They were to be called Olympic, Titanic, and Gigantic.

It was the tradition of the White Star Line to adjectivize its ships with the suffix "ic," thus describing the liners as well as naming them.

They were to be virtually identical in size and structure, but Titanic was to be the true shining star.

On the 29th of July, 1908, White Star, including Ismay, came to the shipyard of Harland and Wolff in Belfast, Ireland to review the tentative plans for the conception of the ships.

The creation of these initial plans was under the direct supervision of Thomas Andrews, the managing director and senior draftsman for Harland and Wolff.

Andrews oversaw virtually every detail from blueprint to maiden voyage.

About a year and a half after the idea was born for the White Star Titans. Thomas Andrews was appointed chief designer for the Three Sisters.

It took a year to design the great leviathans, with Harland and Wolf also spending several months enlarging the slipways of its Queen’s Island shipyard where the liners would be built.

The contract for the construction went to Arrol & Co Ltd. of Glasgow.

When completed the new gantries would cover 840 X 240ft. an area formally occupied by three slipways. An overhead crane would reach 214ft.

Construction began on Olympic with the laying of the first keel plate.

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