#britannic

"Titanic and Britannic in Southampton Docks. The Future that Never Happened."

"A brand new artwork by Anton Logvinenko and Alexander Filin. Inspired by David E. Olivera.

At the moment my friend Alexandr Filin is unable to post on Facebook from Russia so I'm here to share this artwork on his behalf, which I am happy to do.

The late Антон Логвиненко started this artwork back in 2021 not long before the Ukrainian-Russian war started. The original idea of the artwork came from Anton's longtime friend, a talented and well-known marine artist David Olivera who came up with an idea of an original angle and composition of the picture and created first drafts.

Using this drafts as an inspiration, Anton started creating a reality where Titanic and Britannic happily coexisted as running mates.

After his death Alex was asked if he could finish this digital painting. Anton was a friend of ours, and he also inspired many artists, including Alex, so he gladly accepted this proposition. With a team of researchers from the Britannic research community based in Russia Евгений Васильев, Belarus Artyom Avdeev and others Alex meticulously worked on this digital painting, researching every inch of the ships, docks, every pier and Southampton streets and buildings.

It's really early in the morning in the picture. Titanic is docked at the pier 44 in the same spot she left Southampton on the 10th April 1912. She is in her original configuration without any refits or modifications.

Britannic is also there. She is in her civil livery and looks the way she had been initially envisioned by the WSL. Giant gantry davits are replaced with standard Welin davits, and there're many differences comparing to Titanic including new enclosed windows on the A deck, transformed aft well and poop decks, children's playroom and much more.

According to Alex, this is his most complex anu difficult artwork up to date both in technical and emotional aspects. It is very detailed, the original digital painting is in 8K. The idea was not to change the original locations of objects added by Anton but many of them were just drafts and had to be modified significantly in order to add new details and save the correct perspective. Also Alex spent a significant amount of time looking for references and, as he told me, even felt that he would be able soon to walk the Southampton streets in his dreams.

Alex, Atyom and a team of involved researchers are also happy to give this artwork to Anton's family in memory of their wonderful son. His father Vitaly Logvynenko Виталий Логвиненко sent a very cordial message: 'We cherish every memory about our little Anton and this finished artwork, his last one, will be a good memory of him too!'

We agreed with Anton's family that this work can be publicly shared with everyone and that it will be a touching tribute to the late Anton who was a great man and an amazing artist."

Posted on Facebook and Twitter by Maxim Polishchuk: link, link

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With pleasure!! @sarkylittlemonster also asked about this story

In 1908, designers Harland and Wolff presented the White Star Line with plans for the lead ship of the largest class of ocean liners the world had ever seen. Five months later, the keel of a yet-unnamed vessel labeled "number 400" (by tradition the White Star Line never christened their vessels) was laid down in the Belfast shipyard, marking the beginning of her construction.

Built alongside the "number 401", another ship which began construction several months later, she was launched on the 20th of October, 1910. Soon after, she was dubbed RMS Olympic, after a ship that the father of J. Bruce Ismay, chairman of the White Star Line, had conceptualized, but never constructed before his passing. No finer nor larger ship had ever been launched. She was equipped with fine restaurants, a grand staircase, a cafe decorated with palm trees, a Georgian-style smoking room, a swimming pool, a Victorian Turkish bath, a gymnasium, and more. Her route was from Southampton to New York City, and her maiden voyage began on June 14th, 1911.

Around the same time, the "number 401", Olympic's younger sister ship and second of the Olympic-class liners, was launched. The name it would be given was Titanic.

Contrary to what you may have been told, RMS Titanic was not actually larger than Olympic; their overall dimensions were identical. Visually, it was nearly a carbon copy of Olympic. However, Titanic was able to swipe the title of "largest ship in the world" from Olympic on a technicality: one of the revisions to Olympic's design included enclosing the forward half of Titanic's promenade deck via a steel screen with sliding windows, whereas Olympic's promenade deck was open along its whole length. The additional enclosed volume technically increased Titanic's gross register tonnage to 46,328 tons, over Olympic's 45,324 tons (gross register tonnage is the measure of the internal volume of a ship). Basically, they put a fence around the deck and called it bigger because it technically had more internal volume now. WTF is this thievery (not that its reign lasted very long). And now it's the big name well-known ship and these days Olympic is unknown to most people who aren't a massive fucking nerd because the not-rightfully-the-biggest-ship-in-the-world (Titanic) couldn't do the ONE thing it was supposed to do: take a bunch of mail and people from Southampton to New York City. No, it went and crashed into an iceberg instead. And now it's famous.

But you know what ship was able to do that successfully, and be the rightfully largest unsinkable ship in the world while doing it? THE GODDAMN RMS OLYMPIC THAT'S WHAT SHIP.

Olympic was the first and last of the three sister ships: Titanic sank to the iceberg, and HMHS Britannic (the last constructed Olympic-class liner) sank to a German sea mine in 1916, only 11 months into her service as a hospital ship during World War 1. Olympic was the only one of the three sisters to live to the end of her serviceable lifetime.

