The first major passenger shipping company to avail itself of these fine facilities by transferring its operations to the port was the White Star Line in 1907, followed by Cunard in 1919, Canadian Pacific the following year and then P&O returned to the port after an absence of some 45 years. As well as these famous lines most of the principal foreign shipping lines used Southampton as a terminal. With the number and size of all these large passenger liners using the port and the narrow confines of its coastal waters allied to the nearby presence of the important and busy Naval base of Portsmouth, the risk of collision had become quite high.

White Star Line

A salutary warning for the future came first in 1902 when the German liner Kronprinz Wilheim, a 15,000 ton liner, collided with HMS Wizard, a mere 270 ton Naval torpedo boat destroyer. Both vessels were cruising upstream in Southampton Water on 8th October and were just off Fawley beacon when the Wizard's commanding officer tried to overtake the liner, although at the time the liner was proceeding at a fairly brisk rate of knots - 17! It may have been a risky show of derring-do by the Naval Officer. The small warship was literally 'drawn in' to the liner's side and although the German vessel escaped unharmed, the Wizard suffered heavy damage to its bows but luckily there were no casualties. A further lesson should have been heeded in April 1908 when another Naval vessel collided with an American liner in the approaches to the Solent with some loss of life, although in this accident the atrocious weather conditions were considered to be the main factor. Less than three years later another large passenger liner collided most dramatically with yet another Naval vessel.

At 11.20am on 20th September 1911, the White Star liner Olympic left Southampton for its fifth voyage to New York. The weather was clear and bright with good visibility. The Olympic was then considered to be the largest passenger liner in the world at some 45,230 tons. It had been built by Harland & Wolff in Belfast and had made its maiden voyage to New York the previous June. In charge of this fine liner was Captain Edward John Smith, the most experienced and senior commander of the White Star line but, as was normal procedure, the vessel was under the control of a Trinity House harbour pilot - George Bowyer.

Just where Southampton Water meets the Isle of Wight the pilot had the choice of either a starboard route down the Solent or to port to follow the rather intricate passage around a large shoal known as 'Bramble Bank', and then down through Spithead to the Channel. It was well known that the very experienced Bowyer favoured the Spithead route. By about 12.40pm the Olympic was approaching the Bramble and the pilot sounded the vessel's whistle twice, signalling that he was making a turn to port. As he did so a grey Naval vessel was first seen coming up to the rear of the liner about two miles off the starboard quarter.

This vessel was HMS Hawke, a light cruiser of 7,530 tons, which had spent the previous day undergoing steam trials in the Solent and was now returning to Portsmouth under the command of Commander William Blunt. After completing its manoeuvre satisfactorily the Olympic started to increase its speed from 11 to 17 knots and both the pilot and Captain Smith assumed that the liner would soon pull away from the Naval vessel. But the Hawke quickly reached a point almost level with the centre of the liner with about 300 yards of water separating them. Suddenley the Hawke took a sharp turn to port, causing panic on the liner's bridge as it seemed that the Naval vessel was attempting to pass under their stern. Several passengers later so testified, even claiming that the Navy men were 'showing off'!

Within minutes there was a tremendous noise as the Hawke rammed the Olympic some 90 feet from its stern, leaving a large 15 feet triangular hole, which reached to below the liner's waterline. The watertight compartments on both vessels were immediately closed and the Hawke took an enormous roll to port; some witnesses thought that it was in imminent danger of capsizing. Then the vessel recovered and was swept clear of the liner's plating. Once Commander Blunt satisfied himself that Olympic was not likely to founder he proceeded slowly to Portsmouth. Because of its damaged condition the Olympic was unable to return to Southampton until the next high tide, so Captain Smith anchored in Osborne Bay, just off Cowes, whilst the passengers were taken off by tenders. Amazingly there was not a single injury, although it was later said that as the collision had occurred at lunchtime most of the passengers were away from the cabins which had been damaged, otherwise the result could have been very different.

A postcard showing the Olympic after the collision.

The liner was compelled to remain in Southampton for two weeks undergoing temporary repairs just to make it seaworthy for its journey to Belfast for a complete overhaul, which took another six weeks at a cost of £103,000. By tragic irony one of the liner's damaged propellors was, to save time, replaced by one from its sister ship Titanic, then under construction at Harland & Wolff's yard. This effectively delayed the Titanic's maiden voyage from Southampton by almost one month. What a fateful chain of consequences was set in motion by this accident!

The Admiralty Court appointed to inquire into the shipping accident sat aboard the Duke of Wellington in Portsmouth harbour. It commenced its hearings on 11th November 1911 and did not close until 19th December after listening to evidence from an endless number of eye-witnesses and a variety of maritime experts. The White Star Company claimed that the Naval vessel was at fault, whereas the Navy countered that the accident had been caused by a navigational error on the part of the pilot. During the evidence it transpired that Commander Blunt had ordered his helmsman to steer away from the Olympic but the vessel had become 'uncontrollable' with its helm apparently jammed. At least one expert put forward the theory that the two vessels had been drawn or sucked together by hydrodynamics. The heavier the ship and the faster it was sailing the greater were the pressures and interaction between the two vessels. The Court dismissed this theory and finally ruled that there was negligence by the Trinity House pilot - George Bowyer. The verdict shocked the White Star Company and Captain Smith is said to have exclaimed 'By God we are not going to let them get away with this!' The Company appealed and it was not until April 1913 that the Admiralty Court's ruling was upheld and the appeal was dismissed with costs.

But by then the events set in motion by the Olympic collison reached their tragic conclusion. In 1912 Captain Smith had been appointed as Commodore of the White Star fleet, and at a salary of £1,250 a year (plus a £1,000 bonus at the end of each successful voyage) he was the highest paid seaman in the country. On 10th April 1912 he was in command of the White Star's newest passenger liner the Titanic as it left Southampton on its fateful maiden voyage. Strangely George Bowyer was again the pilot and within the first few minutes of the journey there was a near collision with the large American liner New York, which was berthed in Southampton. It is now history that four days later the Titanic struck a large iceberg which severely damaged the vessel below the water-line, and it sank within three hours with the loss of 1,522 lives. This toll included Captain Smith, Chief Officer Wilde and First Officer Murdoch, all of whom had served on the Olympic, a coincidence worthy of Greek tragedy.

Subsequently the Olympic had a somewhat chequered but nevertheless successful career. Converted to a troopship during the First World War it served in the Dardanelles and the Gallipoli landings. Then near the Lizard on 12th May 1918 it rammed and sank U-103 which had attempted to torpedo it. Back to peacetime duties Olympic continued to operate on the Southampton to New York crossing. In 1930 it was extensively refurbished but in May 1934 in thick fog it rammed and sank the Nantucket lightship with a total loss of the lightship's crew, resulting in a $500,000 claim by the American government. The final trans-Atlantic voyage of Olympic took place in March 1935, after which it was sold for scrap with the proviso that it would be broken up in Jarrow to provide some work for the unemployed in the area.

HMS Hawke did not enjoy such a long career. After the collision it needed extensive repairs before returning to active service. Then in October 1914 while on patrol off the Northeast coast of Scotland it was torpedoed and sank with the loss of 500 officers and men; there were only 70 survivors.

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