Olympic-class Ocean Liner
The ''Olympic''-class ocean liners were a trio of British ocean liners built by the Harland & Wolff shipyard for the White Star Line during the early 20th century. They were (1911), ''Titanic'' (1912) and (1915). All three were designed to be the largest and most luxurious passenger ships at that time, designed to give White Star an advantage in the transatlantic passenger trade. While ''Olympic'', the lead vessel, had a career spanning 24 years and was retired and sold for scrap in 1935, her sisters would not see similar success: ''Titanic'' struck an iceberg and sank on her maiden voyage and ''Britannic'' was lost during World War I after hitting a mine off Kea in the Aegean Sea before she could enter passenger service. Although two of the vessels did not have successful careers, they are among the most famous ocean liners ever built. Both ''Olympic'' and ''Titanic'' enjoyed the distinction of being the largest ships in the world. ''Olympic'' was the largest British-built ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Harland And Wolff
Harland & Wolff is a British shipbuilding company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It specialises in ship repair, shipbuilding and offshore construction. Harland & Wolff is famous for having built the majority of the ocean liners for the White Star Line, including ''Olympic''-class trio – , and HMHS ''Britannic''. Outside of White Star Line, other ships that have been built include the Royal Navy's ; Royal Mail Line's ''Andes''; Shaw, Savill & Albion's ; Union-Castle's ; and P&O's . Harland and Wolff's official history, ''Shipbuilders to the World'', was published in 1986. As of 2011, the expanding offshore wind power industry had been the prime focus, and 75% of the company's work was based on offshore renewable energy. Early history Harland & Wolff was formed in 1861 by Edward James Harland (1831–95) and Hamburg-born Gustav Wilhelm Wolff (1834–1913; he came to the UK at age 14). In 1858 Harland, then general manager, bought the small shipyard on '' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Britannic (film)
''Britannic'' is a 2000 spy television film directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith. The film is a fictional account of the sinking of the ship of the same name off the Greek island of Kea in November 1916; it features a German agent sabotaging her while she is serving as a hospital ship for the British Army during World War I. It stars Edward Atterton and Amanda Ryan, with Jacqueline Bisset, Ben Daniels, John Rhys-Davies, and Bruce Payne as costars. It first premiered on cable network Fox Family and was then broadcast in the United Kingdom on Channel 4. Trenchard-Smith says the film was the best of the three disaster movies he made around this time. It got him the job directing '' Megiddo: The Omega Code 2''. Plot In Southampton in 1916, HMHS ''Britannic'', a sister ship of the '' Titanic'', has been refitted as a hospital ship for Allied soldiers fighting in the Gallipoli Campaign. Among the nurses who are to serve aboard her is Lady Lewis ( Jacqueline Bisset), mother of ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Arrol Gantry
The Arrol Gantry was a large steel structure built by Sir William Arrol & Co. at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland. It was built to act as overhead cranes for the building of the three ''Olympic''-class liners. Beardmore's gantry at Dalmuir From 1900 to 1906, Arrol had constructed a shipyard for William Beardmore and Company at Dalmuir on the Clyde. This included a large gantry structure over the building berth. In 1906 it was used for the construction of the pre-dreadnought battleship , then the largest battleship launched on the Clyde. The Beardmore gantry was long, wide and high, spanning a single building berth. The structure was of two long steel truss girders, supported on ten pairs of steel truss towers, braced by cross trusses above. Nine electric cranes were provided, with four jib cranes along each side girder, each having a 5-ton capacity and 30 foot jib. These were travelling cranes and could be moved along the girder, or grouped together to ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Alexander Carlisle
Alexander Montgomery Carlisle, PC (8 July 1854 – 6 March 1926) brother-in-law to Viscount Pirrie, was one of the men involved with designing the s in the shipbuilding company Harland and Wolff Harland & Wolff is a British shipbuilding company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It specialises in ship repair, shipbuilding and offshore construction. Harland & Wolff is famous for having built the majority of the ocean liners for the .... His main area of responsibility was the ships' safety systems such as the watertight compartments and lifeboats. As a Privy Councillor, he was known as "The Right Honorable". While working on the liners, Carlisle had some minor disputes with Lord Pirrie over the number of lifeboats required for a vessel of this size. Pirrie, the chairman of Harland and Wolff, was satisfied that the number of lifeboats supplied more than met the board of trade regulations. Carlisle then retired and did not have anything more to do with shipbuilding. Thom ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Thomas Andrews (shipbuilder)
Thomas Andrews Jr. (7 February 1873 – 15 April 1912) was a British businessman and shipbuilder. He was managing director and head of the drafting department of the shipbuilding company Harland and Wolff in Belfast, Ireland. He was the naval architect in charge of the plans for the ocean liner '' Titanic'' and perished along with more than 1,500 others when the ship sank during her maiden voyage. Early life Thomas Andrews was born on 7 February 1873 at Ardara House, Comber, County Down, in Ireland, to The Rt. Hon. Thomas Andrews, a member of the Privy Council of Ireland, and Eliza Pirrie. Andrews was a Presbyterian of Scottish descent, and like his brother considered himself British. His siblings included J. M. Andrews, the future Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, and Sir James Andrews, the future Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland. Thomas Andrews lived with his family in Ardara, Comber. In 1884, he began attending the Royal Belfast Academical Institution un ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Harland & Wolff
