Britannic and Georgic: White Star Line's Last Ships
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- Опубликовано: 22 июл 2024
- White Star Line's famous motor ships Britannic and Georgic were beautiful and unique ocean liners. These liners were also White Star's final ships being acquired by the Cunard Line. Georgic in particular had an interesting career detour in World War II.
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Sources:
- Ocean Liners: an Illustrated History by Peter Newall
- Falling Star: Misadventures of White Star Line Ships by John P. Eaton & Charles A. Haas
- The Sway of the Grand Saloon: a Social History of the North Atlantic by John Malcolm Brinnin
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Congratulations on this. The quality of your work is nothing short of superb. I enjoyed this so much. Greetings from Ireland.
Thank you, Peter!
That is not Britannic
@@kimung875 She is MV Britannic, or “Britannic 3”. Not to be confused with SS Britannic (1874) and HMHS Britannic (1914).
@@j.cd5 yea
@@7GL6 Aye.
The ending of white Star line is like watching your pet being put down, extremely painful in the heart
Indeed comrade, indeed.
And you only have a few fragments and a dish to remember the dog by
@@pilotbug6100 why dog
Starbucks
Yeah I wouldn't say it's that painful. Why would you have such a connection to white star line? I mean I love their ships but... its just a company. That's like saying seeing a Starbucks close is like your dog getting shot in front of you. It's not even close.
I saw Britannic a few times in 1959 & 1960 when I was a young seaman. She still looked impressive even then.
Lucky you!
Uhhhhh wasnt the wreck discovered in the 1970’s???
@@Shreklington MV britannic, not HMHS Britannic
That end bit about the final route of the White Star hit hard, you really out did yourself this time!
I’m going to be honest I kinda cried
Also keep in mind that this was the beginning of the jet age, and consequently this was the “beginning of the end” for the glorious era of the large ocean going liners!
While the ocean liners were barely clinging on to relevance during the 1960s, the arrival of the 747 in 1970, the first jumbo jet that could carry a massive number of people across the Atlantic in just 7 hours, killed off the last remnants of these once glorious rulers of the ocean! Definitely a sad end to a bygone era! But that is what we call progress!
@@747-pilot Progress is one thing, heck I know if I had a buissness meeting across the Atlantic in three days I would sure take the airliner! But the age of the ocean liner was a different time, and as such they affected so many peoples lives. The ocean liner continues to fade and the amount of interest unfortunately would be half what it is now without the Titanic which is all people seem to know about if you say ocean liner. Believe me I know what a 747 is and that's already being retired unfourtanetly. One day it may be perceived the same way as the ocean liner, fading into the constant movement of time. Both are incredible feats of human engineering and as such should be remembered. Even if the jet won the war the liner was the one who started it all.
😢😢😢😢😢😢😮😮
it absolutely kills me how little survived from the Super Liner era, especially with how recently it ended. As a railfan who has ridden behind steam locomotives from the 1890s to the 1940s, I'll never take how much railroad history is around for granted.
I actually genuinely agree with you
The Oceanic would have been such a beauty
I actually genuinely agree with you
When I was a wee lad, my dad always told me he sailed during on the last White Star liner during the war. He's been dead for 24 years and now I know what he was talking about. Nascent memories of my old man talking about much of what's covered in this video, echoed back 55 years later. Thanks for doing the research.
I remember my grandfather telling me about his time in the war he was in Burma (Now Mynarma) and saying he sailed on Britannic as a troop ship coming back to england when war ended as Brittanic served as a troop ship on the India run so im guessing at that time burma , bangladesh ect were still part of india as they both seperated from india as new countries in 1947 from what i have read! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_rule_in_Burma
Only OGs will remember when this was titled "Britannic & Georgic FINAL".
I thought I might have fixed that before anyone noticed 🥴
I do
It is ok
F I N A L
What’s an “OG”?
Sad that everyone remembers White Star's Olympic class but forgot the Britannic III and Georgic.
Well.. there might be a SPECIFIC reason why everybody looks at the Olympic class...
Exactly. I am obsessed with 20th century liners and I saw this and thought it was about the BRITTANIA. I completely forgot about these ships! Why?
