Famous Lifeboats image, and the Anchor image, Olympic or Titanic?

[Cam Houseman]

Was wondering about these two famous images, always named as Titanic's, but are they Olympic's instead?

Anchor image

both images appear in the 1911 Shipbuilder magazine, but are unnamed.
I appreciate any help, thanks y'all

 

[Tim Gerard]

I'm not certain but I think the lifeboat one is the Olympic from before the post-Titanic sinking refit.

This one I'm fairly sure is one of Francis Browne's pictures, of the aft-starboard boats of the Titanic: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...f_Titanic.jpg/1024px-Boat_Deck_of_Titanic.jpg


I'm not sure about the anchor, that's the first time I've seen that particular photo.

 

[Cam Houseman]

thanks Tim!
I've seen the Francis Browne photograph, but I appreciate it all the same!

Oh I figured a lot of people had seen the Anchor image, its in books like Dr. Ballard's "Exploring the Titanic"

I appreciate the help!

 

[Seumas]

I always instinctively lean towards the Olympic when the question of "Is this the Titanic or the Olympic" comes up.

The Olympic was subject to such extensive interest during her construction and fitting out (a lot moreso than the Titanic was) and was a magnet for press photographers.

A good example is the famous set of snaps supposedly of the Titanic's propellers in dry dock which feature in dozens of books.

As Mark Chirnside proved, they are not the Titanic's propellors. The central propellor has four blades.That had to have been the Olympic - the Titanic had a three bladed central propellor.

There is also that supposed group photograph of all the Titanic's officers that is in a lot of books.

It's actually a photo of the Olympic's officers pre-April 1912. Only Smith, Murdoch and McElroy are correctly labelled, the rest are all wrongly identified as Wilde, Lightoller etc.

 

[Cam Houseman]

Yeah, Mark's article was awesome!
Olympic is pretty easy to figure out in the broadstrokes, IMO. Like pictures of the Second Class Dining Saloon, galley, etc. The 1911 shipbuilder magazine primarily focuses on Olympic's construction, so that's helped me a lot to distinguish.

Its when there's a possibility it could be Titanic because there's photos near or similar to those known to be taken on Titanic.

For example, the A-Deck promenade on the two ships
This is Titanic's, on April 10th, 1912 (from my own files)

But this is Olympic's (wikimedia commons)
If you didn't know any better, you could think this was Titanic's promenade just further aft and earlier in the day

 

[Manon Caillard]

Hello Cam and Tim,

Cam, I believe this picture

View attachment 76518

is showing Olympic's lifeboats : the "strips above the dangling ropes" (sorry I don't know how to name those) are white. All the pictures I've seen so far of Olympic's lifeboats before her post-Titanic sinking refit show that they were painted completely white, whereas the Titanic's lifeboats had their strip above the ropes painted brown.

Here is another picture of Olympic's lifeboats, taken on May 31, 1911 in Belfast :

(credits : harland and wolff collection)

(speculation : since the lightning looks very similar and we can see puddles on the deck in both pics, maybe they were taken on the same day ?)

In comparison, look at the picture of Titanic's lifeboats Tim linked :

This one I'm fairly sure is one of Francis Browne's pictures, of the aft-starboard boats of the Titanic: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...f_Titanic.jpg/1024px-Boat_Deck_of_Titanic.jpg

Tim, speaking of this last picture, I think it is Thomas Barker's and not Francis Browne's. Indeed, I recently visited the Cherbourg Titanic museum in France and the photograph was captioned as being Thomas Barker's. You can also read in the descripion under the photograph on wikipedia that its author is Thomas Barker : link.

Let's keep in mind that this info comes from two sources only, which is quite light to assume with a 100% certainty that Barker is the author of the pic... Tim, where did you find that it was Browne who took that picture ?

Regarding the anchor picture, like Tim, I had never seen it before.

Hope that helps

Manon

 

[Manon Caillard]

I think it is Thomas Barker's and not Francis Browne's. Indeed, I recently visited the Cherbourg Titanic museum in France and the photograph was captioned as being Thomas Barker's. You can also read in the descripion under the photograph on wikipedia that its author is Thomas Barker : link.

Let's keep in mind that this info comes from two sources only, which is quite light to assume with a 100% certainty that Barker is the author of the pic...

I have just searched through the entire Francis Browne Collection and the picture in post #2 does not appear anywhere, we can then conclude that this is probably Mr Barker who took it.

 

[Cam Houseman]

Hello Cam and Tim,

Cam, I believe this picture

is showing Olympic's lifeboats : the "strips above the dangling ropes" (sorry I don't know how to name those) are white. All the pictures I've seen so far of Olympic's lifeboats before her post-Titanic sinking refit show that they were painted completely white, whereas the Titanic's lifeboats had their strip above the ropes painted brown.

Here is another picture of Olympic's lifeboats, taken on May 31, 1911 in Belfast :
View attachment 77323
(credits : harland and wolff collection)

(speculation : since the lightning looks very similar and we can see puddles on the deck in both pics, maybe they were taken on the same day ?)

In comparison, look at the picture of Titanic's lifeboats Tim linked :

Tim, speaking of this last picture, I think it is Thomas Barker's and not Francis Browne's. Indeed, I recently visited the Cherbourg Titanic museum in France and the photograph was captioned as being Thomas Barker's. You can also read in the descripion under the photograph on wikipedia that its author is Thomas Barker : link.

Let's keep in mind that this info comes from two sources only, which is quite light to assume with a 100% certainty that Barker is the author of the pic... Tim, where did you find that it was Browne who took that picture ?

Regarding the anchor picture, like Tim, I had never seen it before.

Hope that helps

Manon

Hi Manon!

Thank you for this post. I did find out the lifeboat was Olympic's, as I found out recently Titanic's lifeboats weren't installed until late January/early Februay 1912., and she had just been launched when the Shipbuilder magazine released their issue on the Olympic.

 

[Frederik-Matthias Davids]

Are you sure that the picture of the boat deck of Olympic was taken on 31.05.1911? This was the delivery date but only one funnel is fully painted.

 

[Manon Caillard]

Are you sure that the picture of the boat deck of Olympic was taken on 31.05.1911? This was the delivery date but only one funnel is fully painted.

My bad ! You are absolutely right ! I think I confused the two dates (the other one being 1911-04) when I wrote my post, since they both appear in the photograph description on nmni .

The picture was taken in April 1911.

Thank you for bringing that up Frederik-Matthias
Cheers,

Manon

 

[Mike Spooner]

Seeing that anchor photo it rather reminds me on my recent visit to a small village Branscombe between Lyme Regis and Seaton Dorset England. Where a MSC 62,000 ton Napoli container ship in 2007 run a ground on the beach and 50 containers where stiped of there contents including BMW motorbikes.
Seeing the 14 ton anchor given to the local community it made me think, was it the same design as Titanic used? In fact do we know if any of the Olympic anchors survived as of a Museum piece?