throwing a propeller blade. Titanic (right) is moored at the fitting-out wharf. Olympic would sail for Southampton on the 7th, concluding the last time the two ships would be photographed together.

Titanic leaving Belfast for her sea trials on 2 April 1912.

This is the last photograph ever taken of the Titanic.

It sunk three days later.

Or 

 DID 

THE TITANIC REALLY SINK

OR WAS IT

THE OLYMPIC

By

Søren Nielsen

2023

This post is all about whether the two ships were switched and will leave you with the chance to discuss what you think.

Over the years people have spoken about Titanic and learnt how it sunk on that dreadful night in April 1912, however some people are led to believe that it was in fact its sister ship the Olympic that sunk as part of an insurance scam. 

Olympic (left) being maneuvered into drydock in Belfast for repairs on the morning of March 2, 1912 after throwing a propeller blade. Titanic (right) is moored at the fitting-out wharf. Olympic would sail for Southampton on the 7th, concluding the last time the two ships would be photographed together.

Within this article I will talk about that exact night and all the events that led to this theory. In the end I hope you will have a made your own decision as to which ship really lies in the North Atlantic Ocean at depth of around 12,500 ft. deep.

The reason behind people thinking that the ship is not really Titanic takes us back to the 20th September 1911 when the Olympic collided with the HMS Hawke just off the coast of the Isle of Wight.

On 20 September 1911, Hawke collided in the Solent with the White Star ocean liner RMS Olympic. In the course of the collision, Hawke lost her bow. (This was replaced by a straight bow). The subsequent trial pronounced Hawke to be free from any blame.

This incident caused many problems for the ship's owners, White Star Line as this meant that it would have to be taken out of service while they repaired it but this also meant that the maiden voyage of Titanic had to be put back from the 20th March to the 10th April. 

This at the time was something that White Star Line could not afford to do as they had legal bills to pay and the cost of repairing the Olympic as well. 

This meant that they had to come up with away to claim back not only the money that they would have missed out on due to Olympic not being in service (loss of revenue) but also the money they couldn’t claim back from the incident. So they came up with a plan…

The plan was simple, switch Olympic with her sister ship Titanic and sink it to claim compensation. 

No one would know they had swapped the ships (except the people in charge: J.Bruce Ismay, Lord Pirrie, Thomas Andrews and J.P.Morgan) as if you looked at the ships when they were sitting beside each other you would not know which one was which unless you looked at the name plates on both ships.

Top Left: White Star Line Chairman, J.Bruce Ismay

Bottom Left: Harland and Wolff Owner, Lord Pirrie 

Top Right: Chief Designer of Titanic, Thomas Andrews

 Bottom Right: Owner of White Star Line, J.P. Morgan

As soon as the plan was set in motion they went about changing the Olympic to look exactly like it's sister ship by covering the floors with carpet as the Olympic has tile flooring and the passengers and crew who had been on Olympic then Titanic would have been able to see the footprints left by previous passengers. If they didn’t do this people would have wondered why this brand new ship that no one had been on was covered in footprints and stains from spilled drinks. 

Other parts of the ship would have been changed as well for example taking out cabins on "B" Deck from the actual Titanic and replace them with the Olympics’ promenade to make the switch that all the more believable.

There is one thing that allows people to be tell the difference between the two ships are the portholes on the "C" Deck.

When the Titanic was pictured while being built it had 14 evenly spaced portholes but when it left Southampton on doomed maiden voyage on April 10th 1912 it had 16 unevenly spaced portholes.

This is not the only piece of evidence that can be gathered to help back up this theory. There are also people who had built the Titanic back in the ship yard Harland and Wolff in Belfast that over the years had come out and said that the two ships were in fact swapped and if they told anyone, White Star Line told them it would basically be the last job that they ever did. So obviously they would have kept quiet but they didn't because the families of the people who built the ship know about the scam.

James A. Fenton aka "Paddy the Pig"

Paddy Fenton is someone who had told his fellow seamen that they were in fact switched. 

A man in Australia, sent a letter to the Northern Star newspaper on July 31st 1996, which talks about a conversation his son had with Paddy. 

Here's an extract of that letter, "When the surviving crew got to port they were all taken aside and met by two men, one in a high position in the company, the other man was in a very high position in the Government. 

The Government man read the crew the "Official Secrets Act" explaining that if they told of the real reason for the sinking, or the rumours of an insurance scam, they would serve a minimum of 20 years in jail and would never get a job when they got out.

There was also something else that could help to back up his theory and that comes in the form of the owner J.P.Morgan and fifty other first class passengers.

J.P.Morgan was amongst many people who cancelled his trip at the last minute as he was of ill health. 