Well I think the olympic class ships is what gets people into maritime history in the first place, i knew a shit ton about the titanic but not anything else, but slowly I learned about more and more ships. The Olympic Class is just one of the most famous groups of ships in the world and that's why they get the most attention.
@@aerofiles5044 Well.. they do get their "fame" from some... 'incidents'
@@tubetype9958 Yeah, and I'm sure James Cameron's movie played a part in it as well
I had no idea that this ship existed and how amazing it was. Especially the heroism in the Suez.
This is quite excellent. My English grandfather who hailed from Liverpool sailed on Georgic and Britannic often. He lauded their lack of vibration and comfort. I never heard a complaint about here modest cruising speed.
thank you for that video . When I was a child I went aboard the Britannic, my Uncle was her Captain so had the privilege of seeing parts of her that were not usually available to passengers
They look so cute, Cunard should’ve let Britannic sail for a few more years before being converted into a museum
Don't think I've ever seen an ocean liner called cute before...
@@I_am_a_cat_ I mean from my perspective they look small and pretty, which I call cute
They're chonks for their size 😂
Chubby cuties
@@jurassicparkboy Chonky cute lol
Once again, being a drunken Irishman and casting this to my TV I'm absolutely thrilled!! Thanks so much for this. You cover everything I love
its sad that white star is gone but because it was in cunard and cunard was bought by carnival that means that many ships today carry something relating to the white star line and of coarse titanic but it just happy to think that when boarding a vessel knowing that
Fun Fact: staff of modern Cunard ships Still wear a white star pin. They refer to the highest level of comfort and service as White Star service. So the legacy still lives on.
Fantatic Video, as Usual...
It is so Sad that Oceanic Didn't happened. It would be so beautiful and Iconic.
Iconic would be great name for a ship
@@samanli-tw3id 😂😂😂 true!
I feel like the Britannic and Georgic are very underrated Ocean liners.
4:03, "...she was diffrent from her older brunette sister, her foward superstructur was round.." made me giggle a bit
Step ship
@@afoxwithahat7846 oh no my step-ship got stuck in an iceberg, :o
@@icheckered6837 she's gonna swallow tons of liquids
@@afoxwithahat7846 Man, she really is going down ;)
@@icheckered6837 Getting so low and wet
This is fascinating. I bought some cameras at an estate sale. Included in the lot were a few rolls of black and white film. I tried to date them and figure out where they were taken (the estate sales was in Hamilton, Ontario, about 6 years ago). Some of the frames included photos of the Georgic, so I googled and found my way here. Great video.
You should 100000% upload those photos to the internet for preservation
My favorite old school motor-liners! Oceanic would have been Beautiful if completed. Royal Mail was cooking the books and spending White Star money on less profitable sister lines. Lord Kylsant (CEO of Royal Mail) was sentenced to 1 year in prison. Georgic was hit hard by the attack and was known to officers/sailors as the corrugated lung after her reconstruction. Britannic suffered from a broken crankshaft in 1960 and as a result was sent to the breakers. Think the original plan was to replace the big four (Celtic, Cedric, Baltic and Adriatic) with Britannic Class motor liners. Always look forward to viewing your videos. Great work!
It was a credit to the Ship's Engineers to keep the Double-acting 4 stroke, blast injected Harland & Wolff main engines operating, not to mention the H&W generators - extremely complex engines for their day - a credit to CC Pownder the designer - Ship's Engineers never receive the credit they deserved for keeping these vessels operating at all, especially under war-time conditions
imahine if the oeanic III procdeeded
Harland & Wolff built really excellent equipment. One aspect of their of products was their diesel locomotives. Sadly none survive today. The last being the former Belfast & County Down Railway bogie locomotive which was broken up in the early 1970's Along with Beardmore Harland & Wolff tried very hard to convince both the marine and railway worlds that diesel was the way forward.
Sadly particularly in the UK no one was really listening.
@@nicholaskelly6375 I was fortunate to be a CC Pounder protege, as a result of my father's success outrunning the "Graf Spree"
@@nicholaskelly6375 Argentina Railways and Iraq Railways bought diesel electric Harlandic railway locomotives from Harland and Wolff in the 1930's -they even built canal boats .!!!
