RMS Olympic Ismay had previously planned to build a ship named "Olympic" as a sister ship to . The senior Ismay died in 1899 and the order for the ship was cancelled. Construction of "Olympic" began three months before "Titanic" to ease pressures on the shipyard. Several years would pass before "Britannic" would be launched. In order to accommodate the construction of the class, Harland and Wolff upgraded their facility in Belfast; the most dramatic change was the combining of three slipways into two larger ones. "Olympic" and "Titanic" were constructed side by side. "Olympic"s keel was laid on 16 December 1908
The ships Anne and Little James ship’s profits from fishing and trading, with the ship’s investors paying for the crew’s food, drink and clothing. The armament of "Little James" was six small cannons with a bore of two inches which could fire a ball of a few pounds in weight. Her men had six muskets. And because the ship was armed, the crew believed they had a chance to take prize ships of enemy nations such as France or Spain as far south as the West Indies. But the crew was disappointed to find that under the law of the sea, prizes could only be taken