When in actual fact he had been spotted in France, two days later and appeared to be in perfectly well health. J. Bruce Ismay's wife Julia and their children also cancelled due to his wife's ill health before however they were spotted on a motoring holiday in Wales.

Bruce Ismay and his wife Julia.

J.P.Morgan also had seven valuable bronze statues removed one hour before the ship left Southampton. 

This situation leads many people to believe that they both knew what was about to happen with the ship on it's maiden voyage especially after J.P.Morgan had publically spoke out to the country and certified that he would definitely be aboard the ship. 

Was the real reason behind this lie from J.P.Morgan due to the fact he knew the ship was going to sink?

Another thing that has confused people is the fact that the ship named SS Californian was able to find coal when the country was in the middle of a coal strike and then there was the fact that when it had left London there was no passengers on board. 

Instead there was was a small cargo of of blankets and warm clothes was this perhaps for the passengers and crew from Titanic. 

For some reason Captain Lord did not waste anytime in getting out of the port and into the North Atlantic and the fact he didn't sell any tickets for the voyage to Boston when there would have been hundreds of people wanting to cross the Atlantic makes this seem more than likely that there had been a plan put in place to claim compensation on the ship.

Captain Lord.

With Captain Lord being in a rush to get into the North Atlantic Ocean he had left the wireless chart in which he needed, behind. 

Of course the SS Californian was only one of six ships that would have been in a 140 mile radius of Titanic.

Something else that is unusual is that, when the supposed Olympic was taken out of service in 1935 (arriving in Jarrow, UK on October 13th 1935 to be stripped and broken down) part of the wood panelling and other parts including the Aft first class staircase, was taken and used in the White Swan Hotel, Alnwick, UK.

The panelling used shows number on the frame that says 401 this was the number that was given to Titanic when it was being built in Belfast, Ireland. 

However, if the panelling had been from Olympic the number would have been 400 not 401. 

Does this prove that the two ships were actually switched or is it just perhaps a strange coincidence that both these numbers appear on the frame of the wood panelling which belonged to Olympic or was this done on purpose to help with the cover up of the switch?

Another thing is when you look at the at anything to do with advertising for the Titanic and White Star Line for that matter, the ship that was always used was Olympic and its interior every time they needed pictures.

The picture of the ship is the same one used for Olympic.

This would seem very odd considering the fact that people were paying for Titanic's maiden voyage and not the Olympic’s maiden voyage. 

Was this done deliberately to help with the switch?

Some evidence of the switch.

Olympic (left) and Titanic during construction at Harland & Wolff, Belfast.

THE LAST 2000 YEARS

ON EARTH

WITH

PANDEMICS AND DISEASES

By

Søren Nielsen

2023

What has happened on Earth in the last 2000 years with pandemics and diseases.

And how many people died of these diseases and pandemics.

The first on was in 430 BC.

,

The Plague of Athens.

The Plague of Athens was an epidemic that devastated the city-state of Athens in ancient Greece during the second year (430 BC) of the Peloponnesian War when an Athenian victory still seemed within reach. 

The plague killed an estimated 75,000 to 100,000 people, around one quarter of the population, and is believed to have entered Athens through Piraeus, the city's port and sole source of food and supplies.

Much of the eastern Mediterranean also saw an outbreak of the disease, albeit with less impact.

The plague had serious effects on Athens' society, resulting in a lack of adherence to laws and religious belief; in response laws became stricter, resulting in the punishment of non-citizens claiming to be Athenian. 

Among the victims of the plague was Pericles, the leader of Athens. 

The plague returned twice more, in 429 BC and in the winter of 427/426 BC. 

Some 30 pathogens have been suggested as having caused the plague.

Plague of Cyprian.

The Plague of Cyprian was a pandemic that afflicted the Roman Empire about from AD 249 to 262.

The plague is thought to have caused widespread manpower shortages for food production and the Roman army, severely weakening the empire during the Crisis of the Third Century.

Its modern name commemorates St. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, an early Christian writer who witnessed and described the plague.

The agent of the plague is highly speculative because of sparse sourcing, but suspects have included smallpox, pandemic influenza and viral hemorrhagic fever (filoviruses) like the Ebola virus.

In 250 to 262, at the height of the outbreak, 5,000 people a day were said to be dying in Rome. 

Cyprian's biographer, Pontius of Carthage, wrote of the plague at Carthage:

"Afterwards there broke out a dreadful plague, and excessive destruction of a hateful disease invaded every house in succession of the trembling populace, carrying off day by day with abrupt attack numberless people, every one from his own house. 

All were shuddering, fleeing, shunning the contagion, impiously exposing their own friends, as if with the exclusion of the person who was sure to die of the plague, one could exclude death itself also. 

