Oceanic (II) Fact File
Owner: Oceanic Steam Navigation Co. Ltd. (White Star Line)
Ship Details
Details
Vessel Type: Passenger ship
Official No: 110596
Builder: Harland & Wolff Ltd, Queen's Island, Belfast
Yard No: 317
Laid down: 18 March 1897
Launched: 14 January 1899
Handed over: 26 August 1899
Port & Date of Registry: Liverpool, 19 August 1899
Managing Owner & Address: Harold Arthur Sanderson, 30 James Street, Liverpool
Description
Number of Decks: 4
Number of Masts: 3
Rigged: Schooner
Stern: Elliptical
Build: Clencher
Framework & Description of Vessel: Steel
Number of Bulkheads: 13
Number of water ballast tanks: 14
Dimensions
Length: 685.7
Breadth: 68.35
Depth: 44.5
Gross Registered Tonnage: 17,273.94
Machinery
Engine Builder: Harland & Wolff Ltd, Belfast
Engine Type: 2 X triple expansion inverted direct acting surface condensing
Cylinders: 2 X 47½; 2 X 79; 2 X 93 inches
Stroke: 72 inches
Nominal Horse Power: 4,130
Boilers
Description: Cylindrical multi-tubular
Number: 15 double ended
Iron or Steel: Steel
Pressure when loaded: 192lbs
Screw: Twin
Speed: 21 knots
Signal Letters: R. H. D. F.
NOTES
They called Oceanic the 'crowning glory of the 19th century'. She was the first vessel to exceed the length of I. K. Brunel's famous steamship Great Eastern, but not her tonnage, that record was broken with the launch of Celtic (Yard No. 335) in April 1901. Oceanic was originally planned to have a sister given the name Olympic; the two 'O's intended to dominate the transatlantic passenger trade and maintain White Star's position over its rivals as the world's leading shipping line.
The death of Company's founder T. H. Ismay in November 1899 put paid to these plans and the second vessel was cancelled. At £750,000 the construction of Oceanic had financially exhausted the Company; her interiors were of the finest quality and impossible to replicate on a larger scale in the 'Olympic' class, so Oceanic remains, in the eyes of many maritime historians, the finest example of Victorian shipbuilding design ever constructed.
