Oceanic would have been the third ship to bear the name after the 1870 and 1899 predecessors. The former was the White Star Line’s very first ocean liner, and the second their flagship for a time. For this reason, the name had always had a special significance for the company.
In the early 1920s, the White Star Line envisaged a new ship that would modernize transatlantic voyages for the company but plans for the ship took a back seat for a time as restrictions on immigration to the United States came into force for a time during the decade.
However, the rise of the so-called “tourist class” in the 1920s saw the White Star Line take another look at the ambitious ship.
When Lord Kylsant joined the White Star Line as its head honcho, the scope for the ship increased dramatically. So
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much so, in fact, that plans for her would mean she would break the symbolic 984 foot (300m) length and 30 knots (56 kph) top speed for ocean liners of the day.
Her keel was laid down in June of 1928 at the Harland and Wolffe shipyards in Belfast in just ten days, but after slow progress construction ground to a halt in 1929. The reasons for this were a combination of the technical challenges associated with the ship’s design, but also the onset of the Great Depression at the time.
The project wasn’t helped by the fact that Lord Kylsant was sent to prison in the early-1930s after being convicted for some financial shenanigans. The British government refused to provide financial assistance for the project, and the ship’s construction was finally ended.
Oceanic would never leave the drydock and what had been completed of her hull was broken up on the slipway in 1930. Within the White Star Line fleet, Oceanic was thus replaced by two smaller ships, MV Britannic and MV Georgic, both inspired by its profile.
For many ocean liner enthusiasts, the Oceanic is probably the most famous of “what ifs”. If history had been a little different, she would have become one of the world’s most famous ocean liners of all time.
She would most certainly have been the largest, and possibly fastest, of her kind in her day, but the financial problems the White Star was facing, together with the drop in passenger numbers and the effects of the Great Depression did not allow the realization of this ambitious project.
HMS Habukkuk was put on ice fairly early on in her planning Photo source: 99percentinvisible
Perhaps one of the most famous ships that never came to be is the “iceberg aircraft carrier” conceived under Project, or HMS, Habakkuk (named for the prophet Habakkuk,
who, in the Old Testament, said: “... be utterly amazed, for I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.”) Technically not made from ice but a special material called pykrete, the ship was an attempt by the British to design a nye-on unsinkable ship to combat the threat of German U-boats in the Atlantic Ocean.
At the time of the ship’s design, German “Wolf Packs” of submarines were causing havoc for Atlantic convoys that Britain relied heavily on for resources. Air cover was possible near to land, but in the middle of the Atlantic very few, if any, aircraft had the range to offer aerial support and
counter submarine warfare to protect convoys on their perilous journies.
While the Royal Navy did have a number of aircraft carriers, and some were used for escort duty, they were deemed too valuable to sacrifice if the war was to be won.
And so, one of the wilder plans was to develop a ship made partially of ice and wood pulp that should, in theory, be incredibly resilient to torpedo attacks. The ship was the brainchild of one Geoffrey Pyke who worked for the British Combined Operations Headquarters - a special department founded to harass German operations on the continent.
Several variants were designed, including the very large Habakkuk II, a self-propelled vessel made primarily of pykrete and steel. It would have been around 3,927 feet (1,200 meters( long and 591 feet (180 meters) wide but very slow. Another variant, Habakkuk III, was a much smaller ship that would have been considerably faster.
Scale models and a prototype of the ship were developed and showed some promise. However, the project was later shelved due to its rising costs, ever-changing requirements, the need to actively keep the pykrete cool, and the development of longer-range aircraft and specialist escort carriers. These factors ultimately undermined the entire purpose of the ship.
The Report • June 2022 • Issue 100 | 69
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