Design secrets of troopship Olympic (1914-1918)
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- Опубліковано 28 лип 2024
- Olympic was a legendary ship with a brilliant career spanning both peace and wartime. In this video I give a tour of my recently-completed profiles showing all of Olympic's guises from the first world war!
0:00 HMS vs HMT?
02:05 Outbreak of War
02:49 1915, The Dardanelles and Halifax
07:22 1917 Overhaul
10:50 How the Paravanes Worked
12:31 1917 Dazzle Camouflage 19 A
14:23 1918 Dazzle Camouflage 19 AX
16:06 1919 A Return to Halifax
Music:
The United States Marine Band
Alte Kameraden (Old Comrades), Manila, Our Volunteers Waltz
Savfk
The Hunt
Cjbeards
Fire and Thunder
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Oceanliner Designs explores the design, construction, engineering and operation of history’s greatest ocean liners - from Titanic to Queen Mary but not forgetting the likes of Empress of Ireland or Chusan. Join Mike Brady as he uncovers the myths, explains the timelines, logistics and deep dives into the lives of the people and ships that we all know and love.
Ship Ocean Liner Oceanliner Designs P&O Strathnaver Maritime History Naval Engineering Ship Engineering Famous Ocean Liners HMT HMS Olympic BL 6 Inch Gun WW1 U-boat Submarine Rammed Sinking White Star Line in World War One
Does anybody actually read this far down on the description? If you did, enjoy this video of a magpie playing with a Jack Russel;
• Australian Magpie Playing - Розваги
Apologies for the editing mistake at 12:00 ! Argh, just once I would like to get it all 100% right the first time around!
~Mike
The Imperfections are what makes it Perfection.
No worries mate
G-Day Mike! You said early May 1915 is when RMS OLYMPIC was really to go to war, but was this after the RMS LUSITANIA was torpedoed and sunk? It was a very sad time in May 1915 for RMS LUSITANIA as she was the new Titanic ship disaster of World War 1 and with the lost souls of 1,198 passengers and crew along with 94 children.
May 7th 1915 will always be remembered for...
🚢💐 LUSITANIA 🙏🌅
My grandfather was a crew member aboard the olympic and he says it was definitely not the olympic he was serving on. Things were different. He found a lot of items with titanic written on them and small things felt off. He said it felt like a different ship. He was on board the titanic
If thats the worst thing you ever do, you'll be okay!
Olympic had a huge dent in her hull after the war with a crack in it. It's known that this damage was from a torpedo. Olympic was hit by a torpedo during the war but it failed to detonate. Passengers, and crew had no idea this happened until her repaint at the end of the war when she was brought back into dry dock. How lucky is that?
Unbelievable story. I had to cut that from the video for time constraints but it really is amazing. U53 reported firing at an 'Olympic-type' four-funnel steamer in September 1918 - chilling really! The German skipper thought his torp missed!
~Mike
I had just commented on that a few minutes ago, then to see that somebody already covered that, so I edited my comment; no need to repeat it. But yes, that is an incredible story; when I first read about it, I was blown away, so to speak, at how this ship seemed to steam on with Divine Protection that her two sisters did not have. It is so ironic that the ship that was a legitimate war target survived, and her sister which was immune to targeting did not.
@@OceanlinerDesigns Do you know where on the hull she was hit? Would it have killed her?
Torpedoes have proved to fail much more than their makers would have liked. The US torpedoes at the start of WW2 were bad to the point of scandal.
The japanese destroyer Sigure, known as a lucky ship, took a torpedo hit in the rudder. The captain wondered why his ship did not turn as well as it had until it went into drydock and a three foot diameter hole was found in the rudder.
@@aloysiusbelisarius9992 your comment was under this comment 😂
My father was on the Olympic when it struck that Submarine - he was 16yrs old - all members of crew received a bonus on docking at Southampton.
