RMS Olympic was the lead ship of the Olympic class ocean liners built for the White Star Line, which also included Titanic and Britannic.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's keel was laid in December 1908 and she was launched on 20 October 1910.White Star claimed the Olympic class's engine set-up to be more economical than expansion engines or turbines alone. Olympic consumed 650 tons of coal per twenty four hours with an average speed of 21.7 knots.

Olympic was withdrawn from service in 1935 and sold to Sir John Jarvis for £100,000 Olympic's fittings were auctioned off immediately before she was scrapped; some of her fittings, namely those of the First Class Lounge and part of the Aft Grand Staircase, can be found in the White Swan Hotel, in Alnwick, England. Some fittings and panelling also ended up at a Haltwhistle paint factory. The rest of her fittings found homes in scattered places throughout Great Britain.