Who am I??

Who am I??

Am I the body?
… But millions of cells are created and destroyed in this body every second. Arguably there is no single cell still in me from the time of my birth. Hence I cannot be this body.

Am I the memory?
… But then how much of my life do I remember- just a small fraction. My memory of my early years is near to zero. But still I existed then. Hence I cannot be memory.

Am I the mind?
… But then what about the time I sleep or when one goes into coma. I exist even at that point of time, when the mind was not active. Hence I cannot be the mind.

Am I the emotion?
… But then the same argument of my intellect not active during sleep holds here too. Hence I cannot be the emotion.

Who am I??

Unheard Voices....

Unheard Voices-
Memories I Carry, so Desolate,
An Agonized Song I Sing,
The Barren Lands I Walk Upon,
The Emptiness That Fills Me Within
Mirages on The Way That Beckon,
The stars Shining Upon Me Once, Now Gone...
Under a Chequered Shade, I Rewind,
Wondering Why Life Has Gone Into The Brink,
In Front Of My Destiny I Need To Bow,
Leaving Me With No Other Choice, I Know,
A Ray Of Hope Still Beaming In,
On The Seeds That Had Once Been Sown,
Let It Rain ,no Matter, Let It Snow
But The Grass Will Grow...
I Know,The Grass will GROW."

She, He - A Love Diary

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HE:
I wait everyday till 8.00 in the office even if there is no work. All of my teammates ask me why; how can I tell them that I don't wait for any personal or official work but the only reason why I wait is the 'secretary'- a girl in my 8.00 p.m. Chinchwad bus. 'Secretary' is not her real name, it's sort of a code name given to her by me and my friends. Truly speaking, I like her. She might not be one of those who look like Aishwarya Rai or Preitty Zinta, but she is cute and simple and that's the reason I like her. For past 6 months I have been staring at her in the bus, while going to office and coming back from the office. When I get into bus, somehow my eyes search the whole bus just to have her glimpse.
I never had a girlfriend till now, not that I don't like to have friendship with girls but somehow they usually prefer tall-dark-handsome qualities in their boyfriends, out of which I possess none. I don't want to jump to any relationship like this with the secretary but at least just a friendship, is it possible?
I want to talk to her. I want to have friendship with her. I know her name, for I had seen her ID card one day. But I don't have the guts to talk to her. I even don't know whether she knows me even by face. I know, no one can help me here; no-one other than myself, but I simply have no guts. At least someone probably a common friend, might at least formally introduce us to each other.
SHE:
There is one guy in my office bus. His name is Niranjan. I think he likes me, for me and even my friends have observed him many times staring at myself. Even when he gets into the bus, rather than searching for an empty seat, his eyes search the whole bus for me. Don't know why but I kind of like it. Sometimes the feeling of knowing that someone loves you is far better than actually loving somebody. I didn't have any affair till today, not that I didn't like or love anyone, there was a guy in my college, whom I liked a lot but somehow he stayed away from me, not that he didn't like me but probably because I am not that beautiful and he wanted someone much more better than me.
This guy, Niru, that's what his friends call him, I had heard it once in the bus; he seems to be interested in me, not sure about love as such but friendship might not be bad. At least the guy seems to be descent one. I would like to be his friend, but how can I go forward? After all he is the boy, he should come one step ahead …not me.

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HE:
Today when I got into the bus and looked at her, she returned back a cute smile. Was she serious? I don't know; probably she must have told her friends about me and they must have been making fun of me and that's why when I got into the bus she started laughing and I misunderstood it for smiling. Such a fool of me. Damn, her friends must be having fun discussing things about me.
SHE:
Today when he got into the bus, I smiled at him. But he seemed to be more puzzled than pleased. Is he really interested in having friendship with me or not? I really don't know. Why am I thinking so much about him? Have I started liking him? Or is it just like you just get used to some things as a habit, and then you unknowingly start liking them? I think it's the latter case here. Please god please let that guy be a descent one. My sixth sense says he is a descent guy. I think he must have got puzzled because of the smile I gave him. It wasn't my fault, for I showed him that I am interested in friendship. Now the ball lies in his court. Will he dare first to talk?

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HE:
I am damn confused. I don't know what to do. Every day everyone around me is bombarding me with some tactics to approach her but nothing seems to suit me well. My roommates even started taunting me that I can't have a girlfriend or at least the guts to approach the gal. I am leaving it now on luck. I will just continue whatever is going on; let the luck take us wherever and however intended.
HE:
Nothing unusual or special happened in the last few days. However, today I thought something interesting might happen. The bus was about to start the back-home journey today when she and one of her friends got into the bus. They were searching for a place to sit. I was alone on a seat of three. I was thrilled that she would sit on the same seat beside me. But she just came, momentarily paused at the seat, turned to her friend and just went past; to sit on the last seat. I couldn't see the expressions on her face clearly but what I saw was a face filled up with hate or some similar feeling that clearly showed expression such as whatever might happen, I am not going to sit beside this *****. It was really heartbreaking. It was the biggest insult I had suffered till now. Am I so hopeless?
HE:
Today, there was public holiday so I got lot of time to think and analyze the situation. What was my fault? I haven't done anything wrong. I didn't ever talk to her, I never tried to flirt, I never gossiped about her except for my close friends. I am even sure that none of my co-travelers in the bus know that I like her. Whenever I stare at her I take necessary precaution as not to be too obvious. I don't want to embarrass her in any way. When I am trying my best for this, then why did she have such cruel expressions on the face?
I think either she knows now that I like her and stare at her and she doesn't want to encourage me or simply, she just hates me for no reason, just like many of my classmates who hate me for no reason.
I don't know what to do now, but either ways I think she just doesn't want me to be anywhere around her. She just hates me. Just one more failure. Does it hurt? Yes it does, but I am very much used to it. I'll try my best not to look at her. I don't want to do anything that she doesn't like. I will try to forget her as if she was just one more dream in my life which simply didn't come true. Probably, I don't deserve to be with her. This is fate afterall. I will have to obey it.
SHE:
Today was a holiday. So I couldn't see him, although I wanted to. I actually wanted to apologize for whatever happened yesterday. I got into the bus and searched for the seat. He was sitting alone on the seat for 3, it was a good chance for me to sit with him and have a word or two. I was just thrilled. I was about to sit on the same seat when Kruti said something. I didn't hear it properly so I turned to her. She said, "See, Raghav is there, he has reserved seats for us." I just hate that Raghav, he is always ready to flirt provided the other person is a girl. Whenever I see him, somehow I try my best to be as away from him as I can, I even show hatred to him directly on my face but this guy simply ignores this. I don't know why Kruti likes him so much.
So the point is I went to the seat that Raghav had reserved specially for us. I felt really bad for Niru, but if I would have denied Raghav's offer and would have sat on Niru's seat; it would have just been too obvious. He must have felt embarrassed. Poor guy.

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SHE:
Today he seemed to have lost in thoughts. When he got into the bus, surprisingly he didn't search for me. He even didn't look up. He just went straight to the last seat and started reading a novel. I tried looking at him once or twice but he didn't lift his head at all. I think he is hurt, I am feeling sorry, but what can I do? When we got down at the office gate, I purposefully lingered a bit more at the gates to give back him a smile, but I couldn't spot him in the crowd. Niru, I am sorry, please be normal again.
SHE:
Today I saw him in the food court. He was there with two girls and was chatting, laughing, cracking jokes. He seemed to enjoy the company. Is he also a typical boy who just wants to have as many girls around him as possible? Is he a typical flirt? Does he want me also to get included in that group for showcasing?
Probably the two girls were just good friends of him. At least I hope so. Please god please let those be his sisters or just friends, nothing else.
HE:
Since that evening thing has happened, I have left staring at her. I don't know but some inner voice is telling me to keep away. I am not a street walking beggar to be treated like this. She might consider herself whatever she might think of. She is beautiful, indeed, but that doesn't mean she can insult me like that. I have sward not to look at her again anymore and just to avoid her looks.
But I can't stay like this. I just like her and want to be with her. She has committed a mistake, but wasn't that a bit natural. She doesn't like me and doesn't want to encourage my feelings about her. Simple isn't it? That's it. A complete halt for my feelings and my dreams, but I don't think I can manage not to have even a look at her. Will I be able to do it?
There is some saying, 'Oh god, change the situations around me to favor me. At least give me the strength to change it. If I can't change it, at least give me the strength to bear it.' Oh God, please listen to me.
GOD:
You don't remember me when you are happy or contempt, do you? When there is a problem or a really difficult situation, then you start remembering me or praising me, don't you? I still won't interfere here. My world is a complex entity with each and every thing or event properly planned for some specific future as well as past reason. Why should I interfere and break the balance of all these systems myself?

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HE:
By the time I am writing this, Valentine's Day is already over. It doesn't matter anyways, since nothing unusual has happened today. The day had been very much like other 365 days in the year or probably last 21 valentine's days in my life. I was hoping that I at least get to catch her glimpse but fate didn't seem to favor me even this much. Due to this night shift, I am even deprived of her glimpses. Today, I even lingered a bit at the gates at the usual bus timing to watch her, but she didn't turn up. I think god wants to signal me to keep away from her. My insult that day was the first one and now this was the second one. Ok god, I got it.
SHE:
Valentine's day is over but I couldn't manage even to see him today. I thought today he might come to me and have a talk, but he didn't. Even he is not traveling nowadays by the usual bus. Did he change home or worst the company itself?
Today all my teammates have gone out with their valentines and I am alone back home. That's why I left the office early and came straight back to home. If that evening thing wouldn't have happened, probably today I would not have been alone. I think the fate doesn't want us together. Probably so. Ok god, if this is what is intended for me, ok; I accept it, obviously I anyways don't have any alternative, but still.