Harland & Wolff is a British shipbuilding company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It specialises in ship repair, shipbuilding and offshore construction. Harland & Wolff is famous for having built the majority of the ocean liners for the White Star Line, including ''Olympic''-class trio – , and HMHS ''Britannic''. Outside of White Star Line, other ships that have been built include the Royal Navy's ; Royal Mail Line's ''Andes''; Shaw, Savill & Albion's ; Union-Castle's ; and P&O's . Harland and Wolff's official history, ''Shipbuilders to the World'', was published in 1986. As of 2011, the expanding offshore wind power industry had been the prime focus, and 75% of the company's work was based on offshore renewable energy. Early history Harland & Wolff was formed in 1861 by Edward James Harland (1831–95) and Hamburg-born Gustav Wilhelm Wolff (1834–1913; he came to the UK at age 14). In 1858 Harland, then general manager, bought the small shipyard on '' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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William Pirrie, 1st Viscount Pirrie
William James Pirrie, 1st Viscount Pirrie, KP, PC, PC (Ire) (31 May 1847 – 7 June 1924) was a leading British shipbuilder and businessman. He was chairman of Harland and Wolff, shipbuilders, between 1895 and 1924, and also served as Lord Mayor of Belfast between 1896 and 1898. He was ennobled as Baron Pirrie in 1906, appointed a Knight of the Order of St Patrick in 1908 and made Viscount Pirrie in 1921. In the months leading up to the 1912 disaster, Lord Pirrie was questioned about the number of life boats aboard the ''Olympic''-class ships. He responded that the great ships were unsinkable and the rafts were to save others. This would haunt him forever. In Belfast he was, on other grounds, already a controversial figure: a Protestant employer associated as a leading Liberal with a policy of Home Rule for Ireland. Background Pirrie was born in Quebec City, Canada East, the son of James Alexander Pirrie and Eliza Swan (Montgomery) Pirrie, who were bot ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Big Four (White Star Line)
The "Big Four" were a quartet of early-20th-century 20,000-ton ocean liners built by the Harland & Wolff shipyard for the White Star Line, to be the largest and most luxurious ships afloat. The group consisted of , , and . Origin In 1899, White Star Line commissioned the , which exceeded the in length but not tonnage. After Thomas Ismay's death, the order of ''Oceanic''s sister-ship, was cancelled. Instead, resources were transferred to the company's new project; to build the grandest fleet of ships that had ever sailed the seas, the "Big Four". History In 1901, the White Star Line ordered a series of four ships that were to be larger than ''Great Eastern'', terming these ships the "Big Four". The four ships were designed to have a tonnage in excess of 20,000 tons and rather than being built for speed and to compete for the Blue Riband, were designed to be more luxurious than their rivals. The first of the four vessels was named , and was ordered by Thomas Ismay ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Cunard Line
Cunard () is a British shipping and cruise line based at Carnival House at Southampton, England, operated by Carnival UK and owned by Carnival Corporation & plc. Since 2011, Cunard and its three ships have been registered in Hamilton, Bermuda. In 1839, Samuel Cunard was awarded the first British transatlantic steamship mail contract, and the next year formed the British and North American Royal Mail Steam-Packet Company in Glasgow with shipowner Sir George Burns together with Robert Napier, the famous Scottish steamship engine designer and builder, to operate the line's four pioneer paddle steamers on the Liverpool–Halifax–Boston route. For most of the next 30 years, Cunard held the Blue Riband for the fastest Atlantic voyage. However, in the 1870s Cunard fell behind its rivals, the White Star Line and the Inman Line. To meet this competition, in 1879 the firm was reorganised as the Cunard Steamship Company, Ltd, to raise capital. In 1902, White Star joined the A ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Blue Riband
The Blue Riband () is an unofficial accolade given to the passenger liner crossing the Atlantic Ocean in regular service with the record highest average speed. The term was borrowed from horse racing and was not widely used until after 1910. The record is based on average speed rather than passage time because ships follow different routes. Also, eastbound and westbound speed records are reckoned separately, as the more difficult westbound record voyage, against the Gulf Stream and the prevailing weather systems, typically results in lower average speeds.Kludas states that only westbound records counted for the Blue Riband, though this contradicts the other main sources on the subject (e.g. Lee, Gibbs, Bonsor, and contemporary news sources) which are clear that records in both directions qualified for the accolade. Of the 35 Atlantic liners to hold the Blue Riband, 25 were British, followed by five German, three American, as well as one each from Italy and France. Thirteen ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hamburg America Line
The Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Aktien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG), known in English as the Hamburg America Line, was a transatlantic shipping enterprise established in Hamburg, in 1847. Among those involved in its development were prominent citizens such as Albert Ballin (Director General), Adolph Godeffroy, Ferdinand Laeisz, Carl Woermann, August Bolten, and others, and its main financial backers were Berenberg Bank and H. J. Merck & Co. It soon developed into the largest German, and at times the world's largest, shipping company, serving the market created by German immigration to the United States and later, immigration from Eastern Europe. On 1 September 1970, after 123 years of independent existence, HAPAG merged with the Bremen-based North German Lloyd to form Hapag-Lloyd AG. History Ports served In the early years, the Hamburg America Line exclusively connected European ports with North American ports, such as Hoboken, New Jersey, or New Orleans, Louisiana. With time ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Norddeutscher Lloyd
Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL; North German Lloyd) was a German shipping company. It was founded by Hermann Henrich Meier and Eduard Crüsemann in Bremen on 20 February 1857. It developed into one of the most important German shipping companies of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and was instrumental in the economic development of Bremen and Bremerhaven. On 1 September 1970, the company merged with Hamburg America Line (HAPAG) to form Hapag-Lloyd AG. History Establishment of the NDL The German shipping company North German Lloyd (NDL) was founded by the Bremen merchants Hermann Henrich Meier and Eduard Crüsemann on 20 February 1857, after the dissolution of the Ocean Steam Navigation Company, a joint German-American enterprise. The new shipping company had no association with the British maritime classification society Lloyd's Register; in the mid-19th century, "Lloyd" was used as a term for a shipping company (an earlier user of the term in the same context was the Tri ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |