In 1912, the doomed passenger liner Titanic sunk through the icy depths of the Atlantic after hitting an iceberg. Passengers and crew numbering 1,517 died in the calamity which shocked the world.
Meanwhile, it’s often forgotten the Titanic’s sister ship – the Olympic – was actually broken up in the region.
RMS Olympic was a transatlantic ocean liner, the lead ship of the White Star Line’s trio of Olympic-class liners.
Unlike her younger sister ships, Olympic enjoyed a long and illustrious career, spanning 24 years from 1911 to 1935. This included service as a troopship during the First World War, which gained her the nickname “Old Reliable”.
The end for the Olympic came in 1935 when huge crowds cheered the ship’s arrival at Jarrow.
The vessel would be broken up at Palmer’s shipyard and provided work for hundreds of people for several years, bringing economic relief to a town crippled by unemployment. It had been purchased for £97,500 by the town’s MP Sir John Jarvis.
Nearly everything on board was recycled – from carpets, furniture and panelling, all the way down to linoleum, staircases and toilets.
Indeed, many of the Olympic’s fittings were later sold at auction, and a host of Tyneside houses, hotels, pubs, offices and factories were fitted with the vessel’s opulent interiors.
Source: Chronicle Live