@@ronnieince4568 I know both Argentina and Iraq were diesel pioneers mainly due to the lack of good quality water. Also the LMS imported a HW diesel shunting locomotive in the 1930's It was the only diesel locomotive built in Ireland that was used in Great Britain (It was re gauged twice!)
They built narrow boats in England!
As a said a very advanced company who could build anything.
Talking about locomotives they built a small number of battery electric locomotives for their own use.
Absolutely fantastic video as always sir.
Love your work, and always look forward to your uploads.
Thank you! Appreciate the kind words.
@@TheGreatBigMove i have a question do diesel ships have spark plugs ?
@@santafewarbonnetproductions to my knowledge marine diesel engines are equipped like most diesel engines with glow plugs.
Thank you so much for sharing the story of two beautiful, revolutionary, and grossly underrated ships that have never gotten the attention that they deserved.
Omg I love these ships they're so interesting
I seem to recall reading that at in an earlier iteration Oceanic was going to have 4 funnels and look rather like an enlarged Olympic-class with a more contemporary cruiser-style stern design.
That is true. They went through a couple of designs before they settled on the design we're most familiar with. I actually heard when viewing another 3D artwork of the ship by the talented Anton Lognivenko that there was a possible fourth design where the ship could've been 1,080 feet long - as if 1,050 feet wasn't big enough already. Whether or not this is true though I can't confirm.
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You can find that design on Google if u look up oceanic iii original four funnel design. It looks like a huge olympic class- queen mary mashup
Love the looks, and especially that mixture of the modern cruiser stern with the Olympic class design of the Georgic and Britannic. Pity what happened to them.
My Grandmother, Great Uncle and their parents sailed on her from Liverpool in 1961. (They had sailed to England on RMS Queen Elizabeth.) I have a multitude of photos documenting their trip, including views from the promenade and inside their cabin. She described the interior as lavish and refined, while also recounting the many hours she spent with my Uncle roaming the decks. Truly an incredible ship with such a sad end.
Genuine "real"ship lovers have a strange attachment to these marvels of engineering and design considering them more like humans than machines, the end of service is more like the death of a good friend. Design wise I prefer the curved forward superstructure of the Georgic, however, both of course were beautiful ships, superior in many ways to most modern efforts though the new Saga Line sisters, Spirit of Discovery and Spirit of Adventure look very promising and a far cry from the kitschy monsters that pass for ships these days. Thanks for the upload.
Yes yes this is the vid that im wating for years thanks big move :)
Last ships of white star and having a sad ending getting into scrap metal.
And three days later RMS britannic’s aniversary
10:15, like someone said below, you stating that the departure of Britannic from New York Harbor signaled the final departure of the White Star Line really hit me hard. I have been a maritime historian specializing in the Titanic ever since I was 6 years old and saw a Ken Marschall painting of the Titanic sinking. That was 31 years ago, and I've been hooked ever since. Titanic has and always will hold a special fascination for me, so to hear that was the final departure of the last remaining White Star ship really hit me hard.
Very nice tribute to two lovely ladies! Thank you
My grandpa served on MV Britannic in some capacity in the 50's
YES!!! Thx for this amazing episode on two undeservingly unknown masterpieces of liners!!! I always enjoy watching your videos! Keep up the awesome work m8
Great video. That captain is a hero for making the decision to move his ship out of the Suez Canal.
Very well put together.
Thank you, William.
MV Britannic is looking like a cruise ship. And it looks like Cunard copied the same shape of Oceanic. Three funnels but different bow and stern to build queen mary
Me too.
@gydg nghy you do know the meaning of "ITS LOOK LIKE" do you? I'm not sure if cunard copied the design thats why I use the phrase "ITS LOOK LIKE". As of copying, you can copy another one's work and changing it a bit so that it wont be noticed. You understand sentences first will you?
@gydg nghy Oceanic's bow is pointed and its stern is more of like a spoon. Queen Mary however, has a rounded bow and her stern is more squary.
@gydg nghy Well to be fair the Aquitania copied a lot of design cues from the Olympic, so i don't see why they wouldn't again? Both companies actively competed with each other and took inspiration off the other.
as im looking at the M.V Britannic compared to Queen Mary....
i don't see any Similaritys
One of very best technical/historic channels on yt. Absolutely great. Its so sad they havent saved not even one true liner of White Star😥
Love your videos. You've really helped me expand my fascination from just the Titanic to now all ocean liners! Thank you for sharing your passion.
