did you know...

...that the Titanic was one of three near-identical ships built by the White Star Line.
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​The three ‘sister ships’ were to feature as the company’s flagship shuttles between Europe and New York. The first to be built was the RMS Olympic, launched in October 1910. Within a year she was towed back to Harland and Wolff in Belfast to be repaired after a collision with HMS Hawke. She was repaired using parts from the under-construction Titanic, delaying Titanic’s launch. Bearing in mind Titanic would later sail in ‘iceberg season’, it is an interesting point of history that, had she not been forced to help her sister, Olympic, Titanic may have missed the iceberg season entirely. Olympic was commandeered by the British government during World War One and painted in disorienting ‘dazzle’ paint designed to confuse the enemy. After the war, she returned to commercial activity but would later hit another ship in 1934 with the loss of seven lives. In October 1935, RMS Olympic arrived in Newcastle to be broken up for scrap.

Attribution: Detroit Publishing Co., publisher. [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

RMS Olympic in 'dazzle paint during World War One. ( Jbrian80 at English Wikipedia. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)

The second ship to be built was RMS Titanic. She was launched in 1911. We all know what happened soon after. The third of the triplets, RMS Britannic, was launched in February 1914. In most exterior respects, she was identical to her sisters, however, after the sinking of Titanic, it was decided that she should have a number of design improvements, such as a double skin, a larger horse power engine, and more prominent lifeboat davits. Like her sister, Olympic, Britannic was requisitioned by the British government during the war but this time as a hospital ship. Unfortunately, Britannic hit a mine (or was struck by a torpedo - accounts vary) in the Aegean sea and suffered the same swift sinking fate as her sister, Titanic. ​

Attribution: CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or Public domain]

Co-Editor, Elliott L. Watson       
​@thelibrarian6