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HE:
I was working in the night shift for the whole month so had to travel by cab rather than bus. I used to work from 4.00 p.m. to 2.30 a.m. so naturally I had lost contact with almost all people working in dayshift except for my teammates who would surrender the charge to me while leaving for the day. For the whole month I didn't travel by bus. Obviously didn't see her. She works in the adjacent building only, but I don't know where her cubicle is located exactly and anyways even if I would be knowing that, I don't think I have that much guts to approach her.
For almost a month I didn't see her, but I didn't feel any desperation to see her. I was unbelievably aloof in this case. Was it the effect of that evening incidence?
HE:
Today, the office had planned to screen a movie in the campus. I had seen it but thought of enjoying it with friends in the open air. I took the permission for an hour from my boss and went for that. The dialogues were not much audible on the lawns, but it was fun to watch the movie in an open air theatre like that. I was to leave the place to return to my cubicle and turned around when I saw her standing there just around 10 feet away from me.
I don't know why but my heart started speeding a lot higher than even Michael Schumaker's Ferrari. She just smiled at someone in the crowd at my back, tried her best not to look directly to me and just left the place. I stood there for a minute or two just wondering what had happened.
Why did she smile? Did she feel good that I am still in the same company only or she didn't even take notice of my presence and really smiled at someone in the crowd at my back? But we were so close that it was practically impossible for her to just ignore me.
SHE:
I saw him today, at the movie screening. Thank god he is still working with this company only. I thought of smiling at him and greeting him. I was so happy to see him, I wanted to ask him where he was for so many days, whether he was not well, had he changed his house or was he using bike for the transport, but again I didn't ask a single question. I stayed calm. I didn't want to embarrass him again.
I don't know what I feel about him, but somehow whenever I see him, I do feel better. I hope he starts travelling by bus again. Everyday we can see each other in the morning and wish each other a very good morning without any words or smile but just with a plain look.

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HE(KK):
Today can be called as the luckiest day of my life. I talked to her face to face for the first time. Rajesh, my friend had some work in Nigdi today and was travelling by our bus and surprisingly he knew her well. They were college mates during the degree. He introduced us formally. I was so happy, that I just forgot that sometime back she just avoided sitting beside me. Everything in my brain, all my nervousness, and hatred for her as well as for my loser …all was just washed up.
Now I can talk to her, I hope I can turn this chance to success. Oh god, thanks a lot… Rajesh was just like an angel sent by you.
SHE:
Thanks a lottt god…. I am so happy. Even he was. I could easily make that out from his face. It was just so bright. He still has feelings for me. Thank god, I thought after that day I kinda lost him, but no. Now we can talk to each other officially. No problem of who is first … we are friends now. God you are great.
Rajesh:
Today I was travelling with Niru, my projectmate. Even my best friend in college was traveling by the same bus. It was a really pleasant surprise to see her after a couple of years or so. I think my transfer to Pune will result in some good thing. She has become more beautiful than she was in our college days. Damn.. why the hell did I neglect her in college when she had crush on me… I hope she is still single, not even committed or so. I would like simple girl like to get settled in life. Now I am well settled in job, should go forward with love matter also.
When I introduced Niru to her today, somehow her face lit up as if she was eager to have a word or two with him since many days. Niru's condition was no different. Do they have something between them? I hope there is nothing of such sort. Oh God, thanks a lot that you made me meet her, I hope you help me once again to make her mine. Please just keep Niru out of this.
GOD:
If you get only happiness then you don't feel its value, do you? That's why everything is planned in such a way that whenever you get happy you should understand its true value. I haven't done anything special here. It's all just happening as predefined.

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HE:
Since Rajesh has introduced us to each other, the days have been very good for us. I mean I didn't talk to her or so, but at least we exchange smile regularly. Let's see whether I can sit beside her sometime and have a word or two.
HE:
I sat beside her today in the bus while returning from office. We were chatting a lot, on no specific topics as such, but I really enjoyed her company. She is really a cute, simple and sweet girl. She said she will be reserving a seat for me in the morning bus. Let's see whether she really keeps her promise…
HE:
Since last few days, she had been reserving a seat for me in the morning as well as in the evening bus. We both seem to enjoy each other's company very well. I decided to take a step forward today. I asked her for a cup of coffee in the afternoon. I was a bit depressed about what she might reply but surprisingly, she said yes without even thinking for a moment as if she was actually waiting for such a move from my side. We decided to meet at 4 near the café inside the campus.
She didn't turn up. I don't have her cell number so I even couldn't call her and ask why she did so. It was so embarrassing for me to wait there just alone. Did she do it purposefully? Why? I could make out no sensible reason.
If she would be having a meeting or some office work, she should have informed me. She didn't call me. My extension or even cell number was available with the telephone directory. Did she do it for the only reason that she wanted to show that she doesn't care for me and prove her importance?
SHE:
Today there happened a real disaster. The servers were down and I was so busy in recovering them, debugging the code that I almost forgot I had my first 'date' with Niru. I suddenly remembered it just before going to a meeting at 2 and I was sure that I can easily finish off with the meeting by 4 and meet Niru, but no. The destiny had some other plans. I had to be in meeting till 5. I even couldn't phone Niru and inform him that I am not coming. When the meeting was over, it was already 6. He must have left for the day. He was going to Mumbai today, so he must have left early.
What can I do? I wanted to meet him and apologize face to face. Mail or phone won't do. I hope we meet on Monday. I'll explain him everything. He is a nice guy. He will understand me properly. I am hoping so, obviously I don't have any other option at least till Monday.

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Date:19-March
HE:
I left for the day early today at 6. I had travelled from Mumbai in the morning and so needed rest or was it just to avoid her since she travels by 8 o'clock bus? I don't know the reason but I felt like just avoiding her.
SHE:
Where is he? He must have come from Mumbai in the morning and joined directly, that's why he wasn't in the morning bus, but why not in the usual evening bus at 8? Probably he was tired. Let's hope he meets me tomorrow morning. He will listen to me and this time I will invite him for a coffee or so.

Date: 21-March
HE:
Yesterday, she explained me the whole thing. How stupid of me? I was thinking really absurd things about her. She is such a cute girl; it was not her mistake that she had to attend the meeting. I was kind of ok when she gave me the explanation. The conversation after that just went normal as it used to be earlier. Whatever that might be I am not going to ask her out anymore.

Date: 22-March
HE:
What the hell… what does she think of herself? Today she invited me for a coffee at 4. I went there on time. I didn't want to miss it but again she didn't turn up. Why? Is she just stressing how important she is and how unimportant I am for her? I felt like calling her there only and just ask the reason why is she playing games with me like this. I decided to ask this for full and final what the matter was, but she didn't turn up even for 8 o'clock bus.

Date:27-March
HE:
I couldn't see her for last 5 days. Did she come to office? Isn't she feeling well? I hope she is alright. Oh God, please protect her.

Date: 10-April
Rajesh:
Her father was seriously ill. As a family friend I helped a lot. She couldn't go to office for a week or so, but I helped her in conveying the matter to her seniors. I think this last week helped me a lot as in building a rapport with her and her parents. Fate has given me a good chance to get closer to her, I will do so.

Date:25-April
SHE:
Today I met Niru finally after so many days. I thought he might be still angry about the coffee thing, but to my surprise, he was a bit tensed as to why I was not coming to the office. I explained him that daddy was seriously ill. He enquired about dad's health and then simply changed the subject to turn my attention to somewhere else. He was just trying to take me out of the tension about dad's health. He is such a mature guy, I knew he would understand.

Date: 20-May
SHE:
Niru and I have been going out for a long time now. I have started loving him. I think even he is serious about this relationship but he is younger than me and I don't think he is ready for any commitment at this stage of his life, but mumma and dad are pursuing me for marriage; what should I do? Should I ask him?

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Date: 22-May
SHE:
Niru told me today that he is leaving the company. He has got an admission to MBA in a College in Mumbai. It's really difficult to be away from him at least for 2 years. Should I ask him for a relationship? Will he be ready for that or he just wants to wait till the completion of his MBA? But I can't wait that much. I think I'll better ask him straight about the commitment let's see what he says.

Date: 23-May
Rajesh:
Today I proposed to her. She didn't show any expressions as such on face and asked for sometime to think about it, but I know she must have be just too happy for she had crush on me in our college life. I think she will say 'yes'. Just that I need to confirm that Niru doesn't come in between. Everything should go smooth otherwise. Even her and my parents would not have any problem in fact they would be happy if she and I get into the most beautiful relationship.
HE:
Today she called me up and asked to meet for a coffee at our usual place, but later suddenly she called up to cancel the meeting. I don't know why. She sounded stressed a bit on phone so I concluded it to be the result of work pressure. But when I saw her in the evening in the bus today, she was in a bit off-mood. I don't know why. She then just held my hand. I think she wanted to say something but she was not able to. I couldn't even understand what she wanted to say but I kept mum. When my stop came nearer, she released my hand. I asked her whether she was alright. She didn't reply anything else than 'yes, just fine'.
I tried calling her in the night after dinner, but she didn't pick up. I think she must be stressed because of the work and must have slept early. I hope nothing is wrong. Oh god, please take care of her.
SHE:
Today was the most dreadful day for me. Rajesh proposed to me. My mood was off. I loved him in college but he didn't seem to pay any attention to me. At times he literally avoided me. Later somehow I just managed to overcome that feeling. I loved him, but he didn't. There are no conditions in love afterall. I tried my best to forget feelings about him, at least suppress them. He never seemed to like me. Then why now? Has his feelings really changed ? or he is just playing games with me?
I was going to propose Niru today. It would have been the most crucial moment of my life and this guy, Rajesh just turned off my mood. I was literally shocked to hear from him. Not that I don't like him but now that a couple of years have passed when we had no contact and even Niru is there in my life. Much water has flown down the bridge. I don't know whether I still love him, and I also don't know whether Niru is ready to have a commitment as such with me. I am just confused. Oh god, please help me. Show me some way. Why didn't you device any automatic system to solve such problems?
GOD:
Automatic system? Wow!!! All these software engineers think alike. They think just the computerization of every system solves most of the related problems. But real life is not so simple. The real life is much more complex thing to handle. In arithmetic you have 1+1 =2; but in real life you may have 1+1 as anything but 2. That's life.
About the automatic system to solve the real life problems, I have given you humans one such machine. Some call it heart, some just brain. I gave you the ability to think. You can take decisions based on your prior experience, your conscience and you can very easily use it to make decisions and I am sure even she will find out a way in this ambivalence because even if she does not trust my creations, I do.