There lay about the meanwhile, over the whole city, no longer bodies, but the carcasses of many, and, by the contemplation of a lot which in their turn would be theirs, demanded the pity of the passers-by for themselves. 

No one regarded anything besides his cruel gains. 

No one trembled at the remembrance of a similar event. 

No one did to another what he himself wished to experience."

Accounts of the plague date it about AD 249 to 262. 

There was a later incident in 270 that involved the death of Claudius II Gothicus, but it is unknown if this was the same plague or a different outbreak.

According to the Historia Augusta, in the consulship of Antiochianus and Orfitus the favour of heaven furthered Claudius' success. 

For a great multitude, the survivors of the barbarian tribes, who had gathered in Haemimontum were so stricken with famine and pestilence that Claudius now scorned to conquer them further... during this same period the Scythians attempted to plunder in Crete and Cyprus as well, but everywhere their armies were likewise stricken with pestilence and so were defeated.

Japanese smallpox epidemic.

The 735–737 Japanese smallpox epidemic was a major smallpox epidemic that afflicted much of Japan. 

Killing approximately 1/3 of the entire Japanese population, the epidemic had significant social, economic, and religious repercussions throughout the country.

A few decades prior to the outbreak, Japanese court officials had adopted the Chinese policy of reporting disease outbreaks among the general population. 

This recording practice greatly facilitated the identification of smallpox as the disease that afflicted Japan during the years 735–737.

Increased contact between Japan and the Asian mainland had led to more frequent and serious outbreaks of infectious diseases. 

The smallpox epidemic of 735–737 was recorded as having taken hold around August 735 in the city of Dazaifu, Fukuoka in northern Kyushu, where the infection had ostensibly been carried by a Japanese fisherman who had contracted the illness after being stranded on the Korean peninsula.

The disease spread rapidly throughout northern Kyushu that year, and persisted into the next. 

By 736, many land tenants in Kyushu were either dying or forsaking their crops, leading to poor agricultural yields and ultimately famine.

Also, in 736, a group of Japanese governmental officials passed through northern Kyushu while the epidemic was intensifying. 

As members of the party sickened and died, the group abandoned its intended mission to the Korean peninsula. 

Returning to the capital with smallpox, the officials helped spread the disease to eastern Japan and Nara.

The disease continued to ravage Japan in 737. 

One manifestation of the pandemic's great impact was that by August of 737, a tax exemption had been extended to all of Japan.

Based on fiscal reports, adult mortality for the smallpox epidemic of 735–737 has been estimated at 25–35% of Japan's entire population, with some areas experiencing much higher rates.

All levels of society were affected. 

Many court nobles perished due to smallpox in 737, including all four brothers of the politically powerful Fujiwara clan: Fujiwara no Muchimaro (680–737), 

Fujiwara no Fusasaki (681–737), 

Fujiwara no Umakai (694–737), and 

Fujiwara no Maro (695–737). 

Their sudden departure from the royal court allowed for the ascension of noted rival Tachibana no Moroe to a high official position in the court of Emperor Shōmu.

The epidemic not only killed a large segment of the population, it triggered significant dislocation, migration, and imbalance of labor throughout Japan. 

Highly affected were construction and farming, especially rice cultivation.

Over the next several centuries, Japan continued to experience smallpox epidemics. 

But by the early part of the 2nd millennium, smallpox had become endemic to the Japanese population and thus less devastating during outbreaks.

Black Death.

The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality, or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Afro-Eurasia from 1346 to 1353. 

It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, resulting in the deaths of 75–200 million people in Eurasia and North Africa, peaking in Europe from 1347 to 1351. 

Bubonic plague is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, but it may also cause septicaemic or pneumonic plagues.

The Black Death was the beginning of the second plague pandemic.

The plague created religious, social, and economic upheavals, with profound effects on the course of European history.

The Black Death's territorial origins are disputed. 

The pandemic originated either in Central Asia or East Asia, but its first definitive appearance was in Crimea in 1347. 

From there, it was most likely carried by fleas living on the black rats that travelled on Genoese merchant ships, spreading throughout the Mediterranean Basin and reaching Africa, Western Asia, and the rest of Europe via Constantinople, Sicily, and the Italian Peninsula. 

Current evidence indicates that once it came onshore, the Black Death was in large part spread by human fleas – which cause pneumonic plague – and the person-to-person contact via aerosols which pneumonic plague enables, thus explaining the very fast inland spread of the epidemic, which was faster than would be expected if the primary vector was rat fleas causing bubonic plague.

The Black Death was the second disaster affecting Europe during the Late Middle Ages (the first one being the Great Famine of 1315–1317) and is estimated to have killed 30% to 60% of Europe's population.

