-40%
Rare 1912 Titanic Olympic official white star line vintage censored postcard
$ 79.2
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Description
Hello, up for sale is a rare piece of history. A 1912 post-Titanic sinking RMS Olympic postcard with the Titanic in the background, but without any written reference to the ill-fated ship, which had been deleted by the White Star Line following her sinking.The Olympic was the first of 3 nearly identical ships, the Olympic-class.
The second one was the Titanic, and the third one the Britannic.
The Olympic started her maiden voyage 10 months before the Titanic. You could buy postcards on her board with both ships mentioned on the front, usually with following text "Triple-screw RMS Olympic and Titanic, 45000 tons each, the largest steamers in the world" (see picture 4).
When the Titanic sank, the cards showing both names were immediatly withdrawn from sale. They were then re-printed, and the White Star Line simply removed the "and Titanic", as well as the word "each" and the"s" to "steamers" (compare picture 1 and 4). You can still see an odd spacing on the right of the Olympic name where Titanic was written
Even more interesting, on this specific version, you can still see the Titanic in the background on the bottom right (see picture 3).
This card was only offered for sale during 6 months. Why 6 months? Simply because as you can see, the ship has still the Titanic lifeboat configuration (16 in total : 4 in front on each side, 4 at the rear on each side). This configuration was dropped when the Olympic was withdrawn from service in October 1912 in order to undergo a major refit (and obviously during the re-fit, no postcards were sold or printed any more). After the re-fit, the number of lifeboats was significantly increased to 68. Plus this particular version still showing the Titanic in the background could obviously not be kept.
Last but not least, due to the re-fit, the tonnage was increased to 46,359 tons, and in the meantime, the Olympic was no longer the largest steamer in the world.
So all post re-fit postcards had the new tonnage, the new lifeboats configuration, and the mention "the largest british steamer".
In other words, this card is even more rare than the "olympic and titanic" version which was sold 4 months more.
The card is overall in a very good condition. If you have any questions, do not hesitate.
Please note : the card on picture 4 is NOT FOR SALE and not part of this listing. It only serves as a reference.
Thank you and good luck with bidding.