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Date: 24-May
SHE:
Yesterday after so many days I cried. I cried a lot. I was completely lost in dilemma. I was not able to think properly. What should I do? I loved Rajesh a couple of years ago but he didn't, at that time. Now he loves me but I love Niru. Rajesh wants to settle down in life and he wants me to be with him. Niru has not planned something of that sort, he is just going to complete his MBA first and then will think of getting settled. Rajesh , he is of my age, very much mature; whereas Niru is younger, a bit of immature but that suits his age. Rajesh, my family knows him very well and will be ready perhaps eager to include him in as my husband; whereas Niru, I haven't told anything about him to mom or dad yet.
But I love Niru a lot, probably more than I used to love Rajesh in college days. How should I make a decision? Based on feeling for love or based on my future, the practical aspects for my life? Where should I go? Oh god, please help me. I need you immensely. Please please, help me make the decision.

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Date: 30-May
HE:
Last few days just flew past like a stormy wind. All those processes I had to undergo in order to leave the company, just because I wanted to pursue better career in MBA rather than staying here and stagnating. A few more days and I am off to achieve my dreams.
Just the problem is, I don't want to leave her, my love, my secretary. I really love her. Since when my infatuation turned into love was unknown even to me. I don't want to leave her but I can't even stay here. Even I am doing MBA in Mumbai not even here in Pune. Will she wait for me for at least 2-3 years which I will need to complete MBA and get settled?
I have said goodbye to everyone, it was not that difficult; but it's definitely not the same with her. I don't know whether I will be able to say her goodbye and how I am going to do that.
SHE:
I have made my decision. I don't know how to convey it but I will have to do it. One of the two hearts is going to get broken but there is no any other way. I have made my decision and I'll stick to it. Oh god, please give me strength to bear everything……….

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Date: 19-June
SHE:
Today was Shri's birthday and also his last day in Pune as well as in this company. He left in the evening for Mumbai. It was really a heartbreaking moment to see him parting, especially when both of us were completely aware that we might not see each other in future. I had made the decision; the only problem was how to convey it to him. I chose to be practical than just blind in love. People give you cool gifts on your birthday but what I gave him was just a shock, a damn big shock. He didn't say anything except for 'congrats' and 'good luck' but his face told me everything he wanted to convey. I cried there standing in the whole crowd of his friends who had gathered to wish him luck and goodbye. He couldn't cry out but if possible, he could just have wept then and there.
I said him sorry that I chose Rajesh over him. What he replied was surprising. He just replied, 'No need to say sorry. It's your life, you have complete right to make a decision and you are mature enough to do so and you have made a wise decision. We were friends and will be, but please don't expect me to keep a contact with you. I loved you and I really loved you from the bottom of my heart. Now whenever I will think of you I will not have anything else than love in my mind and I think same might be the case with you; and that won't be right especially when u will be a married woman; married to someone else. So this is our last meet. Thanks for the friendship and the feeling of love that you gave me. Best luck for your future life.' And he just went inside the bus.
Was he so aloof or he just tried to sound so as not to make me feel worse about our parting? I think for all those days that I spent with Shri, I still couldn't understand him properly. Anyways Shri, what the truth is that I loved you. I loved you like anything but the decision I made was based on practical aspects of life. My decision will prove to be better for both of us and I am damn sure of it. I had started writing diary since when I had seen you for the first time, now since you are not there in my life, I am going to discontinue this practice. This is the last page of my diary. Best luck Shri, for your future. Love you. Bbye.
HE:
This was the worst birthday of my life when I broke up with my love. It can't be termed as a breakup as such but we parted; we parted forever with a promise not to cross the other's life anytime in future. I felt like crying; but boys don't cry, do they? Yes they cry, but secretly….and that's why I am crying now. The whole page is wet because of my tears. Anyways this is the last page. I have decided not to write this diary anymore. This diary had come into my life with secretary, and since secretary is no more with me, what's the purpose of this diary? Secretary, just wanted to say best luck for your future. I Love you. Bye.

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Concluding Part

Rajesh:
Finally, today is that lucky day for me. She said yes. I am so happy. She is mine. Finally my dream has come true. Oh God thanks a lot. You have made my day, in fact my life. Very few people get to live with someone they love; I am one of those lucky ones. My happiness has no bounds. I am very very happy today.
Shri left the company today, I don't know whether we will be able to meet each other in future. I had gone to say good bye and wish good luck to him. He was talking to her. When I saw her face, I again felt some pain in my heart. Are they both having something? If so, why did she say Yes to me? Are they trying to cover-up something? Or is she playing games with me? Or am I coming as an odd between the two? I could see tears in Shri's eyes when he left her and got into the bus. Her condition was no different, in fact she literally cried. She seemed to recover after a couple of minutes but the way she was looking somewhere into the vacuum, her face clearly was clearly telling her diligent attempts to control tears. Oh god, please show me the way. I hope I didn't do anything wrong by proposing her.
The way they both were talking to each other didn't show any sign of quarrel or fight between them. Then why they separated? Or they shared some feeling for each other and none of them just bothered to express it? Whatever the situation might be, she has said 'yes' to me; must be for some reason, whatever ; she is mine now. Shri is her past and she will forget him; in fact she will have to. Whatever the case may be, I love her and that's it.
GOD:
Okay. Here is the end of this story, not a unique; in fact a very very common one. You might be expecting me to interfere in it at the eleventh hour and change the ending so that either; before the bus starts, She runs to the bus and gets into it and goes with Shri to Mumbai or probably when the bus is about to leave, Shri jumps out and hugs her or Rajesh feels something wrong and just takes her on bike and follows the bus just to stop it and make her get into the bus for Shri and so on? Nopes. This is not a Tamil film. This is a real life story and not a reel life one.
She took the decision wisely after evaluating each option she had. She had thought practically in every aspect. Won't interference by me be just injustice to her thoughts? Won't it be a betrayal to her trust that the option she chose is the best one? Won't it be just a wrong deed on my side and that too just to please some others without any particularly sensible reason?
As I said, I have made this world with some predefined rules. The balance of this world totally depends on the events that are happening every now and then. No event is of more or less important than the other. Every moment, situation, event has some sort of purpose and so stands of equal importance. The purpose might not be directly related to you but it can also affect you indirectly. As said before, I had already decided not to intervene and I stuck to my word. Now you will say that it's me only who decides everything ultimately. Yes. Indeed true but that's what my point is. I decided her fate to be with Rajesh, that's it. I hope you understand; in fact I am sure you will … again that's what your fate says….

RMS Titanic

RMS Titanic; The Not-So Unsinkable Ship

The brief life of the second sister
1911~1912

In 1898, Morgan Robertson (1861 - 1915), published his latest book. Robertson, the son of a sea captain, had joined the merchant marine service in 1877. By now he was a popular American writer of sea adventures. His latest book was about a gigantic ship wreck. The ship in the story was an 800 foot steel giant with three propellers, two masts, many water-tight compartments, and a top speed of more than 20 knots. She was the most luxurious and biggest ship in the world. Unfortunately, she had too few lifeboats. In the novel, the ship was struck by an iceberg on her starboard side at about midnight, sometime in April, and sank in the North Atlantic with a huge loss of life. Robertson named the book, Futility, and he called the ship, the Titan.

On March 31, 1909, three months after work started on the first "Olympic-class" ocean liner Olympic, work was started on the second and most famous of the three. When J. Bruce Ismay, superintendent of the White Star Line, picked out her name, he had no idea how famous it would become. He named the ship, Titanic.

For her brief life, Titanic was the largest moving object in the world. She was even more luxurious than her sister Olympic in that, she had two huge state rooms, each with it's own private promenade. She also had an enclosed forward promenade and a restaurant called the Cafe` Parisien. Although in 1913, Olympic had these features added to her, for the moment, Titanic was more luxurious.

On May 31, 1911, Titanic was launched. She was put under the command of Captain Edward John Smith who was captain of Olympic for her first nine voyages before being transferred to this ship. The maiden voyage of Titanic was to be his last. After that, he was going to retire. The launch lasted only a minute. It took many tons of soap and oil to grease the runway that she slid down into the water. She wasn't christened because it was customary for the White Star Line to launch without a christening. The next ten months were spent installing machinery and fitting her interiors. On February 3, 1912 she was dry docked in the Thomson Graving Dock in Belfast, Northern Ireland where her propellers were put on and a final coat of paint was applied. At the beginning of March she, for a short while, joined her sister Olympic, who returned to dry dock for the replacement of a propeller blade on one of her three propellers.

On April 2, 1912, Titanic set sail from Belfast on her sea trials. By the morning of April 10, 1912, she was sitting in Southampton, taking aboard her first passengers. Some of the passengers boarding here where supposed to go on other ships. But because of a coal strike, which meant that the people who dug up coal refused to work, there wasn't enough coal to power all the ships, so they were transferred to Titanic. It was almost noon when she left the White Star pier. Not many people know that disaster almost struck immediately. As she moved at six knots through the harbor, the huge suction made by the propellers caused the steamer New York, which was tied to the dock, to snap her lines and swing away from the dock to the port side. Tug boats frantically tried to get a line on the New York and Captain Smith cut the engines. The tug boat Vulcan was able to get New York out of the way without a collision. Although the incident ended happy, many passengers thought that this was a bad sign.