Olympic was a survivor. She's the reason the Olympic-class liners were given their "unsinkable" reputation, in spite of the disasters of the Titanic and Britannic.

On her fifth voyage on September 20th, 2011, the Olympic was running alongside the British cruiser warship HMS Hawke through the Solent. Unannounced, Olympic made a sweeping turn to starboard, catching Hawke's commander by surprise, who was unable avoid the oncoming T-bone collision. Hawke's bow had been designed specifically to sink ships by ramming them. When the collision ensued, Hawke's bow punched two massive holes into Olympic's starboard side near the stern, one above the waterline, and one much larger hole below the waterline. One of her propellor shafts was twisted and two of her watertight compartments were flooded. Hawke's ram had suffered severe damage, and the warship nearly capsized.

In spite of the damage, Olympic was able to return to Southampton under her own power for repairs, only settling slightly in the stern. Fun fact: two of Olympic's crewmembers, Violet Jessop and Arthur John Priest, survived not only the collision with Hawke, but also later the sinking of Titanic *and* the sinking of Britannic. Hawke also survived the collision through her severe damage, but was later sunk by a German U-boat in 1914.

Guess who didn't sink to a German U-boat in 1914? RMS Olympic. On the contrary, in May 1915, Olympic was requisitioned by the British Royal Navy to serve as a troop transport during the First World War, of which she survived to see the end. She was stripped of her peacetime fittings and mounted with 12 pounders and 4.7-inch guns, and was renamed the HMT Olympic (Hired Military Transport). Later, in 1917, she was repainted with dazzle camouflage and mounted with 6-inch guns.

One morning in May of 1918, Olympic sighted a German U-boat SM U-103 surfaced in the English channel while on route to France with U.S. troops under the command of Captain Hayes. The crew of U-103 was preparing to fire torpedoes at Olympic, whose gunners opened fire as Olympic turned to ram the submarine. Immediately U-103 attempted to crash dive and avoid the massive ship, but it was too late. Olympic slammed into U-103 just behind the conning tower, and her port propeller sliced through the submarine's pressure hull. U-103 sank, and all Olympic had suffered was two dented hull plates and a slightly twisted prow. Olympic was the only passenger liner to ram — and sink — a German U-Boat during World War 1.

HMS Hawke ain't shit.

In September of the same year, Olympic was struck by a torpedo from U-boat SM U-53, creating a dent with a crack in its center below the waterline. However, the torpedo failed to detonate, and the dent was not even discovered until Olympic was undergoing restoration to civilian service in 1919. Olympic travelled about 184,000 miles in her war service, and carried up to 201,000 troops. Olympic's war service earned her the nickname Old Reliable.

During the 1920's, Olympic was one of the most popular passenger liners of the time, and transported many famous people, including Marie Curie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and more.

Of course, all good things must pass. As technological development marched on, new ships were built that would outclass Olympic, and after immigration laws got stricter and the Great Depression ravaged the shipping industry, there were fewer and fewer passengers for Olympic to serve. Despite numerous upgrades to the ship, Olympic ran at a net loss for the first time across 1933 and 1934. The White Star Line removed Olympic from her transatlantic service, and in October of 1935 she was transported to Jarrow to be scrapped.

Olympic was officially removed from the Shipping Registry on February 4th, 1939, at which time the ship's chief engineer commented, "I could understand the necessity if the 'Old Lady' had lost her efficiency, but the engines are as sound as they ever were".

So I ask you this: what ship truly deserves to have its stories known? The one that couldn't manage to complete a single voyage while operating under a deceptive title that it only had because of a fence, or the ship that was the only one of her sisters to survive until the end of her service, was the deservedly largest ship in service for many years, survived being rammed by a military vessel specifically designed for ramming purposes, rammed and sliced through a submarine that was trying to fire torpedoes at it (which it was never designed to do), survived being hit by a torpedo on a separate occasion, survived through important military service as a massive target in WW1, was one of the most awe-inspiring and popular passenger ships of the 1920s (a decade into its service), and was still operating at full capacity even as it was floating into Jarrow to be scrapped?

P.S. The Longest Johns has an excellent song commemorating Olympic, which is how I was first exposed to her story.

pov: you're Violet Jessop and you're thinking to yourself, "oh god, it's happening again"

One of the most impressive and iconic sights of an old shipyard were the gantry scaffoldings. The Great Gantry in Harland and Wolff Shipyard is probably the most iconic, as it famously held the Olympic class sisters (Olympic, Titanic, Britannic). The huge gantries were found in many shipyards, included the Blohm & Voss Shipyard in Hamburg (pictured bottom). I mean, just look at how massive these are! They’re larger than the ocean liners themselves! These would also be the sight of ship christening (except in the case kf Cunard Lines), and their launches. A magnificent sight indeed.