RMS Olympic at Cherbourg
Aug 20, 2022
I promised I would post the full film of the Olympic at Cherbourg once I had got it scanned so here it is.
This was shot in the mid-1920s but for the passengers on the Nomadic, waiting to board the Titanic at Cherbourg on 10 April 1912 this must have been an almost identical view.
It's fair to say our filmmaker's skills were variable at best, and the film is a bit worn out, but it has some interesting points. The views come from a home movie that also takes in Switzerland, Turkey, Greece, Egypt, and Italy, I have included a few ocean liner and boat-related snippets from Alexandria and somewhere off the coast of Turkey or Greece. If you can identify any of the mystery ships let me know.
CHERBOURG
1. The starboard side of the Olympic seen at Cherbourg as our travellers return home to America. Towards the bow of the Olympic there is an open door, others may know better but this looks like the location of the door to the 3rd class open space.
2. The camera pans the full length of the Olympic. The tender Traffic is first seen towards the stern of the Olympic, moving forward, there was an entrance for 2nd class passengers and their baggage on E-Deck around this spot.
3. The Traffic is further forward now and not quite up against the hull of the Olympic. The film is probably being shot from the Nomadic which pulls around the Olympic's stern. It is not perfectly clear but it appears that there is an entrance open on the Olympic's port side, so perhaps first class passengers were embarked on the that side, although as the starboard side would be the lee side the port entrance may (I'm speculating) only have been used in calm conditions.
AT SEA
4. Looking over toward the port side poop deck as the Olympic steams at speed. The railings have windbreaks attached to them. The camera pans across revealing a gangway along the length of the open third class promenade connecting the poop deck to the bridge deck. An officer emerges from behind a ventilator and sits down with two colleagues outside the 2nd class entrance. On A deck passengers are playing shuffleboard and mini-golf near the main mast. A steward is seen walking around a little aimlessly!
5. Olympic steaming along with possibly a slight heel, this time looking over the starboard poop deck.
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