Titanic moved on to Cherbourg, France where more people boarded. Since Cherbourg didn't have a deep enough port for Titanic, she had to anchor off the coast and wait for her next load of passengers to be ferried out to her onboard the ferries Nomadic and Traffic. These small ships where specially built for the Olympic-class ships, to replace the older ferry, Gallic, which was too small for ships the size of Titanic and Olympic. It was unknown to the passengers that many decks below, there was a coal fire in Boiler Room 5. Nine or ten men were assigned to hose down the fire and empty the coal bunker that was on fire.

The ship then moved on to Queenstown, Ireland to pick up her last passengers. Again, she had to anchor off the coast while this time, the ferries Ireland and America brought her the passengers and mail. After the last people boarded, she set sail from Ireland carrying about 2220 people. Her 1335 passengers included many rich and famous. There was Scotland's Countess of Rothes. Mr. John Thayer, vice-president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and his family. The richest man in America, Mr. John Jacob Astor and his significantly younger and pregnant second wife of seven months, Madeleine. There was mining millionaire Benjamin Guggenheim, British royals Sir Cosmo and Lady Lucile Duff Gordon, and the famous Denver millionairess, Molly Brown, who by the end of this voyage would have the title, "The Unsinkable Molly Brown".

Over the next three days, it was a regular voyage. Thomas Andrews, the nephew of Lord Pirrie and managing director of Harland & Wolff, the company that built Titanic and her sisters, strolled the ship. Like Ismay on the maiden voyage of Olympic, he walked around, noting any flaws. During the voyage, millionaire George Widner of Philadelphia had a dinner party in the luxurious A la Carte Restaurant on C-deck. The gymnasium and racquet instructors encouraged people to use the gym equipment and racquet courts. The band played for the passengers at dinner, people used the pool and Turkish baths, third class passengers danced in the general room and in the well decks while the barber sold souvenirs to passengers. Stewards and stewardesses of all classes also played cards in the dinning saloons after their passengers had gone to bed.

From Friday to Sunday, Titanic's wireless operators, John "Jack" Phillips and HaroldBride, received a large amount of ice warnings. The first few were sent to the captain at once. But as time went on, more and more passenger messages came into the wireless room and soon, there were so many, that they didn't have time to sent ice warnings to the bridge. Capt. Smith had told them that sending the passenger messages was very important; they were, after all, from paying customers. So, if Phillips and Bride wanted to get paid, they had to put passenger messages above everything else.

On the night of Sunday, April 14, 1912 at about 11:40 PM, the unthinkable happened. Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee, two of the ship's look-outs, spotted an iceberg. First Officer Murdoch ordered the ship to be put hard to starboard. By turning the wheel to starboard, the ship would turn to port. He also ordered the engines to be put in full reverse. The iceberg kept getting closer and closer. Slowly, the ship began to turn. However, the turn came too late, Titanic was hit!

The impact was so subtle, most people slept right through it. Second class chief steward John Hardy, who was awake at the time, later described it as, "A slight jar, a gradual jar; I did not think it was anything at all." Frederick Fleet said it was, "Just a slight grinding noise." To first class passenger George Harder, it was, "a sort of rumbling, scraping noise." Second class passenger Lawrence Beesley later wrote, "There came what seemed to me, nothing more than an extra heave of the engines, nothing more than that." In the backs of their heels, awake passengers and crew felt a slight vibration, nothing more.

However, six small slits were cut into the ship's starboard side. In all, twelve square feet of the ship was left open to the sea. How could this be? Nineteen-twelve steel was weaker than steel today, but it should be able to hold up against a berg, right? Wrong. The cold waters of the Atlantic made her steel very brittle. Water began flowing in quickly. Thomas Andrews went down to G-deck to examine the damage. What he saw was devastating. The berg had damaged the first six of Titanic's water-tight compartments. She could stay afloat with her first four compartments damaged, but not six. At the same time, Captain Smith ordered Titanic's wireless operators, Jack Phillips and Harold Bride to send out distress messages.

"What are you sending?" Bride asked a few minutes later.

"CQD," replied Phillips. CQD was the standard call for distress at that time.

"Send SOS," Bride suggested. "It's the new call and it may be your last chance to send it." The men chuckled, then went on with there work.

It was 12:45 am, about an hour after Titanic had hit the iceberg, that the first life boat, No. 7, was lowered. The ship would have had 48 life boats to carry all passengers and crew. But, the line thought it would take up too much deck space for first and second class passengers. So, they only had fourteen standard boats that could hold sixty-five people, two emergency boats that could hold forty (emergency boats were just mini regular boats), and four collapsible life boats that could hold fifty-nine to sixty people (collapsible boats had a wooden bottom but their sides were canvas. You could fold them down to store the boat better.). The ship had a total of twenty boats, more than the required sixteen, but still not enough.

As if having too few boats was enough, No. 7, a standard boat, was launched with only twenty-eight people in it. The next boat, No. 5, left only half full. In fact, most of the first boats to leave left this way. Emergency lifeboat No. 1 left the ship holding only twelve! This went on because the officers loading the boats didn't know that the boats had been tested and were capable of holding a lot of people. They were afraid that the boats would crack. However, after Thomas Andrews came out on deck and informed them about the boats, they began launching them with more people in them, although only one or two boats left the ship completely filled. It was around this time that Fourth Officer Boxhall fired the first distress rockets.

In the beginning, not many passengers believed that the ship was really in danger so they didn't want to go in the boats. Most were confidant that the ship's safety features would keep her afloat. Even if the ship did founder, they were sure she would stay up long enough for help to arrive. Marjorie Newell-Robb was traveling with her father Arthur Newell and sister Madeline. After putting Marjorie and her sister in life boat No. 6, he said to them, "It seems more dangerous for you to get into that boat, than to stay here with me." However, Arthur died, and Marjorie and Madeline lived. Although on the upper part of the ship, everything seamed fine, down in the third class and crew area's of decks G and F, water was flooding in at a very fast rate.

Somewhere between ten and twenty miles away was the Leyland Liner, Californian. This ship had stopped for the night due to ice. The ship's officers reported that they did see some strange ship in the night firing rockets in the night, but the officers on the ship had always been told, if you don't understand the signal, it's best to stay away. The Californian had also turned of it's wireless and didn't hear Titanic's calls. The officers tried to contact Titanic using a lamp, but when they got no reply, the disregarded it as just a passing liner. The next closest shipwas the Mount Temple, about forty to fifty miles away. Unfortunately, a treacherous ice field lay between her and the sinking ship. There was no hope of her getting through in time. The next closest ship to Titanic was the Cunard Liner, Carpathia, fifty-eight miles away! Jack Phillips had reached this ship on the wireless. Right after getting the distress signal, Carpathia's wireless operator, Harold Cottam, informed his captain, Arthur Rostron. Rostron immediately altered the ship's course. They began racing towards the sinking ship their full speed of fifteen knots.

At the same time down in third class, there was complete chaos. Not many of the steerage passengers spoke English, so very few of them knew what was going on. Third class was seperated from second class and first class by locked gates. Unfortunatly, to some crew members, it was more important to save first and second class passengers than it was to save third class passengers. Daniel Buckley of third class later described being kept below. "They tried to keep us down on our steerage deck. They didn't want us to go up to the first class place at all. There was one steerage passenger, and just as he was going through a little gate, a fellow came along and shoved him back down into the steerage place." Buckley and a few others then bashed the gate and forced there way up to the boat deck where they got into boat No. 13. Most were dragged out of the boat by officers but an unknown woman wrapped her shawl around Buckley. The officers let him stay in the boat because they though he was a woman.

As time went on, Titanic sank lower and lower into the water. By 1:45 A.M., water had flooded all the way up to B-deck. By now, it was un-deniable that the ship was in trouble. It was at about this time that boats 2 and 4 began to row away from the ship. With all the standard and emergency boats gone, crew members were now working to load collapsible life boats C and D.

Second class passenger Winnie Troutt had made no attempt to save herself the entire night. She didn't think that a single woman like herself should be saved while husbands and wives were being separated.

Suddenly, a man holding a baby came up to her. Although he didn't want to be saved, there was no one to save the baby. With no one else willing, Winnie said that she would save the child. She now had a good reason to be rescued. She then made her way to collapsible D and a crew member helped her and the baby into the boat. Once the boat was loaded , Chief Officer Wilde ordered it to be lowered. As it slowly descended to the water, passengers Hugh Woolner and Mauritz Björnström-Steffansson, who had helped load and launch collapsible C, saw that although the boat was mostly full, there was a small space in the bow of the life boat. The two men leaped over the side of the ship. Steffanson landed in it the life boat, but Woolner found himself hanging over the side and Steffanson pulled him in.

By now, the water was just beginning to wet the forward part of the boat deck. There were now only two collapsible life boats left and over 1550 people still on the ship. In an article that appeared in the April 28, 1912 edition of The New York Times, Harold Bride described what happened next in the wireless room. "I looked out. The boat deck was awash. [Jack] Phillips clung on sending and sending. He clung on for about ten minutes, or maybe fifteen minutes, after the captain had released him. The water was then coming into our
cabin.

While he worked, something happened I hate to tell about. I was back in our room getting Phillips' money for him, and as I looked out the door, I saw a stoker, or somebody from below decks, leaning over Phillips from behind. He was too busy to notice what the man was doing. The man was slipping the lifebelt off Phillips' back!

He was a big man, too. I am very small. I don't know what it was I got hold of. I remembered in a flash the way Phillips had clung on - how I had to fix his lifebelt because he was too busy to do it.

