The Ismay Line
003 • The Oceanic Steam Navigation Company
Thomas Henry Ismay was born on 7 January 1837 at Ropery House, Ellenborough, Maryport, Cumberland, the eldest son of shipbuilder Joseph Ismay.
This Cumbrian coastal resort is the birthplace and early home of the man who went on to found the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, more commonly known as the White Star Line.
At the time of his birth in 1837, Ismay's father (also Thomas) ran a timber, shipbuilding and ship brokers business, and his son learned his future trade watching the comings and goings at the port.
Cliff Ismay1, author and great-grand nephew, recounts: "It was his childhood days in Maryport which inspired his later life. He used to go down to the harbour in all his free time, and knew most of the sailors. They nicknamed him 'baccy Ismay' on account of the tobacco he chewed, even at that young age."
At the age of 16 he took up an apprenticeship with Liverpool shipbrokers Imrie & Tomlinson where he became firm friends with William Imrie, the son of one of the partners in the firm. In the following years they would play a major role in the development of the White Star Line.
In 1859, Ismay married Margaret Bruce and together they had three sons and four daughters. When the apprenticeship ended he travelled to South America; upon returning to Liverpool in 1866 he acquired a line of clipper ships, sailing to Australia, and set about substituting the wood vessels with new, iron ones.
The White Star Line was originally founded in 1845 by Henry Threlfall and John Pilkington. The shipping line operated a fleet of sailing clippers, sailing from Britain to Australia.
In 1867 the Bank of Liverpool failed which left the White Star Line with a debt of £527,000, which resulted in the White Star Line going bankrupt.
On 18 January 1868 shipping magnate Thomas Ismay purchased the house flag, trade name, and goodwill of the bankrupt White Star Line—for just £1,000.
During a game of billiards, Liverpool merchant Gustav Christian Schwabe and his nephew, shipbuilder Gustav Wilhelm Wolff, offered to help finance Ismay’s new venture, but only if the line agreed to having its ships built by Wolff’s company, a Belfast-based firm called Harland & Wolff. Ismay agreed, as long as Harland & Wolff didn’t build any vessels for competing lines. (Which is why Harland & Wolff never built a ship for White Star’s arch-rival, Cunard Line.)
Harland & Wolff started building liners for White Star in mid-1869. It quickly produced six Oceanic class ships: Oceanic, Atlantic, Baltic, Republic, Celtic and Adriatic.
In 1869, Thomas Henry had moved his family away from Maryport, but the family connection with the town remained. When the clock on the spire of Christ Church broke, he donated a new one. The family also paid for a stained glass window in St Mary's Church.
In collaboration with William Imrie he founded the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company Limited in Liverpool in 1869 initially trading on the Australian run—the defunct White Star Line had run clippers from Australia to Great Britain—but then, from 1871, to the United States.
The White Star Line was an offshoot of the original fleet of clippers who also carried the red flag with the white star. Ismay quickly gained a reputation as a man who always improved his transatlantic liners on the Liverpool to New York route in terms of size, speed, comfort and safety. His shipping company was seen as a very worthy rival to the otherwise established companies such as Cunard, Guion and Inman Line. The race with the Germans meant that White Star Line quickly built the largest and most luxurious ship since the Great Eastern2.
The first ship built for the White Star Line under the ownership of Ismay was the Oceanic (II), built by Harland and Wolff, the first of its class, launched January 14, 1899.
No one had seen such a great ship since the disappearance of the Great Eastern in 1888. With two huge funnels painted in the White Star Line’s company color buff, a raised forecastle and poop deck and the clean lines typical for White Star ships, she was a beautiful sight.
Name: Oceanic (II)
Vessel Type: Passenger ship
Official No: 110596
Builder: Harland & Wolff Ltd, Queen's Island, Belfast
Yard No: 317
Laid down: 18 March 1897
Launched: 14 January 1899
Handed over: 26 August 1899
Port & Date of Registry: Liverpool, 19 August 1899
Owner: Oceanic Steam Navigation Co. Ltd. (White Star Line)
Length: 705 feet (215 m) long
Width: 68.3 feet (20.85 m) wide
Tonnage: 17,274 gross tons
Power: Two triple-expansion engines turning two propellers at 28,000 horsepower
Speed: 19.5 knot service
The name decided upon was that of the White Star Line’s pioneer vessel. It was considered good luck to name a new ship after an old reliable one, and the second Oceanic was to be the pride of her company. On August 26, she finished her satisfactory sea trials and left Belfast for Liverpool. Here she would be opened up for the press, as was customary with a new ship. When the media departed the ship was prepared for her maiden voyage; after almost a week the Oceanic left Liverpool for the Americas.
The maiden voyage went off without any mishaps and six days, two hours and thirty-seven minutes after the beginning of her premiere trip Oceanic entered the harbor of New York. She had averaged 19.57 knots, which was perfectly adequate. One problem was discovered however, and that was that the stern of the ship vibrated violently at full power.
