On this day in 1911, the White Star Liner Olympic – sister ship to the Titanic and the most gigantic vessel then afloat – crashed into the warship HMS Hawke in the Solent off Ryde.
The Olympic was steaming in an eastward direction towards Spithead. At the same time, the Edger-class cruiser Hawke – travelling at about 15 knots – came from the west, crashing into the liner. Hawke’s bow, which had been designed to sink ships by ramming them, collided with Olympic’s starboard side near the stern, tearing 2 large holes in the hull, above and below the waterline, resulting in the flooding of 2 of her watertight compartments.
The Olympic settled slightly by the stern, but in spite of the damage was able to return to Southampton under her own power. No one was killed or seriously injured, but HMS Hawke suffered severe damage to her bow and nearly capsized.
There were claims and counter-claims, with both sides blaming each other. At the accident hearing, it was ruled that – as the Hawke was to starboard of the Olympic – it was for the Olympic to take avoiding action and the blame lay solely with her. The Olympic had been under compulsory pilotage, and therefore the pilot was judged to have been to blame for the collision.
The captain of the Olympic at the time of the collision was Edward Smith, who then went on to captain the Titanic on her fatal maiden voyage to the United States in 1912. 2 Olympic crew members – stewardess Violet Jessop and stoker Arthur John Priest – survived not only the collision with HMS Hawke but also the later sinking of Titanic and the 1916 sinking of Britannic, the third ship of the class.
After the collision the Aberdeen Journal commented with chilling foresight:
“The great liners may, as it has been claimed for them, be practically unsinkable, but they are far from being invulnerable.”
The sea like our roads is a dangerous place.
Interesting article thank you
Loving these old historic stories and the photos, well done —— keep them coming !
Olympic’s nickname was ‘Old Reliable” sadly that wasn’t the case for her two sister ships, Titanic and Britannic. This whole ‘unsinkable ‘ claim was in hindsight, a marketing ploy to reassure any public concerns over the safety of ocean travel.