I knew that man from below decks had his own lifebelt and should have known where to get it. I suddenly felt a passion not to let that man die a decent sailor's death. I wished he might have stretched rope or walked the plank. I did my duty. I hope I finished him. I don't know. We left him on the cabin floor of the wireless room, and he was not moving."

After this event, Bride and Phillips left the wireless room. Phillips ran up aft and that was the last time Bride ever saw him alive. Bride then went to work on freeing collapsibles A and B. The two boats were stored on the roof of the officers' quarters. For collapsible A, crew men leaned several oars against the roof and the boat successfully slid down to the boat deck. Despite Sixth Officer Moody's idea that they should slide the boat into the water and let it be carried up, the crew members began to hook it up to the davits. Crew men attempted to do the same thing with collapsible B as had been done with A, but instead, B landed up-side-down. Before they had time to turn it over, the rising waters lifted up the boat. It was washed clear of the ship by the wave produced when the forward funnel collapsed and it drifted away with a few men clinging to it's bottom. More people would climb on as the boat drifted away from the ship. One of them was Second Officer Lightoller who had taken charge of the situation that night. In the air pocket under the overturned boat was Harold Bride. On top of the boat was his co- worker and friend Jack Phillips.

At the same time on the starboard side of the ship, many of the people in collapsible A, who were just ready to shove off, were washed out by the wave of the rising water. The boat eventually drifted away, less that half full and very low in the water. Many of that boat's occupants suffered from frost bitten feet because of the freezing water in the bottom of the boat.

At the same time on the Carpathia, there was lots of confusion. The passengers didn't know that Carpathia was preparing to save the passengers and crew of the sinking Titanic. They wondered, why were the crew members getting blankets and cots ready? Why were the cooks making large amounts of food and setting up tables in the dining rooms; breakfast wouldn't be served for many hours. Capt. Rostron had ordered the crew to ready the life boats so that they could be used to ferry passengers and crew to Carpathia if by chance, she managed to get to Titanic before the ship foundered. However, when passengers saw the boats uncovered, they began to worry that Carpathia was in danger. There was even a rumor going around that Carpathia had struck an iceberg and was sinking. Fourtunatly, this wasn't the case.
Although she was steaming towards Titanic at her top speed, the tiny Cunard Liner was still many miles away from the sinking liner.

By now on Titanic, all the boats were gone and more than 1520 people were left behind! At about 2:20, the stern rose high in the air. The lights, which had been bright the entire night, flickered, then went off. Suddenly, the ship violently cracked in two! The bow went down, and the stern quickly began to flood. After a few moments, the stern rose completely vertical. It bobbed up there for a minute or two, then foundered. Chief baker Charles Joughin, who was on the very stern as it went down, described it as riding an elevator. Joughin had drunk a lot of alcohol that night so he was well insulated against the twenty-eight degree water. He soon located collapsible B, which was only a few hundred meters away, and began paddling towards it. Eventually, he got on.

"She's gone lads!" a man in boat No. 3 yelled. It was true. The great ocean liner was now lost. All she left behind was twenty lifeboats, many bodies, and hundreds of deck chairs floating in the water. In boat No. 1, the boat with only twelve people in it, leading fireman Charles Hendrickson, proposed the idea of going back to pick up swimmers, but was overruled. In boat No. 8, the Countess of Rothes and three others, also suggested the idea, but the same thing happened. The same went for most of the lifeboats.

Boat No. 4, did go back and picked up seven swimmers, all of them crew members. They were Steward Andrew Cunningham, Assistant Storekeeper Frank Prentice, Steward Sidney Siebert (who died within a few hours), Able Bodied Seaman William Lyons (who also died within a few hours), Trimmer Thomas Dillon, Greaser Alfred White, and Lamp Trimmer Samuel Hemming.

For people in the boats, things were hard. They had no food, no compasses, and very few blankets. Also, there weren't enough seamen in all of the boats to operate them. So, people like high-class men and women who had never before lifted a finger in labor now found themselves rowing oars and doing other things like that..

In life boat No. 6, Molly Brown took over. Despite the objections of Quartermaster Hichens, the man put in charge, Mrs. Brown had the women in the boat take turns rowing to keep warm and had people rotate on the job of manning the rudder. She gave her jacket to one person to keep him warm and had the people in the life boat sing too.

Atop collapsible B, thirty men, including Colonel Archiblad Gracie, who would later write a detailed account of the disaster, began to recite the Lord's Prayer. On this boat Officer Lightoller had them all stand and sit in certain places to keep the boat balenced. The frozen occupant's of the swamped collapsible A, who were shin deep in water, also said the Lord's Prayer as they tried to keep warm. Three of this boat's passengers would not make it through the night.

Fifth Officer Lowe in boat No. 14, had round up boats 10, 12, 4, and collapsible D. He ordered the five boats to be tied together. Lowe then evenly distributed the passengers and crew among four of the boats, and then, with a few other seamen, began to row No. 14 back to the scene. Sadly, they only found four living. they were third class passenger F. Lang, Steward Jack Stewart, first class passenger William Hoyt (who died within a few hours), and later, Bath Attendant Harold Phillimore. As time went on, there was nothing to do but wait.

Finally, at about 4:00 AM, Carpathia was seen on the horizon. In boat No. 15, men used pieces of cloth as torches, in hopes to signal the liner. In emergency life boat No. 2, Fourth Officer Boxhall used green flares to do the same thing. People in all the lifeboats began lighting hats and pieces of paper on fire to use for signaling. Those without a torch or flash light, screamed at the top of their lungs to get the ship's attention. On collapsible B, Second Officer Lightoller began blowing his whistle. One by one, the boats came a long side Carpathia to be picked up. Since two, including Jack Phillips, had froze to death in the night, the now twenty- eight men clinging to collapsible B, leaped from that boat, to boats 4 and 12. They included Harold Bride, Officer Lightoller, and Colonel Gracie. Other boats were emptied, then cast adrift or taken onto the ship. After an unsuccessful search for survivors in the water, Carpathia set sail for New York City with her crew, 750 passengers, over 700 survivors, and thirteen of
Titanic's lifeboats, plus her own boats.

Of the 2220 people onboard Titanic, only 705 were saved. Among them was J. Bruce Ismay who had filled an empty space in collapsible C as it was being lowered. Although if he hadn't taken the seat it would have just gone empty, the papers criticized him for saving himself while others died. In first class, a total of 199 people were saved and 130 were lost. In second class, 119 were saved and 166 died. In third class, 174 were saved and 536 died. In the crew, 214 people were saved and 685 were lost. Of the eight officers, Captain E.J. Smith, Chief Officer Henry Wilde, First Officer William Murdoch, and Sixth Officer James Moody, perished. Only Second Officer Charles Lightoller, Third Officer Herbert Pitman, Forth Officer Joseph Boxhall, and Fifth Officer Harold Lowe survived. Thomas Andrews also perished. He was last seen in a state of shock in the 1st class smoking room, as the ship he built sank beneath him. None of the eight band members, who had nobly played to the very end to stop panic, survived. Of the twenty boats, only No. 14 and No. 4, had returned to save people after the ship had gone down.

In 1985, Robert Ballard, with two others, Ralph Hollis and Martin Bowen, peered through the icy waters, more that two miles down on the ocean floor. They found Titanic's wreck using a small sub named Alvin. It was the first time Titanic had seen light in over 70 years. Since then, many expeditions have been made and many artifacts have been surfaced.

At the American and British inquires into the loss of Titanic shortly after the disaster, many questions arouse. Why had the captain sailed through an ice field at 23 knots (the ship's top
speed)? Why didn't the Californian take action when she saw the flares in the night? Was there
another ship in between the Californian and the Titanic? Many people thought that the watertight doors should have been left open to cause even flooding. Although a test done on that theory over eighty years later proves that if the doors had been left open, the ship would have rolled onto it's side and sunk a full thirty minutes earlier that the real Titanic did, they didn't know that back then. We also know now that if the ship had rammed straight into the iceberg, only the first compartment would have been damaged and the ship wouldn't have foundered. But for the most part, the captain and officers did what they thought was best. I really don't think we should place the blame of the sinking on anyone. How can we? No one wanted Titanic to go down and no one meant for it to happen.

The day after the sinking, the Prinz Albert of the Hamburg-Amerika Line reported passing a large iceberg. On one side, red paint "which had the appearance of having been made by the scraping of a vessel on the berg", a watcher said, was plainly visible. The ship's passengers and crew watched as the iceberg sailed on.

Summary:The Royal Mail Ship Titanic was the second Olympic-class ship built by the White Star Line. She was build between the years of 1909 and 1911. She left Great Britain on her maiden voyage on April 10, 1912 under the command of Capt. Edward J. Smith. On the night of April 14, at 11:40 pm, the ship struck an iceberg. Unfortunatly, she did not have enough life boats for all her passengers and crew. She only had twenty boats, she would have needed fourty-eight. At 2:20 am on the morning of April 15, the ship broke in two and foundered. Of the 2220 people on her, only 705 were saved. The liner, Carpathia saved the ship's life boats and took the survivors to New York City.

"RMS" stands for royal mail ship or steamer (ships with this title have a room for transporting mail onboard).

"HMHS" stands for His or Her Majesties Hospital Ship (This just ment that they were a British red cross ship).

"HMS" stands for His or Her Majesties Ship (this was a title given to ships of the British Royal Navy).

"SS" stands for Steam Ship or Sailing Ship (although with modern cruise ships "SS" has come to mean other things like State Ship or Star Ship).

HMHS Britannic

HMHS Britannic; The Forgotten Sister

The short life of the third sister
1914~1916

On November 30, 1911, work began on the last and largest of the three "Olympic- class" ocean liners in slip No. 2 on the North Yard of Belfast Ship Yards in Belfast, Northern Ireland. That was the same slip where Olympic was built. In April of 1912 however, construction was stopped because of the sinking of Titanic. When work was restarted many changes to the design were made. The double bottom was extended up the side of the ship to give her a double skin, the water tight bulkheads were also extended up, and other safety
features were put in, making the ship capable of staying afloat with her first six compartments damaged (two more than Titanic). She could now survive the damage that sank her sister.

