Groundbreaking book exploring the impact of White Star Line's 'Big Four' – precursors to the 'Olympic' Class sisters. The 'Big Four' served the White Star Line for a collective 110 years and carried around 1,500,000 passengers to and from Liverpool and New York. Arguably, they were the most successful series of ships the company ever produced, but have been entirely overlooked in maritime literature. Many features of the ships were trialled before their use on Olympic and Titanic and, in many ways, the 'Big Four' can be seen as the forerunners of the famous 'Olympic' class ships. Celtic met her end on the rocks off Ireland in 1928, and her sister ships fell into the red during the early 1930s. Mark Chirnside tells their stories in detail in this groundbreaking new book. AUTHOR: Mark Chirnside is a well-known maritime expert and author. He has previously written RMS Aquitania: The Shop Beautiful, Olympic. Titanic and Britannic: The Olympic Class Ships, RMS Majestic and RMS Olympic: Titanic's Sister for The History Press. SELLING POINTS: . Paperback of acclaimed hardback . Much previously unpublished material: diaries, letters, images and research . Expert author publishing exceptional research on arguably the most successful ships ever produced by the White Star Line . Images reveal construction; external views; life on board, including deck games; passenger accommodation in all three classes; wartime . Includes newspaper images and articles of Celtic's end; and Adriatic's final cruises . Accommodation pre and post-war plans; log extracts; and menus . The launch of the Adriatic was 20 September 1906 230 b/w and 50 colour images