My great-grandfather was a 18 year old sailor aboard the SM U-103. He hated the war and never spoke fondly of it, except that he was really well treated as a PoW in England.
@@gsahrens most German sentiment from the war was that they didn’t understand why they were fighting the English as the Germans and English share distant ancestry. Pretty sad that a lot of the Germans fighting in the war spent time in England prewar and some even had girlfriends that they would write letters to and try and mail to England
Really your dad was on Olympic
May i ask, how old was your father, when you was born?
The Dazzle Camo on Olympic and any vessels wearing it made them look so bad ass.
Yep, so cool! I've always also loved the 'invasion stripes' on ww2 airplanes. (The wide, "alternating black and white bands painted on the fuselages and wings of Allied aircraft during World War II to reduce the chance that they would be attacked by friendly forces during and after the Normandy Landings.)
Wartime Olympic has the weirdest paint scheme of any ship I've seen yet. She looked like some obscure modern art project. Also that bonus vid you left in the description was nice.
Call it weird but that "weird paint scheme" saved the olympic, it's troops from the enemy and the uboats and transported many troops to other country without being torpedoed by uboats.
I never thought anybody would notice that!
~Mike
@@OceanlinerDesigns Well I sure did!
@@strider5964 the paint job actually helped hide the Olympic from enemy subs and u boats
@@SoggyCroissants It technically didn’t “hide” the ship; it just broke up the ship’s profile so that an observer couldn’t reliably judge the ship’s course and speed. That, in turn, meant sub commanders couldn’t compute an accurate firing solution for a torpedo attack.
When I was a kid in 1982, (age 11) my family visited the Queen Mary and I fell in love with ocean liners. I collected book after book and I was a walking database for ocean liner info. I made numerous plastic models of Titanic and Queen Mary. I wanted to become an oceanographer and find the Titanic. Oddly enough, my name is Robert Ballard (Andrew is my middle name). I was heartbroken somewhat when some other Robert Ballard found her in 1985 so naturally I became a band teacher instead.
Wasn't the other Robert Ballard really famous??
Congratulations on your 51st birthday btw
I'm a little older, 17 in 1982. We lived in a city above the bluffs in Newport Beach. Although we weren't right on the ocean, there were no barriers to looking out to sea and watch her steam north on her last voyage to Long Beach. I think I was 3. One of my earliest memories.
Thats so inconvenient!
Ahahaha
My great-grandfather was a passenger on the Olympic on his way to France in 1918 for the war. Thanks for making this incredible video and bringing his story alive. My grandmother told me that they ran out of food before they made it to England. I checked out the Captain's book that you recommended, and sure enough, the first chapter on the American voyages and he said they tried to overpack the ship with 2-3,000 more soldiers than they should have. Fascinating stories!
I like how close you are with your viewer base. Calling yourself our friend, etc. It's really nice and really establishes that connection I wish all content creators had. Good stuff like always man
I never started doing this to become a content creator or an online personality - just to talk about what I love! And I know the audience loves it too. :)
~Mike
@@OceanlinerDesigns Fair enough
@@OceanlinerDesigns All the better!
This is basically a comfort video for me. If I had a crap day or my mind is running wild, for whatever reason, this is one of those videos that makes my day better and calms me down. No idea why, it just happened
Very nice summary of Old Reliable, which has to be my favorite ship of history. I say that Olympic deserves an accolade modified from the one that arguably jinxed her sister Titanic: God Himself could very easily have sunk this ship; He just chose not to.
Fun fact remember Olympic survived so many collisions yeah she wad trying to be with are sisters because she missed them and now she is there with them because she was scrapped
I always thought that the Olympic had three camouflage designs. Now I have learned something new. This is the best video about Olympic on UA-cam.