Five new life boat davits were also added. These new and larger davits, were each responsible for launching six of the largest lifeboats on the ship. In the event that the ship heavily tilted to one side, if it was ever to sink, in spots were a funnel didn't block the way, these davits were able to reach across the boat deck and pick up boats from the other side. In between the large davits were smaller, Wellin Davits, like the ones used on Titanic. At 48,158 tons, this new liner was the largest British ship at that time. Unlike her sisters though, this ship was never the largest ship in the world because in 1913, the Hamburg-Amerika Line's Imperiator, followed shortly after that by her sister the Vaterland, entered service and became the largest ship in the world at more than 900 feet (a little more than 300 meters) in length.

The White Star Line's Britannic was launched on February 26, 1914. Originally she was to be called Gigantic, but White Star chose the name Britannic to be patriotic with Europe on the brink of war. This ship was to be the most luxurious of the trio. The first class reception room was to be grander that the ones on Olympic and Titanic ever were or would be, the A la Carte Restaurant and First Class Smoking Room were to be expanded, and they were even planning to grace the forward grand staircase with an elegant pipe organ. Like her sisters she'd be able to carry about 790 first class passengers, 835 second class passengers, 950 third class passengers, and 950 crew members.

But Britannic's grand entry into commercial service was to be changed due to the outbreak of World War One in July of 1914. Shortly after that, the British government began pulling ships out of comercial service to use them for war duties. This caused a large drop in the number of passengers crossing the ocean. After only a few months, White Star alone had six of it's ships taken by the British Admeralty. However, the line was getting paid good money per ship for every month the ships were used. Few people at the White Star offices were very worried about their ships being sunk in the war because most people were sure it would be over by Christmas. Unfortunatly, this was not the case.

The First World War was a new kind of war. All the new technology invented during the turn of the century that was supposed to make life better, was now being used for it's destruction. Armies now had, for the first time, air planes that they could use to bomb trenches and troop vehicles. In earlier wars, troops had to use rifles which could only fire a few shots, one shot at a time, before they had to be re-loaded. But now, there was the machine gun, which could fire large amounts of bullets in only seconds. There were submerines, also called U-boats, which could sink ships from under water without being detected. There was a new type of poisonus gas that, when sprayed on people, could slowly but painfully kill them over a period of up to two days.With all this new technology, soldiers were no longer dying one by one, but in big amounts, very quickly.

The Straits of the Dardanelles are the small water passages that connect the Mediterranean Sea with the Black Sea. During the First World War, there was a great struggle to control this area because it was a major seaport for Russia. Many soldiers where wounded and the hospital ships that were supposed to take the soldiers back to England and France were too small to carry large amounts of men. So, the British Admiralty gathered together the two Cunard Liners, Mauretania and Aquitania.

Unfortunatly, the two super-liners could not keep up with all the wounded. Then, the Admeralty remebered the Britannic. Her fitting out had not been finished because all of the materials that would have been used for her were needed for the war. So, on November 13, 1915, after spending and entire year sitting in Belfast and doing nothing, Britannic was commissioned as a hospital ship by the British Admiralty and her lavish interiors were converted into dormitories and operating rooms. The first class reception room and dinning saloon became an intensive care ward. Places like the first, second, and third class lounges, smoking rooms, and dining saloons became dormitories. The beautiful promenades would be used as airy hospital wards. And her luxurious state rooms became doctors offices and hospital rooms.

Complete with a green stripe and six red crosses on her hull, on December 12, 1915, Britannic was ready for war service. She arrived in Liverpool, England and was fitted for her duties as a hospital ship with 2034 berths (beds) and 1035 cots (fold-up beds), as well as a staff of 52 officers, 101 doctors and nurses, 336 orderlies (hospital attendants), and a crew of 675 men and women. The ship was able to carry a total of 3309 patients. She was put under the command of Captain Charles A. Bartlett. He started his career with the White Star Line in 1874 and earned his Masters Certificate in 1903. Although passengers loved him, he wasn't a favorite of the White Star Line because of his concern for safety over speed.

The Britannic was designated "His Majesty's Hospital Ship" (HMHS), hospital ship No. G618. She left Liverpool on her maiden voyage on December 23, 1915, bound for Naples, Italy and the port of Mudros on the Greek island of Lemnos. The tiny island of Lemnos had been chosen as a base for attack on the Dardanelles. However, it was later found that this would be a great spot for hospital ships to pick up wounded soldiers. Unlike her sisters, Britannic had no celebration for her maiden voyage, no parties, no cheering crowds. She joined the Mauretania, Aquitania, and later, the Statendam in the Dardanelles Service. All together, the ships could carry more than 10,000 sick and wounded. The Lusitania was not with her sister Mauretania because she was sunk by a German U-boat in May of 1915 with a great loss of
life. Although her main service would be the Dardanelles, Britannic would also be used for other
places as well.

For the people who worked on Britannic, the huge ship became a home. Christmas was celebrated on her in 1915 as she sailed for Naples, Italy. It took five days to get from England to Italy and Britannic arrived there on December 28. It was common for hospital ships to get filled up with coal here so that, after taking on wounded soldiers, they could make a non-stop dash back home. Once Britannic and her fellow ships had loaded up on coal, they departed on December 29, 1915 and headed for Mudros. It took her two days to get there.

Britannic spent four days at Mudros and took on 3,300 wounded and sick military personnel. She and her comrades would have to anchor off the coast of Mudros, because of there size, while many smaller ships would ferry the wounded from the docks to the great liners. She returned to Great Britain on January 9, 1916 where her patients were put on waiting trains to be taken to hospitals in London, England. The second voyage was shorter than her maiden one. She left on January 20 and this time, she only sailed as far as Naples where she took on wounded and returned to England on February 9, 1916.

On Britannic, there was a routine that everyone had to follow. Patients had to be woken up at 6:00 am so that the wards and beds could be cleaned. Breakfast was served at 7:30. After eating, the staff had to clean the dinning rooms. The captain would inspect the ship at 11:00 to make sure everything was running smoothly. At 12:30, lunch was served, and after that, the wards and dinning rooms had to be cleaned again. Tea was served at 4:30 and at 8:30, patients were put to bed. At 9:00, the captain made one last inspection of the ship before going to bed. In between meals, patients would be treated for whatever wound or illness they had. If they weren't schedualded for any treatment, those who were well enought would be allowed to go on deck and get some freash air.

For her third voyage, Britannic left England on March 20, 1916, and arrived in Naples on March 25. She left two days later and headed for Augusta, a port city on the Italian island of Sicily. After taking on wounded, she left Augusta on March 30 and arrived in Southampton on April 4, 1916. She then left Southampton and went to Belfast where she was released from war service. Harland & Wolff had just begun to refit her for commercial service, when the British Admiralty recalled her to war service and she returned to Southampton on August 28, 1916.

The Britannic then went to the port city of Cowes on the British, Isle of Wight and spent four weeks here as a floating hospital. She left Cowes and began her fourth voyage on September 24, 1916. For this trip, she transported members of the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD). Following her coaling stop at Naples, the ship arrived at Mudros on October 3, 1916. Here, the VAD members were transferred to the HMHS Galeka. At Mudros, officials investigated the possible cause of food poisoning which had stricken some of the staff and crew.

Britannic returned to Southampton on October 11, 1916. For the fifth voyage, Britannic left on the twentieth of October and went from Southampton, to Naples, to Mudros, and back. The ship encountered heavy sea storms on the last day of this voyage. Fortunately, she safely made it to Southampton and her patients were transferred to waiting trains. The HMHS Aquitania had suffered damage in the same storms and was unable to make the trip back to the Mediterranean to pick up more wounded. So, Britannic had to fill Aquitania's spot and start her sixth voyage after only four days in port.

She left Southampton on Sunday, November 12, 1916. The trip to Italy was uneventful. On Friday November 17, she arrived at Naples, for coaling. She was supposed to leave there on November 18, but rough seas delayed her departure for a day. Tuesday, November 21, 1916, was a perfect day. As the sun shown down, the HMHS Britannic steamed through the Kea Channel, the small water way between the tiny Greek island of Kea and the Greek mainland, on her way to the island of Lemnos. At about 8:00 am, the crewmen who worked down in the boiler and engine rooms, were changing sifts. To make changes like this quicker, the officers sometimes opened the water tight doors for a short time.

It was a few minutes after 8:00 am when Sheila Macbeth, a nurse onboard who had slept very late, rushed into the dinning saloon. "I only managed to get two spoonfuls of porridge," she said, "before: BANG! and a shiver right down the length of the ship." Britannic's Presbyterian minister, John Fleming, was just walking out of his cabin, "when there was a great crash," he wrote, "the great ship shuddered for a moment from end to end." Historians aren't sure but Britannic either struck a mine (laid by German U-boat, U-73 ) or was torpedoed.

The Britannic now began sinking at the bow. Captain Bartlett ordered the wireless operators to send out distress signals. He then ordered the crew to ready the lifeboats and sound the general alarm, the alarm that told everyone that there was an emergency. It was then that Sheila Macbeth ran to her cabin. She grabbed a few things, put on her life jacket, then took one last look at her room before running up to the boat deck. She then got into a boat and was saved.

