HMHS Britannic
The HMHS Britannic was a British liner owned by the White Star Line shipping company, the company's second ship baptized with this name. She was the third and last ship of the Olympic class, thus being the sister ship of the famous ocean liners RMS Olympic and RMS Titanic. At the time of the fateful sinking of the Titanic, its construction was still in an early stage.
The ship had been built to carry passengers and should have sailed under the acronym RMS, but was requisitioned in the First World War and only operated as a troop transport and hospital ship until its sinking in 1916.
After the war ended, the loss of the ship was compensated with the granting of the SS Bismarck to the White Star as part of war reparations, being renamed Majestic. The Britannic was the largest ship sunk during the war and is currently the largest sunken ocean liner in the world.
History
Beginnings
Construction of the Britannic began on November 30, 1911 at the Harland & Wolff in Belfast, in the shelter of the gantry previously occupied by the Olympic, which allowed the builders to save time and money by not eliminating a slip similar in size to that of her sister ships. The acquisition of the ship was scheduled for early 1914. Due to the improvements introduced as a result of the sinking of the Titanic, the launching did not take place until February 26, 1914. Several speeches were given in front of the press and a dinner was organized in honor of the launching, subsequently beginning the conditioning work. The ship entered dry dock in September and her propellers were installed.
In August 1914, before the ship could begin transatlantic service, Britain entered World War I. Immediately, all shipyards with Admiralty contracts were given priority to use the available ships. All civil contracts, including Britannic, were slowed. The naval authorities requisitioned a large number of ships as cruisers, merchant ships, armed ships or for transporting troops. The Admiralty paid the companies for the use of their ships, but the risk of losing a ship in naval operations was high. Large ocean liners were not taken up for naval use, because smaller ships were easier to operate. Against this backdrop, Olympic returned to Belfast on 3 November 1914, while work on her sister ship slowly continued.
Rumors about the name
Although the White Star Line and the Harland & Wolff always denied it, some sources suggest that, originally, the ship should have been called "Gigantic". One of them is an advertising poster for the ship with that name at the top. Other sources are American newspapers from November 1911 setting out White Star's order for the ship. According to Simon Mills, a copy of the Belfast Dockyard order book held by the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, dated October 1911, had this name written on it.
Some handwritten changes were made to the Harland & Wolff dated January 1912 (three months before the Titanic disaster), but these only referred to the molded width of the ship and without mentioning her name, as was often speculated.
However, there is at least one set of documents discussing the ship's anchoring order, which indicates that "Gigantic" was the original planned name for the liner.
Requisition
The need to increase tonnage became critical as naval operations extended to the eastern Mediterranean. In May 1915, Britannic completed her sea trials and was prepared for emergency entry into service with just four weeks' notice. During that same month, the first major loss of a civilian ship occurred when RMS Lusitania was torpedoed off the Irish coast by SM U-20.
For the following month, the Admiralty decided to use recently requisitioned passenger ships as troop transports in the Battle of Gallipoli (also called the Dardanelles campaign). The first to sail were the Cunard Line's RMS Mauretania and RMS Aquitania. As the landings at Gallipoli proved disastrous and casualties increased, the need for large hospital ships for the treatment and evacuation of the wounded became evident. Aquitania was diverted to hospital duties in August—her place as a troop transport would be taken by Olympic in September. Then, on 13 November 1915, Britannic was requisitioned as a hospital ship from Belfast. There, her helmet was repainted white with large red crosses and green horizontal stripes. Inside, 3,309 beds for the wounded and several operating rooms were installed. The medical equipment was installed on December 12.
Service
The Britannic began service as a hospital ship on December 23, 1915, under the command of the renowned Captain Charles A. Bartlett (1868–1945). In the service of the British Red Cross, she made trips to the island of Lemnos (Greece), evacuating soldiers wounded in the Gallipoli campaign. She also spent a month as a floating hospital off Cowes on the Isle of Wight, England. She later returned to Harland & Wolff to be adapted again as a passenger ship, but the Admiralty reclaimed it for war service. Before her sixth and final voyage, the Britannic made two more voyages to Moúdros.
The tragedy
At 08:12 on November 21, 1916, a strong explosion shook the ship. The cause, whether a torpedo from an enemy submarine or a mine, was not apparent. It would later be revealed that the mines were planted in the Ceos Channel during the month prior to the sinking by SM U-73 under the command of Gustav Sieß. The reaction in the dining room was immediate. The doctors and nurses instantly withdrew from their posts, but not everyone reacted in the same way, since in the stern, the power of the explosion was lower and many thought that the ship had hit a smaller vessel.
Captain Bartlett and Chief Officer Hume were on the bridge at the time and the seriousness of the situation soon became apparent. The explosion was on the starboard side. The force of the explosion damaged watertight bulkhead 1. Bartlett had attempted to run aground on the coast of Ceos (which was three miles away) to save the ship, but the attempt was unsuccessful, and the Britannic began to sink faster. as more water entered and its propellers and rudder came out of it, leaving almost no progress.