I live near Portsmouth and visited M33. It's impressive seeing her painted in the dazzle camouflage which was popular at the time. She was also built in the same dockyard as the Olympic-class 400,401 and 433. Next to M33 is HMS Victory which has a history dating back to Nelson and in fact he was shot and killed on Victory. She is the oldest commissioned warship in the world. I'm blessed to live near Portsmouth and take this history for granted but for anyone around the world interested, Portsmouth is an excellent place to visit. You can also find HMS Warrior here too and they do tours. Her engines are mighty impressive. Plus you can taste our "sublime" fish and chips with the many takeaways around the harbour haha.
She is technically the oldest😉, but she is stuck in dry dock. That is why the U.S.S. Constitution is also considered the oldest and active commissioned warship. She moves from her port every year and goes sailing with her active duty navy personnel (it is a special assignment). Is HMS Victory staffed by active UK navy personnel? That would be fantastic!
This is the ship that repatriated my grandfather at the end of the war. Thanks for a view of the ship as she was when Granddad sailed on her. (We're not sure which ship Granddad and Grandma sailed on to go to the dedication of the Vimy Memorial in France in the 1930's. I think that might have been after Olympic had been retired.)
We have a framed photo of the Olympic at my parent's house, it transported my great-grandfather to the first world war with the Expeditionary force, and brought him back at the end.
My favourite four stacker is the RMS Aquitania (she survived both WWs and had a post WW2 career repatriating troops and transporting refugees to new their lives) but I will say, the Olympic class ships have the most beautiful exterior profile.
The stories of the Olympic-class are absolutely my favorite of all time. This video was no exception. As someone who has been passionate about these ships from my earliest memories, I still learned so much from both this video and the chapter's before it. I really so hope that you chronicle Olympic's career in the Twenties soon - it would be fantastic.
If Titanic never sank in 1912, I believe she would’ve most likely became a war ship as well.
She didn't sink. She was switched with the Olympic they sunk the Olympic for insurance purposes because she had a damaged keel and couldn't be certified by the maritime board. I believe all the conspiracy theories.
That is not true there was never a time the ships were together long enough to switch all the metrials as they were all numbered 400 for Olympic and 401 for titanic after the ship had her accident
@@andyballard5311 troll
Andy Ballard that is completely false
@@andyballard5311 bullshit.
Great video, thank you! As a Olympic class enthusiast myself, I commend you on your drawings. Incredible accuracy. These put mine to shame. Amazing work.
I love her old dazzle camo patterns so much. I know these days it is pretty useless but I wish we got to see modern day navy vessels in their own dazzle.
What a wonderfully fascinating video Mike! Your drawings are stunning and the attention to detail is next level insane! I've always considered myself to be fairly knowledgeable about Olympic's career and the differences in its appearance over the years. I've learned just this morning that I know absolutely NOTHING compared to you. Beautifully done sir!☺
Haha, thanks so much Tracy!
~Mike
The Olympic had the same combat record as HMS Dreadnaught, they both rammed a U boat.
Imagine being the first modern battleship in history, a ship so influential they would make an entire new class of ships after it. Only to have your military career shown up by a fucking passenger liner... not just any passenger liner either, but the identical twin of the goddamn TITANIC
@@trainknut All things considered, being showned up by the *_Olympic_* doesn't sound that bad.
@@trainknut Both ships earned an unusual distinction. HMS Dreadnought and HMT Olympic are the only ship of their kind to sink a U-Boat. You probably confused with HMS Audacious, a state of the art dreadnought sunk by a mine, embarrassing the Royal Navy.
The one ship, named after her class, was a true survivor!
I love the fact, that you chose a German song as well. Alte Kameraden. A beautiful international popular German march.
I am very happy, that we are now friends.
I like your channel with all the different ships and the background info, you give us.
I'm always waiting to a new video of you.
Greetings from Germany. 👍🙂
More, More, on The Beautiful Olympic!!! One of my 2 very favorite ships!! The Olympic and the Queen Mary!!!
Your documentary details are out of this world-outstanding!!
I love your work!! Thank you so much!!