In total, the plague may have reduced the world population from an estimated 475 million to 350–375 million in the 14th century.

There were further outbreaks throughout the Late Middle Ages, and with other contributing factors it took until 1500 for the European population to regain the levels of 1300. 

Outbreaks of the plague recurred at various locations around the world until the early 19th century.

The Great Plague of Seville.

The Great Plague of Seville (1647–1652) was a massive outbreak of disease in Spain that killed up to a quarter of Seville's population.

Unlike the plague of 1596–1602, which claimed 600,000 to 700,000 lives, or a little under 8% of the population and initially struck northern and central Spain and Andalusia in the south, the Great Plague, which may have arisen in Algeria, struck the Mediterranean side of Spain first. 

The coastal city of Valencia was the first city to be hit, losing an estimated 30,000 people. 

The disease raged through Andalucía, in addition to sweeping the north into Catalonia and Aragon. 

The coast of Málaga lost upwards of 50,000 people. 

In Seville, quarantine measures were evaded, ignored, unproposed and/or unenforced. 

The results were devastating. 

The city of Seville and its rural districts were thought to have lost 150,000 people— starting with a total population of 600,000. 

Altogether Spain was thought to have lost 500,000 people, out of a population of slightly fewer than 10,000,000, or nearly 5% of its entire population. 

This was the greatest, but not the only, plague of 17th century Spain.

Almost 25 years later, another plague ravaged Spain. 

For nine years (1676–1685), great outbreaks of the disease attacked in waves across the country. 

It struck the areas of Andalucía and Valencia particularly hard. 

In conjunction with the poor harvest of 1682-83 which created famine conditions, the effects killed tens of thousands of the weakened and exhausted population. 

When it ended in 1685, it is estimated to have taken over 250,000 lives. 

This was the last outbreak of plague in Spain in the 17th century.

Three great plagues ravaged Spain in the 17th century. 

They were:

1: The Plague of 1596–1602 (Arrived in Santander by ship from northern Europe, most likely the Netherlands, then spread south through the center of Castile, reaching Madrid by 1599 and arriving in the southern city of Seville by 1600.)

2: The Plague of 1646–1652 ("The Great Plague of Seville"; believed to have arrived by ship from Algeria, it was spread north by coastal shipping, afflicting towns and their hinterlands along the Mediterranean coast as far north as Barcelona.)

3: The Plague of 1676–1685.

Factoring in normal births, deaths, plus emigration, historians reckon the total cost in human lives due to these plagues throughout Spain, throughout the entire 17th century, to be a minimum of nearly 1.25 million. 

As a result, the population of Spain scarcely budged between the years 1596 and 1696.

The disease is generally believed to have been bubonic plague, an infection by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, transmitted via a rat vector. 

Other symptom patterns of the bubonic plague, such as septicemic plague and pneumonic plague, were also present.

The Great Plague of London.

The Great Plague of London, lasting from 1665 to 1666, was the last major epidemic of the bubonic plague to occur in England. 

It happened within the centuries-long Second Pandemic, a period of intermittent bubonic plague epidemics which originated from Central Asia in 1331, the first year of the Black Death, an outbreak which included other forms such as pneumonic plague, and lasted until 1750.

The Great Plague killed an estimated 100,000 people—almost a quarter of London's population—in 18 months.

The plague was caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium, which is usually transmitted through the bite of a human flea or louse.

The 1665–66 epidemic was on a much smaller scale than the earlier Black Death pandemic and became known afterwards as the "great" plague mainly because it was the last widespread outbreak of bubonic plague in England during the 400-year Second Pandemic.

In order to judge the severity of an epidemic, it is first necessary to know how big the population was in which it occurred. 

There was no official census of the population to provide this figure, and the best contemporary count comes from the work of John Graunt (1620–1674), who was one of the earliest Fellows of the Royal Society and one of the first demographers, bringing a scientific approach to the collection of statistics. 

In 1662, he estimated that 384,000 people lived in the City of London, the Liberties, Westminster and the out-parishes, based on figures in the Bills of Mortality published each week in the capital. 

These different districts with different administrations constituted the officially recognized extent of London as a whole. 

In 1665, he revised his estimate to "not above 460,000". Other contemporaries put the figure higher (the French Ambassador, for example, suggested 600,000), but with no mathematical basis to support their estimates.

 The next largest city in the kingdom was Norwich, with a population of 30,000.

As in other European cities of the period, the plague was endemic in 17th-century London.

The disease periodically erupted into massive epidemics. There were 30,000 deaths due to the plague in 1603.

35,000 in 1625, and 10,000 in 1636, as well as smaller numbers in other years.