At the same time, Violet Jessop, a nurse's aid onboard, was fixing a breakfast tray for a friend who was too sick to eat in the dinning room. She later wrote in her memoirs, "Suddenly, there was a dull, deafening roar." Although she though that the ship was in danger, she calmly helped her friend eat breakfast, then she sent her, with a companion, up to the boat deck. At that time, she grabbed a few things from her cabin. Most importantly, her ring, her clock, and a toothbrush. She then went up to the boat deck got into a lifeboat. It was at this time that the captain tried unsuccessfully to beach the ship on Kea Island, only two miles away. This was his only real mistake. By doing this, he pushed more water into Britannic's wound. He finally cut the engines. However, before the ship stopped moving, two lifeboats were launched. In one of them was Violet Jessop. Once the boats were detached from the ship, they were sucked into the still turning propellers. Violet and a few others leaped out of the boats before they (the lifeboats) were cut to pieces.

Unfortunatly, Violet did not know how to swim. She kicked very hard, trying to get the water's surface. As she came up, she hit her head on the bottom of a life boat and again began sinking. Fortunatly, she found the hand of a man in the water and together the two people swam to the surface. They were then picked up by another life boat. Violet survived, some of her co- workers were not so lucky.

This was not the first emergency Violet Jessop had been in. She was a stewardess onboard Britannic's sister, RMS Olympic when the Olympic and Hawke collision occurred. She was also a stewardess on the RMS Titanic when it sank. She there for survived all three Olympic-class ship emergencies.

As time went on, more boats were launched. On the whole, the evacuation of Britannic was successful and orderly. Of the approximate 1066 people onboard her at the time, only thirty died. Most deaths, if not all of them, were due to the propeller incident. Had Britannic been carrying her full quota of more than 3000 injured soldiers, her deaths would have rivaled Titanic's. In one of the last boats to leave the ship, was Major Harold Priestly, who had taken a leading role in the evacuation of the ship that day, and the ship's log. Captain Bartlett was the last to leave the ship. After giving one last blast on her whistle, he jumped off the deck and into the water. He swam away from Britannic and entered an empty collapsible lifeboat that had drifted away from the great liner. Alone in the lifeboat, he watched his ship disappear under the calm waters.

Violet Jessop described the ship's final moments in her memoirs. "She dipped her head a little, then a little lower and still lower. All the deck machinery fell into the sea like a child's toys. Then she took a fearful plunge, her stern rearing hundreds of feet into the air until, with a final roar, she disappeared into the depths, the noise of her going resounding through the water with undreamt-of violence." It was about fifty-five minutes after the explosion, and the largest British ship at that time was gone. Thirty-five lifeboats, with 1036 survivors in them, now lay scattered on the sea.

Help was at hand though. Many ships had heard Britannic's distress call. The first ship to come was the British cruiser, HMS Heroic, followed by a local fishing boat. The two ships began taking on survivors. Shortly after that, the G-class destroyer, HMS Srourge arrived. An hour or two after that, another G-class destroyer, the HMS Foxhound, came to rescue the remaining survivors. From these ships, the women and commanding officers were put on a boat to the small island of Malta. There they waited until a hospital ship took them back to Britain. The rest of the men were sent to Marseilles, France. From there they traveled on trains to Le Havre, and then made the quick trip across the English Channel to England.

Even with all her modifications Britannic still sank. The first five watertight compartments were flooded. The sixth one was also flooded because the watertight door separating the fifth and sixth compartments didn't close all the way. The ship was capable of staying afloat with her first six compartments damaged. However, most of the ship's windows were open because the nurses where airing out the ship for the wounded soldiers that were going to board her in a few hours. This let water get in because with all the water in her bow, the ship was a little low in the water. Had the windows been shut, she probably wouldn't have sunk.

She lies now on her side in 395 feet of water. So shallow, that the bow hit bottom before she totally sank (because she was 883 ft long) and with the weight, the bow is now cracked. The crack is in the forward well deck and extends all the way down from the deck to the keel. After a brief spot in the papers, Britannic was forgotten. This is because, the day after her sinking, the Austrian emperor, Franz Joseph, passed away and her story was overshadowed by stories about him and his nephew, Charles, the new emperor. The wreck of the HMHS Britannic was discovered in 1976 on an underwater exploration by oceanographer, Jacques Cousteau (1910 - 1997). She is largely intact except for the crack in her forward bow. After
discovering Britannic, Cousteau gathered together the remaining survivors to hear their stories. Unfortunately, John Fleming had died in 1953 and Violet Jessop in 1971. But, of the people who were still alive, Sheila Macbeth was one of them. Each of the survivors took turns in Cousteau's diving saucer. Each got a chance to see the ship that was once their home away from home.

Britannic was never to carry a paying passenger. She was never to cross the Atlantic. She was never to earn her place on the transatlantic route. Instead, she was the largest ship sunk in World War One, and is the largest liner on the ocean floor.

RMS Olympic

RMS Olympic; Old Reliable

The long life of the first sister
1910~1937

In 1907, the Cunard Line, the arch-rival of the White Star Line, released two new ships, Lusitania and Mauretania. Both ships could carry a large number of passengers and had a top speed of 24 knots. The White Star Line was losing people to Cunard. The fact was that the two new Cunarders were very luxurious, very fast, and steady. People would rather sail on these ships than any others. So, that same year, superintendent of the White Star Line and son of Thomas Ismay, J. Bruce Ismay went to the house of Lord Perrie, who was a member of the Harland & Wolff firm that built ships. Over a few cigars, they planned to build some huge and luxurious ships of their own.

Around 100 feet longer than the Cunard ocean liners, they would be very fast, big enough to carry 3500 people, and as luxurious as could be. Their overall length would be 882.5 feet, their beam or width would be 92.5 feet, they would be 60.5 feet from water line to boat deck, and 100.5 feet from the keel to the boat deck. The tops of each of the funnels would be 75 feet above the boat deck, and the masts would be almost twice as tall as the funnels. They'd be driven by three propellers that used two reciprocating engines that drove the wing-propellers (Three bladed, 24 ft (about 8 meters) in diameter) with a low pressure turbine in the middle
driving the center propeller (Four bladed, 16 ft (about 5 to six meters) in diameter). Each reciprocating engine would develop 15,000 horsepower, which meant that it would make thesame amount of energy as 15,000 horses. This would turn the propellers 75 times per minute.
The turbine would make about 16,000 horsepower which would turn the propellers 165 times per minute. They'd be able to travel at a top speed of 23 knots. If you don't know what a knot is, one knot equals 1.150779 miles (1.852 kilometers) per hour. The heat needed to run all this would come from 29, three story high boilers. Each engine would be four stories high. They would be the largest steamers, and the largest moving objects, in the world!

The first two of these ships were build next to each other in a specially constructed building slip in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Although the original plans for the ships had them with three funnels, a dummy funnel was added simply for show. It served as a ventilator. On December 16, 1908, the keel of Olympic, the first liner, was laid in slip No. 2 on the North Yard of Harland & Wolff Ship-yards. Three months later, the keel for the second ship, Titanic, was laid next to it in slip No. 3. Over the next two years, the two "Olympic-class" ocean liners began to take shape. Although Titanic would end up being slightly bigger, for now, all eyes were on Olympic.

The two ships were virtually identical. The only major way to tell the exteriors of the two liners apart, is the promenade on A-deck, just under the boat deck. On Olympic, the deck is open it's entire length. On Titanic however, the deck was only open half of it's length. The other half was covered with large windows.

The Olympic-class liners were more luxurious in many ways. For example, although the Cunarders and the Olympic-classers had elevators, Olympic and Titanic had three elevators (or "lifts") in first class and one lift in second class. This was a huge luxury second class. Second class also had a very nice dinning saloon. There was also the second class lounge or library as they called it, which was just as nice as the first class lounge. There was also a second class barber shop, as well as one in first. Other features for passengers were the squash courts, the Turkish Bath (which was a steam room), the Verandah Cafe, the A la Carte Restaurant, even a swimming pool. Perhaps the most famous features onboard Olympic and Titanic were the first class stairways. There were actually two of them. The forward stairway was between the first and second funnels. The first class elevators were located here. The aft grand stairway was between the third and fourth funnels.

First class stewardess, Violet Jessop, described Olympic in her memoirs. "I got a fresh thrill every time I went through Olympic's beautiful state-rooms, the Adam's room, the Regency room, the Dutch, Georgian and so on, with there exquisite wood work and sumptuous silk furnishings. I have always maintained that never before or since have such materials of so perfect a quality been used to fit any ship. The names of all the 'best families' appeared on the passenger list, eager as all Americans are 'to be there'."

Accommodations in third class were very good too. The third class had a general room, which was basically a lounge, and they had a smoking room. Although there's wasn't as luxurious as the one in first class, steerage had a very nice dinning saloon. On the Olympic-class liners, third class accommodations were very good, compared to the "coffin ships" of the 1800's.

On June 14, 1911, the Royal Mail Ship Olympic, left Great Britain on her maiden voyage under the command of Captain Edward John Smith. The ship's 1,313 passengers included some of the world's richest and most famous people. Although Olympic could carry 2600 to 2700 passengers, she wasn't completely filled because it was her first crossing. On board her, was J. Bruce Ismay. During the voyage, he spent his time wandering the ship. He noticed that the B-deck promenade was hardly used by the passengers. Most of them used the A-deck promenade. Before Titanic set sail on her maiden voyage ten months later, he made sure that some changes were made to that ship. On B-deck, he added first class cabins. They
included two huge state-rooms (one on each side). Each room was accompanied by a 60-foot, private promenade. Ismay also added two new cabins on A-deck, an enclosed forward promenade on B-deck, and a restaurant just off the B-deck aft grand stairway called the Cafe` Parisien. Although Olympic would also get these features added to her in a few years, for now, only Titanic had them, and they would be the only internal differences between the ships.

