Olympic (1911) arrived at Southampton at end of her final regular service voyage on 12 April 1935. She would remain laid up in Southampton (resting alongside Mauretania (1906) until September, when she was sold to a breaker for £100,000.
The final total: 257 transatlantic roundtrips, transporting some 430,000 paying passengers a total distance of 1.8 million miles (equivalent to nearly four roundtrips to the Moon). If not for the Great Depression and its crushing impact on transatlantic passenger traffic, Olympic probably would have sailed for another decade or two. Yet the newly merged Cunard-White Star Line, struggling with declining sales and excess capacity—and with Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth on the way—viewed the near-Titanic-twin as little more than an aging white elephant.
Watching the video above, it’s hard not to think Olympic’s about ill-fated sister, Titanic, which sank just three days short of 23 years before Olympic completed her last regular voyage.
Olympic was broken up in 1937, much to the joy of Tyneside workers, desperate for the opportunity to return to work, albeit temporarily.
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