With the arrival of Lord Kylsant at the head of the company, the planned size of the project increased, until it became that of a large ship destined to be the first to exceed the symbolic limit of 1,000 feet (305 m) in length and 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph) in speed.

The Great Depression which began the same year and the financial affair which sent Lord Kylsant to prison in 1931 put a definitive end to the construction, for which the government refused to advance funds.

[4][5] The same year, in November, the International Mercantile Marine Co., a trust that owned the White Star Line, decided to separate from its non-American companies.

Estimates gave it a length of over 300 metres (984 ft), 60,000 gross register tons (GRT), and a cost of £3.5 million, making it the largest liner ever built and the first to exceed the symbolic 1,000-foot mark.

[10] The work was slowed by a dispute over her powerplant; Lord Kylsant wanted to use diesel-electric instead of the then more common steam power to enable the ship's speed to exceed 30 knots (a barrier not surpassed until the completion of SS Normandie in 1935).

Harland and Wolff was reluctant to adopt this system, preferring to continue the use of trusted steam turbine propulsion as it seemed that not testing a new type of engine by installing it on smaller ships first was perilous.

[11] A compromise of sorts was reached and the final design used four conventional low-speed 'cathedral' diesel engines, each directly driving one propeller shaft - which would have made Oceanic the first quadruple-screw motor ship.

[7] Further work on Oceanic was postponed after which the keel was coated in preservative oil in hopes construction would resume but the project was later cancelled due to the Great Depression and the collapse of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, owners of the White Star Line, as a result of the financial problems of Lord Kylsant.

Neville Chamberlain, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, pushed the shipping companies White Star and Cunard to merge in 1934, with the promise to help them finish the liner.

[21] In appearance the planned Oceanic had certain features that make it akin to the liner SS Normandie, including the three short, wide funnels that contrasted with the tall narrow stacks of older ships.

Designed shortly after Oceanic, the 300 meter-plus Normandie was the first to exceed the symbolic barriers of 1000 feet in length and 30 knots in speed that the White Star Line was aiming for.