Titanic and Olympic Together

Titanic & Olympic, Belfast, 6 March 1912.

This photograph records a difficult operation to exchange the positions of the two ships on the high tide.  It shows Olympic (right) at the fitting-out wharf temporarily vacated by Titanic, while Titanic (left) is being manoeuvred into the adjacent Thomson Graving Dock.  This dry dock, built by Belfast Harbour Commissioners, was officially opened on Saturday 1 April 1911 and remained in use until the late 1980s. 

The Thompson Pump House, which stands beside the dry dock, housed three 1,000 horse power pumping engines.  They could drain all 23 million gallons of water from the full dock in about 100 minutes.