Cruise Ship History – Three Sisters: Part II

HMHS Britannic

As mentioned in my previous blog, the famous 'cruise ship' Titanic had two nearly identical 'sisters' - and she was the 'middle sister'. Her elder 'sister', HMS Olympic, was featured last time. The third-born 'sister' was christened Britannic and launched in February 1914 - less than two years after the Titantic sank in the North Atlantic.

Like her two older siblings, Britannic was built for the White Star line to work as a transatlantic passenger liner. She was originally going to be named Gigantic, but since she began life in the aftermath of the Titanic disaster, White Star decided 'Britannic' was a luckier name!

HMHS Britannic

Outwardly, Britannic resembled the Titanic - but was a little larger. Like Titanic, she also had an enclosed promenade deck. The major visual difference between the two ships was that the lifeboat davits were much more prominent on the Britannic. 

Below deck, the Britannic was also similiar to her elder sisters. However, instead of having no inner water-tight skin for safety - like Titanic - or a skin that was retrofitted later - as for Olympic - a double skin was instead "built in" for Britannic. In addition, she was powered by the largest marine turbine in the world at the time, developing 18,000 horsepower.

Britannic was not completely fitted out at the time of her launch. Financial and industrial difficulites associated with World War I - which was soon to begin - were factors causing her to be laid up for months in Belfast, Ireland. Like her eldest sister Olympic, Britannic was eventually called to serve her country during the war. In November 1915, she was requisitioned as a hospital ship, becoming HMHS (His Majesty's Hospital Ship) Britannic. She received a coat of bright white paint and large red crosses. The crosses were each lit by 125 lights. In December 1915, Britannic finally departed Belfast to begin her career - little knowing it was going to be a relatively short one!

Captained by Charlie Bartlett, the HMHS Britannic succesfully completed five voyages bringing wounded British soldiers home to England from various ports around the world. However, just after 8 a.m. on November 21, 1916, while sailing to pick up more wounded soldiers near the Gulf of Athens, she struck an underwater mine in the Kea Channel in the Aegean Sea near Greece (some speculate is was a torpedo attack). Despite her "built-in" water-tight double inner skin, six compartments flooded almost instantly. The Britannic began to list.

Captain Bartlett ordered all the watertight doors closed, sent out an SOS, and ordered the ship to be abandoned. Meanwhile, he attempted to beach the ship on nearby Kea Island. Due to its design, and despite the serious blast damage, the ship would have remained afloat. Everyone aboard could have been saved. However, due to two factors, events turned even uglier:

First, the nursing staff on the ship had opened many portholes to bring fresh air into the sick wards. As the listing Britannic limped towards Kea Island, water poured in through the open portholes.

Second, while it is easy to understand that panic and chaos abounded at the time, some of the crew prematurely launched two lifeboats from the port side of the sinking ship without permission or orders. Since the ship was limping towards Kea Island as fast as it could, the lifeboats were sucked into the propellers and demolished - killing everyone aboard. However, the other lifeboats were eventually succussfully launched and nearly 1,100 people managed to make it safely off the doomed ship.

By 9:07 a.m., HMHS Britannic had slipped beneath the waves. She was the largest ship lost during World War I. Thirty people died - mostly from the smashed lifeboats. The survivors were eventually plucked from the water or from the lifeboats by rescuers.

In retrospect,  the loss of lives would have been a lot worse if the ship had instead been homeward bound - with a load of wounded soldiers. In 1976, famed explorer, Jacques Cousteau, found the Britannic lying on its side 400 feet below the surface of the Aegean Sea and recovered a few small objects. To this day, as a requisitioned ship in the service of the Crown, the wreck belongs to the British Government!

Note: Michael Lance is a Cruise & Vacation Specialist with CruiseOne - Karber & Associates and an avid history buff. Visit http://www.FirstClassCruising.biz for more information.