Georgic was on the migrant run to Australia in 1950, arriving Sydney in late December of that year. A relative of mine was on that trip, it's been interesting to see what the ship looked like and to learn of some of the history ...
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Finally a RUclipsr who pushes out some interesting content. Keep up the great work!
Most informative. The history of White Star, separate to that of Olympic, is new to me. It's stuff we ought to know.
Absolutely amazing work. I love the effort and details that go into your content. As always keep up the excellent work 👏 👌
Thank you, Ryan!
Exceallant Video! Thank You for producing it. It is very informative.
Always happy to see a big move video. Your videos are a great learning experience. Keep on keepin on :D
great video! I always love watching ur videos and learning things I didnt know before and this one was no different! thanks for all the work you put into your videos and I cant want to see what you make next!
First I thought the stumpy fat funnels of these ships looked disgusting but after looking at them for 10 minutes and 55 seconds straight, i actually like them!
Fantastic videos man, really enjoying them 👍
What a couple of great ships. Thanks.
Amazing video, really tells the story of the Sisters 🚢
With their low funnels, they were reminiscent of the Bremen and Europa. Very sleek, art deco designs.
These Videos are absolutely awesome! I LOVE these so much! You’ve taught me so much. Please don’t ever stop making these. 👍🚢🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧
Thank you! There will be many more.
Love your uploads
Another great video!
Great video. You are a master. Listening to you is relaxing and informative. Your content is spot on.
Thank you so much!
Thank you, Guillaume! Glad you enjoy the videos.
Prettier than anything afloat today
I've personally always liked the newer ships, but I do like how these are less cluttered.
I love the designs of the steam ships between the 1910-1930, they were tall, and they seemed like they dominated the seas. The smokestacks were impressive, giving off a sense of power and adding more hight to the already-massive ships. Their looks so impressive and powerful, but the interiors looked so cozy and nice. Oh how I wish we still had those ships today, rather than the white bricks we have today
Wonderful marvelous video, of days with more graduer, gone bye.🌊🚢🌊
wow the oceanic looks awesome!
Thank you for telling this white Star line story that I haven’t got to hear about thank you
yooo naval craft player
Thanks for a great video on ships seldom spoken about
Putting the engineer's smokeroom in the forward (false) funnel was frankly an act of genius - I doubt any passengers would even suspect it was a fake!
You should do a video on how the Titanic disaster affected the white star line well into the future like you briefly spoke of at the beginning. Like into the 1920's, did they ever advertise their ship's as best in the world again? They did advertise lifeboats?...
I’ve been waiting for this
I love these videos there very well made and are great short documentary’s.
These personally are one of my favorite WSL ocean liners since they are nice to look at and have an appealing design
When I imagined the last journey of the Britannic my hand almost raised into salute. Rip
I was amazed at this story!
Omg i love this video i finally know the difference between the two sisters and what i thought is identical before
Nice video! Regarding Oceanic’s intended design, there is no evidence that she was to have Georgic’s curves, modern fan art renderings aside. It’s more likely she would have resembled Britannic, considering Georgic was an update.
I always thought there was only 1 Britannic but now, you tell me there was more, so thank you.
There were three White Star ships named Britannic.
Great video! I'd love to see the vid about the MS Stefan Batory "The lucky ship" - she was a great vessel with interesting II WW history.
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I didn’t even know there was a second Britannic! Dang! I’m impressed I haven’t been back in ships in almost 5 years! Now I’m getting back into it
It’s the 3rd there was a ship called the Britannia before the Olympic class Britannia
@@omarbaba9892 wow thanks yo I’ve been getting back into this ship cravings since I lost mine for titanic and her sisters I moved onto Lusitania and her sisters!
It looks like the artist's rendering of MV Oceanic at 1:10 still draws it with a steam whistle...
Britannic was equipped with two steam type triple bell whistles. One was blown by steam from her waste heat boiler and the other by compressed air.
I believe one of them is still held by Liverpool Maritime Museum.
2:24 those funnels are best.
