Confession of A Bubblegummer: If You Were Rich in The Past And Loved Travelling so You Should Travel With These 'Monsters'!

One of my dreams is cruising on a luxurious liner. Whooaa! A big big big ship gliding smoothly in the middle of the ocean, and I'm enjoying my sunny morning in the deck, laying down in the recliner lazily while taking my iced-lemon tea and bourbons, music in iPod, whoooaa! Life's so good, perfect life wtf whoaaaaaa!!

Whoaa.. those ships.. wtf!

But, let's walk back to the past in period 1800 to 1900. Some ships were famous in their era. Sign of the technology of the moment, it shew that the technology had reached the peak and then kept growing better and faster. Here are several photos of the famous liners at the era :

RMS Baltic

RMS Britannic II (note the funnels built lower)

Cunard's Line RMS Carinthia. Had good accommodation for 3rd class passenger. Personally, I think it was a good innovation at that moment, which made 3rd class passengers satisfied by the accommodation (compare with Titanic [especially on movie we've seen], how the crew treated them and the accommodation looked like a stable)

Cunard's Line RMS Carpathia. Rescued survivors from Titanic. The ship arrived approximately 4 hours after Titanic sink.

RMS Cedric, the postcard above exposed the ship weight (tonnage) : 21,073 tons

RMS Celtic, I dunno why the ships were look similar each other LoL

RMS Georgic, the card. It was written 'Cunard White Star' (if I'm not mistaken)

Cunard's Line RMS Lusitania. Basically similar to Titanic (4 funnels). Sunk by German ship

RMS Majestic

Cunard's Line RMS Mauretania. Remember what Rose said on Titanic movie. (Looking at Titanic) "It seems no bigger than Mauretania", Rose said to her fiance, Caledon Hockley

RMS Oceanic

RMS Olympic (above) and RMS Titanic (below), note the ships looked similar. Except for half of promenade A-deck (below the boat deck) was enclosed. And her B-deck configuration was different. But both of the hull were almost had same length. RMS Olympic had a collision with HMS Hawke, made a great damage in her bow. In World War I, Olympic was in service as a troopship. It was painted in dazzle scheme (camouflage). Titanic and Olympic, both had similar grand staircase in 1st class (remember scene where Jack Dawson waiting for Rose in the grand staircase then the clock chimes 9 times).

Titanic had a different story. As Olympic served long career (from 1911 to 1935), Titanic sank in her maiden voyage at April, 15th 1912 after striking an iceberg. Titanic was said "The Unsinkable", but the fact, she was gone. She had great on-board features for her passengers, swimming pool, Turkish bath, Verandah café, Café Parisien, gymnasium, library, barber shop, squash court, and many more. First-class passengers paid a hefty fee for such amenities. The most expensive one-way trans-Atlantic passage was US$4,350 (which is more than US$95,860 in 2008 dollars) [references from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Titanic].

She had 45,000 napkins, 50,000 towels, 18,000 bedsheets, 7,500 blankets, 5,000 table clothes, 800 cotton blanket, 12,000 knifes, 12,000 forks, 19,000 spoons, 400 sugar bowl, 400 cream bowl, 1,000 bowl, 12,000 cups and saucers, 1,200 teapots, and 2,500 champagne glass. The stock for a voyage was a great number. Go to the dining room, we could find 11 dishes a night! Started from scallops and white Burgundy, soup, fish. The main dish would be beef or chicken, then mutton with mint-sauce, roasted-duck with apple sauce, or sirloin, or beef. Followed by the next dishes number 6, 7, 8, 9, like cold asparagus, pâté de froi gras. As the dessert, there would be Waldorf pudding, vanilla and chocolate éclair, French ice cream, or passion fruit in jelly.

Whereas, Olympic in World War I initially remained in commercial service under Captain Herbert Haddock. She sailed from New York on 20 October 1914 for Britain, though carrying very few passengers, as Germany had announced that her U-boats would sink the Olympic on sight and most of the passengers had cancelled. On the sixth day of her voyage, the Royal Navy alerted Haddock that four U-boats were pursuing his ship and ordered him to head north for Glasgow instead of continuing into the English Channel. On 27 October, as the Olympic passed near Lough Swilly, she received distress signals from HMS Audacious, which had struck a mine off Tory Island and was taking on water.

The Olympic took off 250 of the Audacious' crew, then the destroyer HMS Fury managed to attach a tow cable between Audacious and Olympic and they headed west for Lough Swilly. However, the cable parted after the Audacious' steering gear failed. A second attempt was made to tow the warship, but the cable became tangled in HMS Liverpool's propellers and was severed, and a third attempt also failed when the cable gave way. By 17:00 the Audacious' quarterdeck was awash and it was decided to evacuate the remaining crew members to Olympic and Liverpool, and at 20:55 there was an explosion aboard the Audacious and she sank.

Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, Commander of the Home Fleet, was anxious to suppress the news of the sinking of Audacious, for fear of the demoralizing effect it could have on the British public, so ordered Olympic to be held in custody at Lough Swilly. No communications were permitted and passengers were not allowed to leave the ship. The only people departing her were the crew of the Audacious and Chief Surgeon John Beaumont, who was transferring to RMS Celtic. Steel tycoon Charles M. Schwab, who was travelling aboard the liner, sent word to Jellicoe that he had urgent business in London with the Admiralty, and Jellicoe agreed to release Schwab if he remained silent about the fate of Audacious. Finally, on 2 November, Olympic was allowed to go to Belfast where the passengers disembarked.

Now, Olympic's fittings were auctioned off immediately before she was scrapped; some of her fittings, namely those of the First Class Lounge and part of the Aft Grand Staircase, can be found in the White Swan Hotel, in Alnwick, Northumberland, England. Some fittings and panelling also ended up at a Haltwhistle paint factory. The rest of her fittings found homes in scattered places throughout Great Britain.

In 2000, Celebrity Cruises purchased some of Olympic's original wooden panels and created the RMS Olympic Restaurant on board their newest cruise ship, Millennium. According to Celebrity Cruise Line, this wood panelling once lined Olympic's à la carte restaurant.

In 2004, in the Titanic Museum in Branson, Missouri, USA, a first class cabin from the Olympic served as an example of the class's interior quarters. A replica of the Grand Staircase in the Titanic also appears at this museum, as well as many items recovered from the Titanic wreckage (reference taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Olympic).