The new Oceanic continued her service and held the title of the largest ship in the world throughout the century. On the first year of the new century, when anchored in the Mersey, the Oceanic was struck by lightning and lost the top of her main mast. In April, 1901, the Oceanic was not any longer the largest ship in the world. The White Star Line then launched the Celtic at 21,000 tons. The Celtic was the first ship to surpass the Great Eastern in tonnage as well as length. The same year was to become somewhat sad for the Oceanic in another way as well. In September she accidentally rammed and sank the small Waterford S.S. Co. steamer Kincora in heavy fog just outside Tuskar Rock. Seven people perished as a result of the collision.
Ever since her launch, the Oceanic had patiently waited for her sister, the Olympic, to be born. But after Thomas Ismay had died in 1899, the order was cancelled. This was in order to gather strength to produce what was to be called the ‘Big Four’ class (Celtic, Cedric, Baltic and Adriatic), all over 20,000 tons.
In 1907, the White Star Line changed their main homeport to Southampton, and on May 22, that year Oceanic made her last sailing from Liverpool. The first departure from her new homeport was done twenty-eight days later. Her running mates on the Southampton-New York run were the Teutonic, Majestic and the new Adriatic.
In 1914, war was declared between Britain and Germany, and the Admiralty required merchant vessels to participate in the hostilities. The Oceanic, who had made her last voyage to New York in July, was commissioned as an ‘Armed Merchant Cruiser’. The Admiralty, with no experience in handling such large ships as the Oceanic, appointed the Royal Naval Captain W. F. Slayter to command the ship. As some sort of precaution, Oceanic’s own captain Henry Smith was present on the ship. To have an inexperienced captain proved to be foolish. On September 8, when the Oceanic was three miles off Foula Island (twenty miles west of the Shetland Islands) Captain Smith told Captain Slayter that he had moved the ship too close to land, when trying to pass the island, and was risking to ground her as the current was moving rapidly. Captain Smith was overruled by the naval captain, who insisted on a tight schedule. As a result, the ship was taken off course by Mother Nature and grounded on the Hoevdi Rocks in the Shaalds. Since the people on board the Oceanic were stuck on the ship, help was called for and the small trawler Glenogil came to assist and transferred some 400 men to other ships now present. Attempts to pull the ship off the rocks failed, and two weeks later the sea began to handle the Oceanic badly. She was declared a total loss, and all salvage thoughts were abandoned. No one of the two captains was blamed, but D. Blair, the ship’s navigator, was held responsible for the sad event. After this accident, the Admiralty changed their procedures so that the merchant fleet would have their own captains when in the Admiralty’s service, and that no ship should never have two captains.
Ten years went on, and the Oceanic remained where she had once grounded. Not being in the way for shipping traffic, no one made any moves towards removal. But the vessel was perfect material for scrappers, and in March, 1924, all above the waterline level was removed from the scene. The rest stayed until the 1970s, when work commenced to take away the last remains of the old Oceanic. Not until 1979 was the last worthwhile pieces removed. The Oceanic had finally, after 65 years as a wreck, been laid to rest.
Ismay remained president of White Star Line until 1899, while active control of the firm passed to his son Joseph Bruce Ismay. Shortly after the launch of Oceanic he complained of chest pains. Despite two operations Ismay suffered a heart attack and died at Dawpool near Birkenhead on 23 November 1899 and was buried in the Thurstanton Churchyard3.
During his lifetime he had created a unique partnership with shipbuilders Harland and Wolff, where all White Star Line vessels would be built, and Oceanic was to be joined by many more ships and it soon become one of the most powerful shipping lines in the world.
Upon his father’s death, J. Bruce Ismay assumed control of the company and the Ismay family were the owners of the line until its sale to J. P. Morgan in 1902. A new chapter began and Ismay eventually oversaw the creation of three luxurious Olympic class cruise liners: Olympic, Titanic and Britannic.
003.1 Thomas Henry Ismay, shipbuilder (January 7, 1837 - November 23,1899). Founder of the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, more commonly known as the White Star Line.
003.2 Ship No. 317, Oceanic, port stern view immediately prior to launch. Photo by Robert John Welch4 (1859–1936). © Ulster Transport Museum
Video: Launching of the RMS Oceanic on January 14, 1899. The first film of an ocean liner ever taken was only two years prior to this, it is indeed a very interesting and rare find. Along with the fact that it’s nitrate film, which very commonly breaks down into dust, makes this even more rare. Note that Harland & Wolff stopped launching ships with propellers installed as the spinning blades created a violent chop. © Museum of Modern Art.
003.3 RMS Oceanic entering New York harbor circa 1910. White Star Line’s second ‘Oceanic’ (1899–1914 ) intentionally left the race for the Blue Riband5 to others, and set a company standard of aiming for size and comfort instead. Having run aground in 1914, the ship was declared a total loss and was subsequently dismantled on the spot.
Footnotes:
Understanding J. Bruce Ismay: The True Story of the Man They Called 'The Coward of Titanic' Kindle Edition by Clifford Ismay.
The Great Eastern steamship, considered to be the prototype of the modern ocean liner.
Research courtesy The Great Ocean Liners.
Robert John Welch (July 22, 1859 - September 28, 1936). The leading photographer in the north of Ireland in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The Blue Riband is an unofficial accolade given to the passenger liner crossing the Atlantic Ocean in regular service with the record highest average speed.