Not named until after the launch?/"Weak rivets," redux

[TitanicNerd]

A went to a local exhibit and it says they wouldn't name Titanic until after she was launched. Is this true? How does the naming system work?

 

[Adam Went]

I'd say that had something to do with the fact that White Star Line didn't officially "christen" their ships - the names were known but at the time they were being constructed, they weren't known so much by name but by allotment numbers.

Cheers,
Adam.

 

[TitanicNerd]

I am confused. But yes, White Star never christened their ships. They just built them and launched them.

 

[Adam Went]

That's right, TitanicNerd. Although apparently there are stories of people "unofficially" naming the ship as she was launched, scenes like the one at the beginning of "A Night To Remember" where the wine bottle was broken over the prow and so forth never actually happened.

Cheers,
Adam.

 

[Thomas Ozel]

A went to a local exhibit and it says they wouldn't name Titanic until after she was launched. Is this true?

This photo is described by Wikipedia as being taken in October 1910, and the name "Titanic" can be clearly seen on a noticeboard on the left hand side of the image:

 

[Ioannis Georgiou]

A went to a local exhibit and it says they wouldn't name Titanic until after she was launched. Is this true? How does the naming system work?

That is complete rubbish! Olympic & Titanic were well known by their name even in late 1909. In only a few cases the name was not given for some time like Britannic which was only No. 433 or the famous Cunard Liner No. 534 which became Queen Mary.

 

[Michaela Famfulikova]

Maybe OT, but I have to ask you, when exactly was the name of the Titanic sister ship changed from Gigantic to Brittanic?

 

[Mark Baber]

Look at
https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/community/threads/gigantic.3353/

 

[Adam Went]

I would hope that a Titanic exhibit, if authentic, would be more accurate with information. Ioannis, the only thing I can suggest is as above - that it was a reference to the early construction phases of the ship.

Cheers,
Adam.

 

[Mark Baber]

I would hope that a Titanic exhibit, if authentic, would be more accurate with information.

Experience, though, teaches that that hope is often not realized, Adam.

;-)

 

[TitanicNerd]

So...they named the ships Olympic and Titanic, put their name on a board and put that board where Olympic and Titanic were being built. Did they have the name Titanic on the bow before or after launch?

 

[Ioannis Georgiou]

Did they have the name Titanic on the bow before or after launch?

Is that a joke question?

The name was on the steel plates!

 

[TitanicNerd]

The museum says otherwise.

 

[Ioannis Georgiou]

The museum says otherwise.

Then "the museum" has no idea what is talking about!

 

[Doug Criner]

U.S. Navy ships have their names on the stern, not the bow. The raised letters are welded onto the steel hull plating, probably to help simplify repainting of the name.

If a similar procedure was followed for the Olympic class ships, the names would have been designated long before launch, and even before the steel hull plates in the bow were initially erected.

Maybe the O.P. could contact the museum and ask the source of their information.