Olympic passengers still alive

M

Mikael Jonsson

Guest
Hi.

I am mailing an old man who moved from USA to Sweden in 1912. He was supposed to travel on Titanic from New York, but when she sank he had to change to Olympic. Unfortonatelly he didn't have a camera so he couldn't take any photos during the crossing.

There must be many people who has travelled with Olympic alive today. Has anyone of you spoken to any of them? It would be interesting to hear a little how it was to travel on Olympic. The old man I mail to was sick during the voyage so he didn't see much of the ship.

It would also be interesting to se newer photos from Olympic. From early 30's or maybe even in colour. Hope you can help me.

thanks.

/mike
 
By the way. Here is a photo I think many of you haven't seen. I don't remember where I got it from, but it is probably the last photo of Olympic. From 1935-1937.
27730.jpg
 
Walter Lord, who recently passed away travelled on the Olympic in 1926. I also often wondered about this. Olympic was in service for 24 years. There must be hundreds, if not thousands of people alive today who may very well have crossed on the Olympic at least once in their lifetime.
 
I know Bruce Beveridge from the TRMA was in contact recently with an elderly man who was a crew member of Olympic during the ship's later part of her career. I don't doubt there are more than a few people who sailed on Olympic. The fun part is finding them!
 
I doubt that there are any colour photogrpahs of Olympic in existence.
I posted a message a while ago asking if there were any.
I have heard there maybe one in Southampton Maritime Museum, but I am not even 50% sure of this!
As Olympic and Mauretania were both scrapped in 1935, colour photographs seem most unlikely.
Aquitania had a much longer life (1950) and therefore there are some pictures of her in colour (See Neil McCart's ''SS Aquitania - Cunards Atlantic Lady'' - page 48).
Most of you will have seen the colour cine film of Aquitania's flags being lowered and her journey leaving Southampton bound for the shipbreakers.
But I guess you never know, afterall wasnt the first major colour film 'Becky Sharp' and that was 1935. Maybe Olympic exists in colour somewhere.
To get an idea of Olympic in colour look at colour photos of the Britannic (1930-60). At least it gives an impression of the colour schemes.

Greg
 
As far as I know, even the final films of Olympic from October 1935 were in black and white. There is one from September I think, showing her empty decks.

It's frustrating to think that there may be so many people out there who do not know of people's interest -- I know relatives of a chief engineer, but that's not for know. There must be hundreds of finds.

Best regards,

Mark.
 
thanks for all the answers to my posting.
I shall do some research for Olympictravellers still alive and unique photos from Olympic. I will write here on ET messageboard as soon as I
find anything interesting to share with you.

greg robertson
What do you mean with "look at colour photos of the Britannic?" I guess you mean another ship than WSL Britannic. I have a coloured photo of Titanic which I guess is quite accurate to how it would look like on a real colourphoto taken in 1935.

Mark Chirnside.
I have plenty of filmclips from Olympic, but I don't know when most of them were filmed. Which clip is from october 1935?
 
i mean White Star Liner Britannic built in 1930 and scrapped in 1960. There are colour pictures available of her, and it gives a slight impression of how Olympic class liners would have looked in their paintwork.
 
1935 Clip would maybe be the British Movetone News showing Olympic on way to breakers from Southampton.
This film can be seen on the VHS Video, ''Olympic, Titanic, Britannic'' released 1985.
I think its deleted now though
 
greg:

Strange I haven't heard about this second Britannic during all my Titanicrecearch. Please tell me more about it.

I probably already have the clip without knowing it
happy.gif
I have always been interested in old filmclips and old black and white photos. I have plenty highquality filmclips from Titanic, Olympic, Britannic and Lusitania which I have converted into mpeg if you are interested.

/mike
 
Mikael,

White Star Line's history holds 3 ships named Britannic.

The first Britannic, which was steam powered but also had sails, was in service from 1874 until 1903, when she was scrapped.

The second Britannic is the most known one, she was Titanic's sister ship.

The last Britannic lived from 1930 until 1960.
She was a motor vessel, powered by 2 Diesel engines. When scrapped in 1960, she was the last original White Star liner still in service.

Hope these rather short histories help a bit.
While searching the internet you can find out quite a bit about HMHS Britannic and MV Britannic.
There is not much information on the Internet about Britannic I.

There is an interesting picture BTW, which shows Britannic II's builders model next to a model of Britannic I.
Amazing to see how shipbuilding progressed in +/- 30/40 years!

Regards,
Remco
 
Hi!

Greg beat me to it. One of the 1935 films is on the video mentioned. As she heads out to sea, the narrator talks of a ship 'reliable to the last.' There are others I have seen in Liverpool and Southampton, but otherwise I do not know how you could get them.

Best regards,

Mark.
 

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