‘One of the must-haves of 2012...This excellent book is more than just a picture history...Profusely illustrated...This book is certainly one of the good ones...’

PUBLICATION DETAILS

Chirnside, Mark. Olympic Titanic Britannic: An Illustrated History of the ‘Olympic’ Class Ships. The History Press; January 31st 2012. 168 pages.
Reprinted: March 2012.
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PUBLISHER’S TEXT AND PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

At the beginning of the twentieth century, competition between the North Atlantic shipping lines was fierce. While Britain responded to the commercial threat posed by the growing German merchant marine, there was also rivalry between the great Cunard Line and its chief competitor, the White Star Line. Against this backdrop Olympic, Titanic and Britannic were conceived. Designed for passenger comfort, they were intended to provide luxurious surroundings and safe, reliable service rather than record-breaking speed. In the end, fate decreed that only Olympic would ever complete a single commercial voyage and she went on to serve for a quarter of a century in peace and war. Titanic’s name would become infamous after she sank on her maiden voyage. The third sister, Britannic, saw a brief and commendable career as a hospital ship during the First World War, sinking in the Aegean Sea in 1916.

Here Mark Chirnside tells the sister ships’ stories by way of previously unseen pictures, passenger diaries and deck plans. With a focus on the human histories of those who travelled and worked on the ships, this beautifully illustrated book details Olympic’s successful career and the premature ends of her two unfortunate sisters.

REVIEWS

‘Mark Chirnside is now widely recognised for his thorough, in-depth and highly researched books on the great Atlantic liners. His latest offering is, basically, an illustrated companion to his current book The ‘Olympic’ Class Ships: Olympic, Titanic, Britannic. Although profusely illustrated and covering the sisters, Titanic is featured, but only in brief with the more concentration on her two sisters and the author does highlight this at the very start of the book. The book in general is a wonderful voyage through the history of the ‘Olympic’ class liners, from their birth to end of career. The book features a generous amount of previously unpublished images and with the captions continuing the story, the book not only flows nicely with its layout, but is a pleasure to read and admire the black & white and colour images.’ – Jonathan Smith. March 5th 2012. Amazon.co.uk

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‘Mark Chirnside has written a beautifully illustrated history for WSL's big three. The text is full of wonderful anecdotes and new facts which will keep the reader interested from the first page to the last. Definitely a valuable addition to any ship enthusiast and researcher’s library.’ – Michael Poirier. March 12th 2012. Amazon.co.uk

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‘This book is yet another winner from Mark Chirnside. The high quality of this volume is what we've come to expect from this author. The images in the book are of high quality, as is the text. While the book touches on all three ‘Olympic’ class ships, it is nice to see a lot of time spent on the Olympic and Britannic, which are often overlooked or given short shrift when compared to their more famous sister Titanic. I highly recommend this volume, and consider it one of the must-haves of 2012.’ – Tad Fitch. April 1st 2012. Amazon.co.uk

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‘Titanic was not a unique ship. She had in fact two sister ships, Olympic and Britannic. This fine books puts the Titanic into proper context by detailing the history of all three ships. "Titanic Buffs" will be pleased by a number of never before published illustrations. Newcomers to the subject will be fascinated to learn of the history of this nautical tri..’ – Conrad. May 3rd 2012. Amazon.com

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‘This excellent book is more than just a picture history of the ‘Olympic’ Class liners. As is usual for Mark Chirnside, he brings his considerable research skills to bare & provides new info on this famous trio. Olympic, Titanic & Britannic are also placed in their proper historical context without the frequent hyperbole related to Titanic that so many other authors fall prey to. Highly recommended.’ – Brent Holt.  June 19th 2012. Amazon.com

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‘I read a statistic that said that the Titanic was one of the three most written about subjects in history, and browsing through the available books on Amazon and other sites certainly gives credence to that. I would imagine that like many much-written subjects the number of GOOD books is merely a fraction of that number, but this book is certainly one of the good ones. Richly illustrated with accurate captioning it certainly opens up my understanding of the ‘Olympic’ Class liners and is a valuable addition to my growing library on the subject. The ONLY way it could be better would be if I could buy a copy to read on my Kindle.’ – Anthony Densley.  June 21st 2012. Amazon.com

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Readers with any documented corrections are invited to contact Mark in the hope that mistakes can be rectified in any future editions.

 

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