RMS Olympic (Johnsonverse)

RMS Olympic is a British ocean liner and was the lead ship of the White Star Line's trio of Olympic-class liners. Unlike the other ships in the class, Olympic has had a long career spanning over 100 years since 1911. This has included service as a troopship during the First World War, which gained her the nickname "Old Reliable". She returned to civilian service after the war, and served successfully as an ocean liner throughout the 1920s and into the first half of the 1930s, although increased competition, and the slump in trade during the Great Depression after 1930, made her operation increasingly unprofitable.

Olympic was the largest ocean liner in the world for two periods during 1910–13, interrupted only by the brief tenure of the slightly larger Titanic (which had the same dimensions but higher gross tonnage) before the German SS Imperator went into service in May 1912. Olympic also held the title of the largest British-built liner until RMS Queen Mary was launched in 1934, interrupted only by the short careers of Titanic and Britannic.

Olympic was sold to Continental Shipping Lines in 1935 as one of many former Cunard-White Star Line ships sold to CSL, and has been renovated several times since.

By contrast with Olympic, the other two ships in the class had short service lives: in 1912, Titanic collided with an iceberg on her maiden voyage and sank in the North Atlantic; in 1916, Britannic struck a German naval mine and sank in the Aegean Sea. Britannic never served her intended role as a passenger ship, instead serving as a hospital ship during the First World War.