Proposed Oceanic III

[greg robertson]

I have lost the website devoted to the Oceanic III Which was never completed - does anyone have the address please?

Thanks,
Greg.

 

[Jason D. Tiller]

Hi Greg,

Is this it? http://www.bytenet.n et/kaleidoscope/osnc /fleet/oceanic3.htm

Best regards,

Jason

 

[Paul Wilkinson]

Hi Greg,

Hopefully you're talking about this fine website ;-) (Yes, it's mine!)

http://homepage.ntlw orld.com/paul.wilkin son/oceanic.html

Cheers

Paul

 

[greg robertson]

Thanks Paul (It was yours).
The other one has good info too, cheers Jason.

 

[greg robertson]

Here is a drawing I have just completed of her with Aquitania off her port side:

 

[Paul Wilkinson]

Hi Greg,

Nice picture! Any chance you could let me have a larger version for the website?

Cheers

Paul

 

[greg robertson]

K , Ive sent you it to your website email. Hope that is ok.

Greg

 

[Paul Wilkinson]

That'll be fine.

Cheers

Paul

 

[Jason D. Tiller]

Hi Greg,

That's a great drawing! Cheers!

Best regards,

Jason

 

[greg robertson]

Here it is larger:

 

[Brent Holt]

I wonder if Oceanic's possible diesel power plant would have been successful? The scale of the engines would have been far above anything else that put to sea at that time. (Actually, for about 50 years!)
I have read that the choice of power for Oceanic was never definitely decided, except for the fact that it would be electric. (Source: Power of the Great Liners) It is possible that White Star would have opted for a turbo-electric power system in the end. This would have lessened the development risk and had several advantages. (Full astern power available without the need to fit astern turbines, the ability to take a turbine off line and still keep all screws running, etc.)
If White Star had just managed to get Oceanic III to the launching stage then it is quite likely that she would have been finished and run with the Queen Mary. There would have been no need to build the Queen Elizabeth. An interesting what if........
Brent

 

[James Hill]

even though we are in the 21st century.do you think she could have been the 20th centurys.......
Great Eastern ?
and how come CUNARD-WHITE STAR never had her built?

 

[Brent Holt]

Why did Cunard not build Oceanic? That is simple-Cunard was the majority sharelholder in Cunard White Star and had no interest in the White Star side of the company. Cunard was the surviving company, not White Star.
If Oceanic III had been built with diesels, it might have been a disaster. I am not sure the technology was mature enough for a high speed motorliner.
Brent

 

[Paul Wilkinson]

It was simpler than that Brent. Oceanic had been scrapped by 1930, but Cunard and White Star merged in 1934. The merged company had a 1000ft liner mostly complete at John Brown's. They weren't about to start building Oceanic again

As to James' question about whether she would have been a bit of liabilty. Personally I doubt it. The Normandie and Queen Mary showed that the market was ready for liners of this size, and H&W had been ready to build one for years. True, a diesel installation of the required size had never been tried before, but the Royal Mail group had several succesful intermediate diesel liners. Remember Britannic lasted until 1960 using late 1920's diesels.

Cheers

Paul

 

[Daniel Prohaska]

I agree that the time was right for such an experiment. Electric engines worked on the "Normandie" and while she had turbine engines to power them they could have easily been geared to diesels - and more economically so. HAPAG built the "Patria" with diesel-electric propulsion in the late 30s, so Oceanic III would been a little earlier than that. There were already smaller ships and submarines powered with this sort of propulsion as early as the 10s and 20s. Why should this not have worked on a grander scale?