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
Naval Vessel Register are gradually being added along with other updates. The NVR traces its origin back to the 1880s, having evolved from several previous publications. In 1911, the Bureau of Construction and Repair published "Ships Data US Naval Vessels", which subsequently became the "Ships Data Book" in 1952 under the Bureau of Ships. The Bureau of Ordnance's "Vessel Register", first published in 1942 and retitled "Naval Vessel Register", was combined with the "Ships Data Book" under the Bureau of Ships in 1959. Since 1962, the NVR has been maintained and published by the NAVSEA Shipbuilding Support Office (NAVSHIPSO) of the Naval Sea