In April 1912, a wreck occurred in the North Atlantic, which became one of the largest sea disasters of the 20th century. The largest ship in the world, declared unsinkable, sank on its maiden voyage. The crash killed more than 67% of passengers, including crew members, the captain and designer of the Titanic.
Geographical discoveries and massive migrations of the European population put ship designers in front of the need to create powerful, fast and comfortable sea liners. The first construction experience was the powerful liners built at the John Brown & Co. shipyard in Clydebank, Lusitania and Mauritania.
The competitors of Lusitania and Mauritania conceived twin ships of the Olympic series - Olympic, Titanic and Gigantic. The ships were built at the shipyard of Harland & Wolff Ltd. commissioned by White Star Line. Competitive bets were made not on speed, but on increased comfort, maximum displacement and passenger capacity.
Why the ships were named after the Greek gods
The name of the entire series "Olympic" refers to ancient Greek myths. Olympus in Greek mythology is the abode of the gods, so it is not surprising that the whole series had a generalized name "Olympic". According to mythology, there were several generations of gods, among which the Titans represented the second generation. More famous gods such as Prometheus, Atlas, Zeus have already gone from them. Zeus raised a rebellion against the Titans and was victorious. The Titans were cast down to Tartarus, and the era of Zeus's reign began. According to one version, the Titans were incinerated by Zev's lightning, and people emerged from their ashes.
Probably the ambitions of the creators and insufficient knowledge of mythology led to the name of the ship in honor of the lost tribe of the supergods. In addition, there is an adjective titanic in English, which can be translated as colossal. Indeed, in terms of displacement, the Titanic surpassed all existing ships in the world at that time, including its twin brother, the Olympic.
"Olympic" - the only one of the series of the same name served the due date and was written off due to obsolescence. The third ship of the series, despite the fact that after the sinking of the "Titanic" was urgently renamed from "Gigantic" to "Britannic", briefly outlived her older brother and was blown up by a German mine during the First World War.
Another Titanic?
It is noteworthy that almost 14 years before the sinking of the "Titanic" was published a novel by a little-known American writer Morgan Robertson "Futiliity", which did not make an impression on the public. Only in the field of destruction of the Titanic did it become clear that a similar disaster of the world's largest ship called the Titan was described in the science fiction novel down to the smallest detail. Everything was predicted, including the cause of the crash - an iceberg.