It really bothers me when I see tributes and "museums for the Titanic, and they mention the Titanic as the biggest ship ever made at that time, Like, they overlook the Beautiful Olympic, entirely, and the Britannic that followed.
It's really upsetting.
Olympic needs her accolades and GLORY as THE FIRST, BEFORE Titanic. The Olympic was the 1st largest man-made thing ever made, not like what they say at the Titanic museum in Missouri, they pretend she never existed.
The Olympic had a very brave, elustrious career, brought joy to travelers, safety to soldiers, etc., in the war, and opened up the seas to thousands! Love her!
Missed this when it first came out. Glad I have caught up to it Mr. Brady!
You know, I wish we had a chance to see an Olympic feature movie, about its long period of service. It would have been especially a cool action sequence during the war time period, especially in the moment where the Olympics destroy the U-boat
First I've ever seen or heard of paravanes - thank you for the explanation and visuals!
I've read about dazzle paint schemes before, but had never seen an example, nor an explanation of how they were supposed to work.
My absolute favorite ship! And this is one of the most informative videos I've seen for her yet, thank you so much for your time and effort!
Thanks for watching!
~Mike
Brilliant presentation you need to be on TV or the like.
Lets call it UA-cam.
Clear voice no dribble just good.
Thanks
Very good! So glad to see that one of the trio had a successful life.
I feel really respectful about that ship. Very nice one she was, and a great and epic.
Another fantastic video Mike! Scrambled out of bed and rubbed my tired eyes just to watch it right away!
Priorities!
~Mike
Thank you for the video, i am currently working on a 1/700 scale model of the Olympic in her wartime configuration, you are helping a lot !
Being from the Halifax area I can attest to the fact that the Olympic had a great association with this port. Thanks for sharing all this excellent information.
I love dazzle-painted ships. Some of the patterns were really freaky and mess with your eyes, which was the idea, I suppose.
Not to mess with your eyes but instead to break up the shape of the ship to make it harder to determine speed size and distance
That paint was her best defence. Several U-Boats mistook her for a modern art exhibit, and sailed away with all haste.
Haha!
I love your videos so much. And Olympic really is one of the best ships of that era. Thank you for all you do and your amazing work!
I absolutely love your excellently researched videos. Thank you!
Thanks for watching Christopher!
~Mike
I love how at no point during the war did they get rid of the big red "NOTICE" sign near the stern. Got to warn folks about those triple propellers, after all. :)
Also, I think if I had been in charge of White Star post-1919, I'd have ordered the unintentional "ghost camo" look left in place for the rest of the ship's career, in honor of her wartime service.
Great work, love the detailed prints of her dazzle camo. Very insightful, thanks for the uploads.
My great uncle came over from Halifax on the Olympic in November 1916 as part of his regiment. Died in August 1917.
I love the Dazzle Camo Olympic had during the war
Thanks for posting! I have always been interested in passenger steam ships from this era - Great insight into this era
Excellent drawings of the dazzle camafloge, I have looked at a lot of dazzles and those are the first that have really shown how it works.
Great video, Mike, thank you. I particularly like the music around the two minute mark, it brings to mind the sounds of the engine room.
really a shame they werent able to keep her around. would be awesome to go see today
Mike - this was fascinating. I had no idea Olympic had such modifications during her service in the war. The dazzle paint especially was really interesting. Your drawings are amazing! My friend at school was fascinated by battleships and aircraft carriers and used to draw them all the time! Brilliant video
There was a lot of interesting information in this video. She was a great ship and served her country well!! We were particularly fascinated by the paravanes, which we had never heard of before. What an ingenious idea!!
We had heard about the dazzle camouflage, but not the whys and wherefores. It looked counterintuitive as it was literally dazzling and seemingly made the ship stick out like a sore thumb, unless you wanted the enemy to think they had had an interesting cigarette or something funny in their coffee or tea, but now we know its true purpose was to distort the shape, size and direction of the ship it all makes sense.
