White Star Line: Books - History and Ships

The 'Big Four' of the White Star Fleet - Celtic, Cedric, Baltic & Adriatic

The White Star Line's Celtic (1901), Cedric (1903), Baltic (1904) and Adriatic (1907), collectively known as the `Big Four', served for a combined 110 years. Together they carried around 1.5 million passengers on the Liverpool to New York and Southampton to New York routes during their time in service.
Arguably the most successful series of ships the company ever produced, they have been overlooked in maritime literature until now.

In this ground-breaking book, Mark Chirnside relates the history of the `Big Four', in many ways the forerunners of the famous `Olympic' class ships. Features including a gymnasium and Turkish and electric baths were trialled on Adriatic before their use on Olympic, Titanic and Britannic.
Charting their history from civilian passenger ships to armed merchant cruisers and troop ships in the First World War, The `Big Four' of the White Star Fleet explores the adventures and experiences passengers and crew had on board over the decades.

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Recreating Titanic and her Sisters

On the night of 14-15 April 1912, Titanic, a brand-new, supposedly unsinkable ship, the largest and most luxurious vessel in the world at the time, collided with an iceberg and sank on her maiden voyage.
Of the 2,208 people on board, only 712 were saved. The rest perished in the icy-cold waters of the North Atlantic, and the tragedy has fascinated and perplexed the world ever since.

This stunning book tells the story of not just the Titanic, but also of its sister ships, Olympic and Britannic. Maritime experts J. Kent Layton, Tad Fitch, and Bill Wormstedt tell the stories of these legendary liners with a compelling narrative alongside original artwork from up-and-coming artists, bringing to life the design, construction and service of the ships together with the wrecks of the ill-fated Titanic and Britannic.

From the cold, starry night when Titanic collided with her iceberg to the tragic wartime loss of Britannic and the impressive reliability of the long-lived Olympic, this cinematic and immersive new study captures all of the glory and drama of the Olympic-class age and allows readers to visualise Titanic and her sisters like never before.

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Olympic, Titanic, Britannic : An Illustrated History of the Olympic Class Ships

At the beginning of the 20th century, competition between the North Atlantic shipping lines was fierce. While Britain responded to the commercial threat posed by the growing German merchant marine, there was also rivalry between the great Cunard Line and its chief competitor, the White Star Line.
Against this backdrop Olympic, Titanic and Britannic were conceived. Designed for passenger comfort, they were intended to provide luxurious surroundings and safe, reliable service rather than record-breaking speed. In the end, fate decreed that only Olympic would ever complete a single commercial voyage and she went on to serve for a quarter of a century in peace and war.
Titanic's name would become infamous after she sank on her maiden voyage. The third sister, Britannic, saw a brief and commendable career as a hospital ship during the First World War, sinking in the Aegean Sea in 1916.

Here Mark Chirnside tells the sister ships' stories by way of previously unseen pictures, passenger diaries and deck plans. With a focus on the human histories of those who travelled and worked on the ships, this beautifully illustrated book details Olympic's successful career and the premature ends of her two unfortunate sisters.

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RMS Olympic : Titanic's Sister

Launched as the pride of British shipbuilding and the largest vessel in the world, Olympic was more than 40 per cent larger than her nearest rivals: almost 900ft long and the first ship to exceed 40,000 tons. She was built for comfort rather than speed and equipped with an array of facilities, including Turkish and electric baths (one of the first ships to have them), a swimming pool, gymnasium, squash court, a la carte restaurant, large first-class staterooms and plush public rooms.
Surviving from 1911 until 1935, she was a firm favourite with the travelling public - carrying hundreds of thousands of fare-paying passengers - and retained a style and opulence even into her twilight years.

During the First World War, she carried more troops than any other comparable steamship and was the only passenger liner ever to sink an enemy submarine by ramming it.
Overshadowed frequently by her sister ships Titanic and Britannic, Olympic's history deserves more attention than it has received. She was evolutionary in design rather than revolutionary, but marked an ambition for the White Star Line to dominate the North Atlantic express route.
Rivals immediately began trying to match her in size and luxury. The optimism that led to her conception was rewarded, whereas her doomed sisters never fulfilled their creators' dreams.

This revised and expanded edition of the critically acclaimed RMS Olympic: Titanic's Sister uses new images and further original research to tell the story of this remarkable ship 80 years after her career ended.

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