Olympic To Junk

Most famed of all Cunard White Star liners was the lithe, speedy Mauretania, scrapped four months ago for economy. Scarcely less famed is the Cunard White Star Olympic, which last week started over the same course to the junk pile because she, too, has outlived her usefulness.

Built in 1911, her 46,439-ton hull was the biggest, most sumptuous ever launched in Great Britain. Year later she had a momentary rival in her sistership, the Titanic, but not until the Queen Mary slid down the ways in 1934 did British shipbuilders actually surpass the Olympic in tonnage.*

Never noted for speed, the Olympic achieved her greatest fame in the War when she safely transported 25,000 troops in the Gallipoli campaign, some 200,000 more to & from the U. S. and Canada, sank one German submarine, repelled seven others, rescued the crew of the sinking H. M. S. Audacious. Converted to oil after the Armistice, she settled down in the transatlantic run, where she again made news by sinking the Nantucket Lightship last year (TIME, May 28, 1934).

Abruptly taken off the sailing schedule last April, the angular old four-stacker has since been held at Southampton in hopes that Italy would buy her for a troop ship. Last week Italy did buy the Hamburg-American Resolute, showed no interest in the Olympic. Regretfully, Cunard White Star officials invited prospective buyers of her fittings, put her on the scrapping list.

*Two larger British ships, the Majestic and Berengaria, were German-built before the War.

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