Olympic-class ocean liner so, the "Olympic"-class ships were built to surpass rival Cunard's largest ships, "Lusitania" and "Mauretania", in size and luxury. "Olympic", along with "Titanic" and the soon to be built "Britannic", were intended to be the largest and most luxurious ships to operate on the North Atlantic, but not the fastest, as the White Star Line had already switched from high speed to size and luxury. The three vessels were designed by Thomas Andrews and Alexander Carlisle. Construction of "Olympic" started in December 1908 and "Titanic" in March 1909. The two ships were built side by side. The construction of "Britannic"
Skuldelev ships Skuldelev ships provide a good source of information about the shipbuilding traditions of the late Viking Age and are now exhibited at the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde. The museum has built accurate reconstructions of all five of the original Skuldelev ships; some of them have also been reconstructed by other groups across the world. Skuldelev 1 was a sturdy seagoing cargo-vessel, possibly of the knarr type. It is 16 m long and 4.8 m wide and would have had a draught of 1 m with its crew of 6 to 8. The ship was constructed in Sognefjorden in western