Wow my dad was the ship’s carpenter when she was bombed at port Toufic and went back on board with the Captain and others to help beach her his hearing was never the same again after the bomb blast great historical video thank you very much
i really like your video's keep going greetings from the netherlands
I had never heard of the Georgic until this video. Many thanks to the producer.
Nice video! I personally kinda like the squat funnel design and I also personally like the Georgic’s design rather then Britannic.
Great Video. Please do SS Normandy next!
Interesting, good work; im not a ship or war guy but found it enjoyanble
I really learnt alot,Thanks.
The Oceanic was one beautiful design. Oh my.
Love the video
These videos are really interesting
Thanks, Seth!
As someone who’s family is familiar to white star line my great grandfather was on the last voyage of the georgic to Egypt, but he didn’t witness the ships disaster.
Great video. Kind regards from Washington D.C. Peace!
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Yay he uploaded
8:53 that has got to be the most badass any ocean liner has ever looked
This is so sad, to think all of the work white star put into their vessels and cared for their passengers just for the maiden voyage to be one last quick goodbye. It must’ve been emotional:(
Georgic: nearly died to keep the Suez open
The Ever Given: time for a 6 day rest in this nice canal
The Virgin Ever Given vs The Chad Georgic
I have to say though, as bittersweet as the end of both of those ships was, at least they all did manage to survive long enough to see the scrapyards.
While this isn't the focus of the story, one should also take some special notice of RMS Olympic's involvement during that time. RMS Olympic would've been the oldest of the four ships pressed into wartime service as she was the sole survivor of the Olympic class of liners...a class which included the ill-fated vessels HMHS Brittanic (second to bear the name) and, most infamously, the RMS Titanic...yes, the very Titanic captained by Edward John Smith on her ill-fated maiden voyage where she struck an iceberg and sank in the icy waters of the North Atlantic. RMS Olympic was the only vessel of her class to actually prove to be unsinkable as she saw numerous impact disasters during her 26 years of maritime service and survived every single one, earning her the nickname "Old Reliable" during her time as a troop transport ship.
White Star Line may have failed after Titanic's sinking...but clearly some valuable lessons were learned if one can judge the examples of these final ships and their survival to eventually see the scrapyards. That the very last of these could be so badly damaged yet still be salvaged, repaired and returned to service says a lot.
It helps when one can end well...and I think it is safe to say that White Star Line did just that...ending well...
💖💖💖💖
Although I like these 2 ships and especially Queen Mary which is one of my favourite liners I still wanna see a world where Cunard White Star decided to scrap building the then ''Hull Number 534'' (R.M.S Queen Mary) and decided to build the M.V Oceanic III and White Star would end up like the Cunard of our world. Like what would that be like. Would the Oceanic end up as a floating hotel in Long Beach? Would Oceanic be more popular that the Normandie? Would it have a sister ship? Would White Star survive till the 21st century? I really wanna see what would have happened.
Great vlog! How come I have never heard of these ships? We have all heard about the Queens. One other Grand old lady of the north Atlantic was S.S Stavangerfjord of the Norwegian America Line. She was built in 1917 close to Liverpool and she sailed the Scandinavia to Canada and New York until she was used as a hotel ship for the olympics in Tokyo in 1964. Now you know!
They’re not all that well known. They weren’t especially big or grand, but interesting nonetheless.
Nice.
Danke Frederick.
i came to Canada via new york on the georgic in 1952 . i just found the bording card!!
I love your vids creep up the content
So now that I learned a bit more about Britannic III and Georgic, Titanic is actually White Star’s biggest passenger liner overall, not counting the ships they bought and the ships during the merge of Cunard White Star.
Britannic is White Star’s largest ship overall, but that was a hospital ship when it was done with construction.
It’s charming to me though that Britannic III lasted that long from late 1920s to 1961.
I also love that Cunard still reminds us all about White Star on April 15th each year, but having White Star’s flag on all ships to honor Titanic.
FYI: *a Titanic/White Star History person at 14.9 years old lol.*
RMS Majestic was the largest ship white star line ever operated.
Cunard still owns the White Star Line-name. Why not “resurface” the company? It must be the most well known shipping line that isnt currently operating.
Possibly for the same reason that Hindenburg is not a popular name for airliners.
Weird that White Star would come up with a new Britanic a short time after the sinking of the Olympic Class version in World War 1.
You have a great narration voice