Olympic's maiden voyage was a complete success. She had flawlessly crossed the Atlantic at an average of 21.7 knots. The ship's next few voyages were just as good. But disaster struck at the beginning of the fifth crossing. It was just after noon on the twentieth of September, 1911, when Olympic left Southampton and proceeded down the Spithead Channel, the water between the British mainland and the Isle of Wight, on her way to the English Channel and Cherbourg, France to pick up her next load of passengers. Suddenly, the Edgar-class cruiser, HMS Hawke, of the British Royal Navy, was seen in the fog. The war ship began to get sucked in to the Olympic by her huge propellers. Collision was unavoidable and the Hawke rammed into Olympic's starboard side. The Hawke nearly capsized before she broke away. In
the end, Olympic was left with a triangle shaped gash in her side and a damaged propeller. The Hawke was left with a badly damaged bow. Luckily, no one was killed. Both ships limped to
the nearest port.

This disaster led people to wonder if the huge Olympic-class liners were as safe as people thought they were. However, other shipping lines were already announcing that they were planning to built ships bigger that the Olympic. The risk of these giants was more to smaller ships that got to close. When Olympic returned to service a few months later after extensive repairs in Belfast, she was still the most popular ship around. In fact, this accident helped her career in that, it supported the idea that she was "unsinkable".

Sadly, the glory of Olympic lasted only a year. It ended suddenly when her sister, Titanic, struck an iceberg on her maiden voyage and sank. About 1500 of the 2220 passengers and crew on her at the time, died. Although Capt. Herbert Haddock tried to help, Olympic was more than 500 miles from Titanic's position and couldn't do anything. As soon as Olympic reached England, White Star quickly added twenty-four collapsible lifeboats in addition to the twenty boats already on her, in hopes to make her passengers and crew feel safer. However, at the last minute, the crew deserted because they wanted standard boats that were properly installed. Quickly, a new crew was put together. However, passengers disliked them because of their inexperience.

White Star realized that they needed to do more that just put extra lifeboats on the ship. So, they pulled Olympic out of service for six months to put in better safety features. They extended bulkheads up and gave the ship a double skin. This increased her width by two feet. Now, she could stay afloat with her first six water-tight compartments flooded, unlike Titanic which could only stay afloat with her fist four damaged. They also extended the lifeboat row along the entire length of the boat deck. Inside each boat was two to three smaller ones. Two
boats were installed on the poop deck in the aft part of the ship, plus extra collapsibles. The Olympic then had a total of sixty-eight lifeboats.

While White Star was putting better safety features in their flag ship, they also added the first class cabins and the huge staterooms on B-deck with the private promenades. The enclosed promenade and the Cafe` Parisien, which had proved very popular on Titanic, was also added.
She re-entered service in 1913.

However, on June 28 of 1914, terrorist group member Gavrilo Princip (who happened to be Serbian), shot and killed the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Imperial throne, Archduke Ferdinand, and his wife, Archduchess Sophie, in Sarajevo, the capital of what was then the Austrian province of Bosnia. Since the Austria-Hungarian Empire (now the countries of Austria, Hungary, Slovokia, the Czech Republic, and the former Yugoslavia) hated Serbia, they used this incident to declare war on the small country a month later.

However, Serbia and Austria had many alliances with other nations of Europe. An alliance is an agreement made between two countries saying that if one country is in trouble, the other will help out. Within a few short months, Germany, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire (now Turkey) had sided with Austria. They're called the Central Powers. Russia, France, Great Britain, and many others, had sided with Serbia. They're called the Allies. Had there been no alliances, there would have been a small war between Serbia and the empire and Austria probably would have won. But now, many countries were drawn in. The "Great War" as they came to call it, had begun.

The Olympic remained in commercial service after the beginning of the war. However, the British Admiralty began pulling commercial ships out of service and using them for war duties
shortly after the beginning of the war. White Star decided to let Olympic make one more round trip from England before sending her to Belfast to be laid up. On the way to New York, the ship was packed with Americans and Canadians who wanted to get out of Europe and away from the war. On the way back, she was filled with Europeans who were eager to get home to their
families.

It was 10:30 am off the coast of Ireland on her way back to England, when Olympic was spotted by the British cruiser, HMS Liverpool. The captain of this ship ordered her to help evacuate the crew of the battleship, HMS Audacious, which had struck a mine and was now sinking. The Liverpool could not do very much because she was too small a ship. Olympic's Capt. Haddock began helping at once. By 12:30, most of the damaged battleship's crew had been evacuated.

Arrangements were now made to try to tow the Audacious to shore. Unfortunately, every time Olympic tried to tow her, the towing cable snapped. After a few hours, it was decided that the remaining crew members of Audacious should be taken off. By 6:30, the entire crew had been evacuated. This was a good thing because shortly after that, Audacious suddenly capsized and quickly foundered, stern first.

After dropping off the sunken battleship's crew and her passengers, Olympic went to Belfast, Northern Ireland were she was laid up. After the ship spent ten months sitting and doing nothing here, the British Admiralty sent this message to the White Star Line:
"SS Olympic required for urgent Government service. Owners had been requested to prepare her and you should render any assistance required."

So, after spending almost a year in Belfast, Olympic was finally commissioned as a naval
transport in September of 1915. She was painted in very dazzling colors, with very bright geometric shapes on a yellow background, to confuse enemy submarines. On September 24, 1915, the newly designated HMT (His Majesty's Transport) Olympic, transport ship No. T2810, left Liverpool on her first trooping voyage, bound for Mudros on the Greek island of Lemnos. She was put under the command of Capt. Bertram F. Hays, who replaced Capt. Haddock who was appointed to a special position in Belfast.

During her first voyage, she rescued the survivors of the French liner, Provincia, which had been sunk by and enemy submarine. On her second England to Mudros trips, she joined her younger sister Britannic, which was serving as a hospital ship. After her next few voyages, the Olympic was assigned to transport Canadian troops across the Atlantic and to the war fronts. By the end of 1916, she had completed ten Canada / Europe voyages.

In early 1917, Olympic was re-fitted for war service. During this time she was given five inch guns for submarine defense. Two days after she re-entered service in April of that year, America declared war on Germany. In December, the ship was assigned to carry American troops to Europe. It was in May 1918 during her twenty-second troop carrying voyage that the
Olympic was attacked by the German submarine U-103 in the English Channel. The torpedo shot at her luckily missed. It was then that Olympic turned on the U-boat and rammed it! U-103 quickly began to sink and some of her crew managed to escape and were picked up by the passing American destroyer, USS Davis.

In November of 1918, the last Central Power, Germany, surrendered to the Allies and the war ended. During the First World War, Olympic had transported 41,000 civilian passengers, 66,000 troops, and12,000 members of Chinese labor battalion. She had gone 184,000 miles and burned 347,000 tons of coal. Because of her outstanding war record, she earned the nick-name "Old Reliable".

Unfortunately, the war was not as good as Olympic's record. A casualty is a person in the military that is killed, hurt, or taken prisoner. In Great Britain alone, there were more than three million casualties. Russia, which had left the war in 1917, had more than triple that. The total casualties for the Allies, which was made up of more than ten countries, was more than twenty-two million. The Central Powers had more than fifteen million. The total casualties for the First World War was more than thirty-seven million people. This meant that of all the troops sent
to fight in the war, 57.6 percent were either killed, hurt, or taken prisoner.

With the "Great War" now over, Olympic was returned to the White Star Line and the HMT Olympic was re-designated, RMS Olympic. Converted to oil and modernized by and interior renovation, she was still one of the most marvelous and luxurious ships. In 1921, actor Charlie Chaplain went to England on her. That same year, she carried Edward, Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VIII of Great Britain). In 1922, Capt. Alec Hambleton was put in command of the liner. Of all the Olympic's captains, Hambleton's command was one of the best. Not a single bad incident of any kind occurred under his command. Twelve months later, Capt. Huge David was installed. David's command was also good, with the exception of a minor fire in one of the 1st class state-rooms.

By 1923, Capt. David had been replaced by Capt. J. Howarth. Also by that time, the United States had passed laws restricting the amount of immigrants allowed to enter the country. This meant that there were less passengers traveling in 3rd class (because a large portion of passengers in this class were immigrants). The Olympic's career was entering one of it's lowest ebbs. In 1924, as she was backing out of Pier 59 in New York City, she collided with the smaller ship, Fort St. George. Also, many newer ships where threatening to take Olympic's rank with the line.

Under the command of the ship's next captain, William Marshall, a bunch of new problems came. The Olympic was an old ship. She had to adapt to stay in business. The classes of second and third were changed to become Tourist Cabin and Tourist Third Cabin. Accommodations in these new classes were different from what they had been originally. The line also added new features like a cinema and a children's room. After these hassles were completed, Capt. Marshall was put in command of the more modern ship, Majestic, so Capt. Walter Parker was now placed in command of the ship.

Unfortunately, a member of the crew died on Parker's first voyage as commander of Olympic. A few voyages later, another crew member fell from the bridge and died of a fractured skull. However, besides these unfortunate mishaps, Parker's command was overall good. He retired in late 1929, and Capt. E.R. White assumed command. By now however, Olympic's days were numbered. Many cracks were found in the hull of the now, twenty year old liner. Also, the White Star Line was beginning to crumble due to problems caused by The Great Depression. Shortly before that, the White Star Line's parent company, the International Mercantile Marine (IMM), folded. This meant that the White Star Line, along with all the other companies owned by the IMM, was on it's own for the first time since it was bought in 1902.
The directors of the line now had to run in without the support of their parent company.

On May 15, 1934, Olympic rammed the Nantucket lightship in heavy fog and seven of the eleven crew members were killed. That same year, the White Star Line merged with the Cunard Line. The new name of the company became Cunard-White Star. Years after that, Cunard bought White Star's remaining shares and took over it's assets. The name then went back to Cunard.

In March of 1935, the Royal Mail Ship Olympic made her final trip to New York before being sold, stripped, and in 1937, completely scrapped. Many of her artifacts were sold and are now in private homes, museums, and hotels. The Olympic was truly a great ship. She didn't deserve the demise that she got. She is one of the largest ships ever to sail the sea, and one of the greatest.

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