RMS Olympic (
) was a British
transatlantic ocean liner, the
lead ship of the
White Star Line's trio of
Olympic-class liners. Unlike her younger sister ships,
Olympic had a long career, launched in 1910 and spanning 24 years from 1911 to 1935. This included service as a
troopship during the
First World War, which gained her the nickname "Old Reliable".
Olympic returned to civilian service after the war and served successfully as an ocean liner throughout the 1920s and into the first half of the 1930s, although increased competition, and the slump in trade during the
Great Depression after 1930, made her operation increasingly unprofitable.
Olympic was the largest ocean liner in the world for two periods during 1911–13, interrupted only by the brief tenure of the slightly larger Titanic (which had the same dimensions but higher gross tonnage owing to revised interior configurations), before she was then surpassed by SS Imperator. Olympic also retained the title of the largest British-built liner until RMS Queen Mary was launched in 1934, interrupted only by the short careers of her slightly larger sister ships.[2][3]
By contrast with Olympic, the other two ships in the class, Titanic and Britannic, did not have long service lives. Titanic collided with an iceberg in the North Atlantic on its maiden voyage, while Britannic struck a mine and sank in the Kea Channel off Greece in 1916.
Decorative elements of Olympic were recovered before she was scrapped and now adorn buildings and even a cruise ship.