We can imagine the following scenario on a German U Boat when they spotted that black and white colour scheme:
A German crewman on the submarine rushes to his captain and shrieks, 'Sir, sir, I have just sighted a 200-meter panda off our port bow!'
To which the captain replies, 'Hans, have you been drinking the hydraulic fluid again?'
Dazzling video, I adore learning less common facts & stories and enjoy your visuals.
Great video Michael keep up the good work!!!
3:26 that front gun is one of the secondarys on scharnorst
Dazzle camouflage Type 19 is so badass 😻
Very interesting! Learned a few new bits of information from this, thank you
I love your website it helps me draw ships and ocean liners it really means to me thanks and may god bless you
Great video as I had always wondered what the purpose/benefit of the dazzle paint. Everything I've read has simply said it was to confuse subs as to size and direction without more detail. Your illustrations and explanations are the most comprehensive I've ever seen. I'm going to take your word for it and will forever use you as a source for my argument of purpose. Thanks for that. All your videos are really enjoyable.
wonder whether theres a ww1 sub periscope around that could be used to see the effect and see how effective it might of been
Sir, I absolutely love your channel. It is so informative so interesting and you present yourself as a total professional I really appreciate your efforts. Good job man.
Your channel is so great.
Thank you so much.
I always wondered about the theory and application behind dazzle camo. Thanks!!!!
7:21 You put Alte Kameraden in the background, your are the best.
A few years ago the wreck of the U-103 was discovered and it confirmed the U-Boats captains account of how his boat was sunk by the Olympics propellor blade as there was a gash in the wrecks pressure hull which is consistent with a prop blade.
This was fantastic!!! I’m subscribing!!!
As always your work with these Drawings are amazing i learnt a lot from this Vid thank you my friend
A fascinating video of a very fascinating ship, thank you Mike! My research on the U-boat attack indicated that there were three torpedoes fired, or perhaps two from U-103 and a third from another attack that occurred some time later. The second attack wasn't discovered until Olympic was in dry-dock after the war. At that time a dent in her hull was discovered midships 14 ft below her water line suggesting to her captain that she was hit by a third torpedo but it had failed to detonate. Seems she was not only Old Reliable, but also lucky.
You asked about other favorite ships from your viewers. I have one, the SS Paparoa from the NZ Shipping Co.. She had a highly successful career transporting newly trained troops and men intending to enlist from New Zealand all the way to London throughout the war years. She was a 6,563 ton steamship built in Scotland by Wm Denny & Bros (who also built the first Cutty Sark) and was 430 ft long and had a beam of 54 ft. She was not very glamorous. Her top speed was only 13 knots and she took 47 1/2 days to go from Wellington to London making a few passengers go batty on at least several of her trips due to the monotony. Though other ships from NZ joined the Merchant Marine she stayed a passenger and frozen meat hauler, but secretly carried men to and from London for the war effort while dodging German U-boats on each trip. One of those men was my grandfather, Capt Donald E. Harkness, who had a very successful career as a bomber pilot for No 5 Wing in northern France. He couldn't afford the fare so worked for it as a "fitter", a fairly common practice at the time.
What I find interesting about the ship was that though she survived the war and continued plying the Atlantic and Pacific waters in the early 1920s as a passenger ship, in 1926 a fire broke out in her coal bin off the Island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic. After safely evacuating all passengers her captain had her scuttled to avoid it becoming a hazard to other ships in the area. At least that's the official story. Her sister ship, whose name I have regretfully forgotten but had a similar sounding Maori name, also had a coal bin fire off the same island about a year before, but was allowed to burn down to a rusting hulk where it stayed afloat for quite some time thereafter. Was this a coincidence or were these attempts by their owners to collect insurance money for the two ships rather than pay to have them scrapped? I can't help but wonder whether this tactic was used for other ships that had reached the end of their lives during that era as well.
Amazing drawings!! Fantastic skill and tallent
Edit, and video and documentary knowledge :)
Thank you so much 😀
I would love to see a video on the SS France
Or better yet, Ile de France, especially when she arrived at the Andrea Doria with her name emblazoned in lights between the masts!
Well Done! I love the Razzle Dazzle liveries!
Amazing video. Thank you.
Excellent work, excellent video.
My great-granduncle was one of the Canadian soldiers whom she transported from Halifax. Sadly, he was one of them who never made it back home.
Your drawing are just amazing.
I was 9 year old going to Portsmouth Dockyard to see where my dad worked and one of his colleagues took me aboard HMS M.33, I had a sneezing fit below deck which apparently sounded like whaling from above 😂. Some still think it was ghosts not a 9 year old girl with hayfever 😂
I love when bgm alte kameraden kicks in
Fabulous sir!
Thanks for the great video. I'm in the beginning stages of doing a 1/350th scale model of HMT Olympic and found out I've used the wrong colors. Oh well, not so far along it can't be changed.🤕
Yes! New video 😊🚢
12:23 (middle of explaining paravanes) This is well done.The graphics and words are clear and concise. Very helpful indeed.
I was reading a similar attempt at describing much the same as used on minesweepers; in particular, paddlesteamers, which were ideal for minesweeping because of their shallow draught. The attempt failed and fried my brain (I don't think anyone noticed).
Always the best at explaining and showing these lovely ships! Have you had public speaking training? Because you speak well just like an investigative journalist!
I've always thought her whistle sounds powerful and more like a battle cry than anything- fitting for a ship with her war record
Hey Mike, I'm from Pennsylvania and I stumbled across your series, and LOVE IT. Could you possibly do a video on the SS United States? It's currently docked in Philadelphia, and awaiting a rebirth. We see it, Everytime we go across the Walt Whitman bridge, as we go to Wildwood NJ, for summer vacations. Thank you!!
Thanks David! I have plans for the Big U. :)
~Mike
Keep up the great stuff
Mike is back in business!!!!
I had made a comment asking for something like this a couple months ago, this is far and away better than anything I had hoped to have seen. Your work is outstanding!
One of the biggest benefits of being a Titanic fan is that I have also learned much about the Olympic. A fine ship with a fine record. Thanks Mike.
I’m from Halifax and the Olympic hall is still here and still hosting events.
I enjoy your videos. Well done lad.
Thanks for watching mate!
~Mike
Really love the videp of the Olympic and her service for the war effort. I didnt know hardly anything about it but the ones in Halifax i knew about. Have you thought about doing on about the changes of her sister britannic to be converted for hospital use or maybe Mauritania ?
Imagine how terrifying it would be to be a german submariner and seeing this beast of a machine bearing down on your little submarine
*you earned a new sub*
Excellent !!
Hello Mike - do you have any plans to produce a 'collective' print showing 'Olympic' in all her various paint schemes? Really enjoyed this video, so informative particularly regarding the armaments and paravane system. Top stuff.
Communication was similar for us boomer kids. We used cups and a string. Sorry if that’s a bit cheeky ... 8 really am binging on these vids. Appreciate all the effort. Also of note, you have one of the very best narrating voices and cadence on UA-cam. 💕🐝💕🇺🇸
I am looking forward to the MS Batory tour! 😁
beautiful elevation drawings!
Very detailed drawings. Kudos.
How about Aquitania as the next drawing? :)
It is amazing how the dazzle scheme is more mind blowing than the pyschodelic designs of the 1960s.
I love the type 19 A DAZZLE PAINT
Nice work mate, very informal. You can only imagine if the disaster of 1912 didn’t happen, would the titanic be there with her sisters helping during the war. Would she have survived the war? Would smith have been at the helm? Sadly questions we will never know.
Haters are going to hate. Please keep up the great work you do,Mike.👍
Nice video Mike i would love you to give a tour around the Rms Queen Mary or Rms Queen Elizabeth
I never knew Olympic had so many war designs the only one I knew was her dazzle paint design.