Best Technical Books on Olympic-Class Liners

[Nigel Bryant]

Hi,

I was wondering what are the best books dealing with the techinical side of Olympic, Titanic and Britannic?

I know there is the Shipbuilder which I am trying to get a copy, but its quite hard to find. Any others. (Titanic & Her Sisters is a good and also the large Wall Chart Book by Mc Cluskie). What others books do you consider good techincal books relating to this subject?

All the best,

Nigel

 

[Jesse D O'Neill]

I highly Recomend These Books for Anyone Interested in the Olympic Class:

Titanic Ships, Titanic Disasters, Garzkse and Woodward

Ocean Liners of Past Vol 1 (Reprint of Special Edition For Shipbuilder, 2nd or later Edition Recomended as they are printed on better paper on 1st, 1st Edition Prologue and Epilogue by Reade, 2nd and Later by Graham-Maxtone)

 

[Michael H. Standart]

Another one well worth getting is Ocean Liners of the Past, Olympic and Titanic which is a reprint of the Shipbuilder Specials published in 1911 and is edited by Jhon Maxtone-Graham. This is out of print, but if you do some poking around, you should be able to find it through the used book networks on line. A cautionary note on this is that it tended to repeat whatever the "party Line" was from the builder and the line, but it's still an essential resource. Engineering also published some articles at the time which are worth looking for.

I have read "Titanic & Olympic: The Truth Behind the Conspiracy." and I can vouch for this one myself. Even if you're not interested in silly ship switch theories, this book has a wealth of material detailing the hundreds of differences between these two ships as well as a number of photos which have never befor been published. You can get it from Amazon.com now by clicking on This Hotlink

 

[Lee Gilliland]

What do you guys think of The Birth of the Titanic - is it worth getting? The review I read said it was more about Harland & Wolff than about the actual ship.

 

[Michael H. Standart]

For me it was both the photos which were taken directly from the original glass negetives and the fact that most of the information was correct. There was quite a bit about the builder, but also a lot of attention given to both the Olympic and Titanic in how the ships were built.

 

[Jesse D O'Neill]

In Case Anyone in Interested Ocean Liners Of the Past Vol 1 and Ocean Liners of the Past: Olympic and Titanic are both the same book. The order of the Ocean Liner Of The Past book being.

Vol 1. Olympic and Titanic
Vol 2. Lusitania and Mauretania
Vol 3. Aquitania
Vol 4. Empress of Britain
Vol 5. Normandie
Vol 6. Queen Mary

There also 2 other Modern Shipbuilder issues, but under different titles.

Mauretania (2nd Ship, Mark D. Warren)
Canberra (don't have this issue as of yet, is however pretty common)


Engineering Reprints By PSL (Mark D. Warren)

Campania and Lucania
Lusitania
Mauretania
Aquitania

Also:

Famous Liners from The Shipbuilder, Mark D. Warren

 

[Inger Sheil]

There are some brilliant and much anticipated upcoming titles in this field - Mark Chirnside's The Olympic Class Ships: Olympic, Titanic & Britannic and RMS Olympic: Titanic's Sister will surely be on any list (Mark, are you going to be signing copies at upcoming BTS events? I'd love to sit in on a chat between you and Simon!). A more specialised title will be Parks Stephenson's work on the wireless for the Olympic Class - this promises to be a phenomenal piece of research, and given the depth of Parks' work on the subject will enjoy popularity far beyond the niche that one would usually associate with such a specific topic.

Titanic & Her Sisters Olympic & Britannic is a real curate's egg of a book - the wealth of images is overwhelming, and even some very familiar ones receive a new injection of interest through the quality of some of the reproductions. However, jarring errors (particularly in captioning) are common enough to be rather distracting. I haven't leafed through it in a while - must have another look.

 

[Michael H. Standart]

One of the first errors to get my attention in Titanic & Her Sisters Olympic & Britannic was the photo of the Aquatania in her hospital ship colours which was captioned as the Britannic. Anatomy of the Titanic was positively dreadful in this regard. Still useful works, but they need to be treated with caution. In all fairness, a lot of this may well have been sloppy editing on the part of the publisher, but regretably, that doesn't make the errors go away.

 

[Nigel Bryant]

Thanks Guys,

Look's like there are more technical books out there I need to purchase! I am really looking forward to Mark's book, the Olympic Class. I can't wait until it hits publication. I also want to get Bruce and Steve's book, the Truth about the Conspiracy because of labled exterior differences between the two sisters.

Nigel

 

[Nigel Bryant]

Sorry, I meant Truth Behind the Conspiracy I think I need some sleep . Is a Journey through Time by Eaton & Hass quite good? Does that deal with any techinicalites?
That's another one I would quite like to get.

Regards,

Nigel

 

[Michael H. Standart]

>>Is a Journey through Time by Eaton & Hass quite good? Does that deal with any techinicalites?<<

No. Not really. This one is an attempt by Eaton & Haas to put all the events on a timeline. I still think it's worthwhile as so far, it represents one of the few attempts to do something like that which has been published.

 

[Jesse D O'Neill]

I Thought I'd Put This In here Since I Mentioned all The Shipbuilder Issues Earlier. It's Just an Ebay Auction For Ocean Liners of The Past: The French Line Quadruple-Screw Turbo-Electric Liner Normandie (Vol 5). It's Current at $19.99 Which Is Pretty Low Considering that it's the Rarest in the Six Vol Series. Do Be Careful Though, As I Noticed the Book Was mistakenly Advertised as Vol 6 (The Issue For Queen Mary, A bit more Common Than Normandie Vol 5). Heres A Link For Anyone Interested
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=378&item=6917204309&rd=1

 

[Tripp Carter]

I asked this in my other thread and got linked to here so I suppose I'l mention it here too . . . I've heard that Thomas Andrews' notebook about the Olympic has been reproduced, can anyone shed any light on this? Thanks