Olympic-class ocean liner a dining room. "Britannic" provided third-class passengers more comfort than its two sister ships. First of the "Olympic"-class liners, "Olympic" was launched on 20 October 1910 and commissioned on 14 June 1911. She made her maiden voyage on 14 June 1911, under the command of Captain Edward J. Smith to great fanfare and acclaim. On 20 September of the same year, while under the command of a harbour pilot she was involved in a collision with the cruiser in the port of Southampton, leading to her repair back at Harland and Wolff and delaying the launch of her sister "Titanic".
The ships Anne and Little James James" was a pinnace (small ship with sails or oars) of forty-four tons displacement, and for her voyage to America she had come new from the builder’s yard. Per Bradford: “a fine new vessel of about 44. tunne, which the Company had built to stay in the Countrie.” She was a small ship with about ¼ the tonnage of "Anne" and had a total crew of probably not more than fifteen men. Her captain was an Adventurer named Emmanuel Altham, a young man of age 23 of English landed gentry from Essexshire and a novice at the business of sailing.