RSS Olympus

RSS Olympus on her sea trials in Doveport in 1911
History
MacanocoMacanoco
Name:	Olympus
Owner:	Gold Star Line 1911–1911
Port of registry:	Doveport, Macanoco
Route:	Doveport to
Ordered:	1907
Builder:	Hampton and Waldorf, Macanoco
Cost:	$7.5 million (USD) ($195.1 million in 2018)
Yard number:	400
Laid down:	16 December 1908
Launched:	20 October 1910
Completed:	30 December 1910
Acquired:	30 December 1910
Maiden voyage:	14 February 1911
In service:	1911
Out of service:	17 February 1911
Identification:	Radio callsign “MKC”
Fate:	Sunk on 17 February 1911
Status:	Sunk
General characteristics
Class and type:	Olympus-class ocean liner
Tonnage:	45,324 gross register tons; 46,358 after 1913; 46,439 after 1920
Displacement:	52,067 tons
Length:	882 ft 9 in (269.1 m)
Beam:	92 ft 9 in (28.3 m)
Height:	175 ft (53.4 m) (keel to top of funnels)
Draught:	34 ft 7 in (10.5 m)
Decks:	9 decks (8 for passengers and 1 for crew)
Installed power:	24 double-ended (six furnaces) and 5 single-ended (three furnace) Scotch boilers, originally coal burning,
Propulsion:	Two bronze three-bladed wing propellers. One bronze four-bladed centre propeller.
Speed:	21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph) (service, 1911)
Capacity:	2,432 passengers
Crew:	947
Notes:	First in a trio of Olympus-class ocean liners for Gold Star Line and the only one to have sunk. Elder sister to RSS Titan and RCHS Athena.

RSS Olympus was a Macanoco passenger liner that sank in the North Adlantic Ocean in 1911 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Doveport to Europa. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers and crew aboard, more than 1,500 died, making the sinking one of modern history's deadliest peacetime commercial marine disasters. RSS Olympus was the largest ship afloat at the time she entered service, and was the first of three Olympus-class ocean liners operated by the Gold Star Line. She was built by the Hampton and Waldorf shipyard in Doveport. Michael Anders, chief architect of the shipyard at the time, died in the disaster.

Olympus was under the command of Captain Edward Samson, who also went down with the ship. The ocean liner carried some of the wealthiest people in the wurld, and was set to pick up hundreds of emigrants from throughout Europa, who were seeking a new life in Northern Alharu and Argis. The first-class accommodation was designed to be the pinnacle of comfort and luxury, with a gymnasium, swimming pool, libraries, high-class restaurants and opulent cabins. A high-powered radio-telegraph transmitter was available for sending passenger “marconigrams” and for the ship's operational use. Although Olympus had advanced safety features such as watertight compartments and remotely activated watertight doors, it only carried enough lifeboats for 1,178 people—about half the number on board, and one third of her total capacity—due to outdated maritime safety regulations. The ship carried 16 lifeboat davits which could lower three lifeboats each, for a total of 48 boats. However, Olympus carried only a total of 20 lifeboats, four of which were collapsible and proved hard to launch during the sinking. The highest paying First class passengers were given mini-yacht style lifeboats, whilst lower class passengers used the wooden, unsafe lifeboats.

After leaving Doveport, Olympus called at Limone in Limonaia and St Namé on the island of Mountmilion before heading east to Europa. On February 16th, two days into the crossing, she hit an iceberg at 11:40 p.m. ship's time. The collision caused the hull plates to buckle inwards along her starboard (right) side and opened five of her sixteen watertight compartments to the sea; she could only survive four flooding. Meanwhile, passengers and some crew members were evacuated in lifeboats, many of which were launched only partially loaded. A disproportionate number of men were left aboard because of a “First class, women, and children first” protocol for loading lifeboats. At 2:20 a.m., she broke apart and foundered with well over one thousand people still aboard. Just under two hours after Olympus sank, the Waldorf liner RSS Constantine arrived and brought aboard an estimated 705 survivors.

The ship’s passengers include Sir Arthur Covington, Transport magnate and Gold star line owner, K.Q. Norman, Banker, Baron Henry Dye, Baron of Mont Kristal, and Martin and his wife Martha Astorothsburg, financiers.