Bartlett ordered the watertight doors closed, sent a distress signal, and ordered the crew to prepare the lifeboats. An SOS signal was immediately sent and received by several other ships in the area, including the destroyer HMS Scourge and the sloop HMS Heroic, but the Britannic received no response, as the force of the explosion had caused her to The antenna cables hanging between the masts broke, so although radio transmissions could still be sent, the ship could no longer receive them. This event was unknown to both Bartlett and the ship's wireless operator.
The Britannic could stay afloat with a maximum of six of her watertight compartments flooded. There were five watertight bulkheads rising to deck B. These measures had been taken after the sinking of the Titanic—which could only float with a maximum of four compartments flooded. The next crucial bulkhead between boiler rooms 5 and 4 was undamaged and should have ensured the Britannic's survival. However, there were open windows along the forward lower decks, which had been opened by the nurses to ventilate the rooms, contrary to current legislation. Therefore, as the ship's inclination increased, the water reached the open windows of these levels, which facilitated its access to the interior of the ship and entered the stern from the bulkhead of boiler rooms 5 and 4. As Consequently, the Britannic had exceeded the maximum number of compartments it could have flooded to remain afloat, so the great ship would inevitably founder.
On the bridge, Captain Bartlett had considered re-applying efforts to try to save the ship, despite its increasingly serious condition. At the same time, hospital staff prepared to evacuate the injured.
Evacuation
Bartlett had given the order to prepare the lifeboats, but did not allow them to be lowered. All travelers on board took their most valuable belongings with them before evacuation. The ship's chaplain recovered the Bible from him. The few patients and nurses on board were gathered together. Commander Harold Priestley assembled his Royal Army Medical Corps detachments at the rear of A Deck and inspected the cabins to ensure that no one was left behind. As Bartlett continued his desperate maneuver, the ship sank lower and lower. The other crew members began to put the first rescue boat into the water without waiting for the order to do so. Bartlett then decided to stop the ship and its engines. However, before he could do so, two lifeboats were lowered into the water on the port side. The propellers, which were still operational, sucked in both boats, destroying them and their passengers. In one of those boats was Violet Jessop - who also survived the Titanic disaster - who saved herself by jumping into the sea before her boat was destroyed by the propeller. Bartlett was finally able to stop the ship's engines before the propellers sucked in more boats.
Sinking
At 08:45, the list was so great that even the gantry davits were inoperable. At this point, Bartlett concluded that the rate at which the ship was sinking had reduced, so he stopped the evacuation and ordered the engines to be restarted in the hope that the ship could still be saved. At 09:00, Bartlett was informed that the flooding rate had increased due to the ship's forward motion and that the flood had reached D deck. Aware that there was no longer any hope of reaching land in time, Bartlett He gave the final order to stop the engines and sounded two final alarms. As the water had already reached the bridge, he and Assistant Commander Dyke walked onto the deck and entered the water, swimming towards a folding boat from which they continued to coordinate operations. rescue.
As the Britannic sank further, its inclination increased, making the ship almost vertical. The ship, measuring almost 275 meters, was longer than the sea towards the seabed, causing the bow to crash into the bottom with the stern still on the surface. When this happened, the boat slid until it disappeared among the waves at 09:07. Violet Jessop—a survivor of the Titanic wreck, and also present on the Olympic the day she collided with the HMS Hawke—described the final seconds:
"He lowered his head a bit, then a little lower and even lower. The whole machinery of the deck fell to the sea as a boy's toys. Then he made a fearful leap, his stern rose to hundreds of feet in the air until the last roar and disappeared into the depths, and his noise leaving through the water was with unimaginable violence... "
The ship disappeared from the surface just 55 minutes after the explosion, taking less than half the time it took the Titanic to sink. The Britannic was the largest ship lost in the First World War. The more than 1,000 survivors were rescued by several ships after the shipwreck.
Rescue
Compared to the Titanic, the rescue was facilitated by three factors: the temperature was higher (21°C/70°F compared to −2°C/28°F on the Titanic), more lifeboats were available (35 were launched and stayed afloat compared to the Titanic's 20) and help was closer (it arrived less than two hours after the first distress call compared to the three and a half hours it took for the Carpathia to reach the position of the Titanic).
The first to arrive on the scene were the fishermen of Ceos, who picked up many men from the water. At 10:00, HMS Scourge sighted the first rescue boats and 10 minutes later she stopped and picked up 339 survivors. The armed boarding ship HMS Heroic had arrived a few minutes earlier and had picked up 494. Some 150 had reached Coresia, Ceos, where medics who had survived the wreck were trying to save the wounded, using aprons and life preservers to make dressings. A small sterile dock served as the operating room.
The Scourge and the Heroic had no room on deck for more survivors, and they left for Piraeus signaling the presence of those who remained in Coresia. HMS Foxhound arrived at 11:45 and, after sweeping the area, docked at the small harbor at 13:00 to offer medical assistance and embark the remaining survivors. At 14:00 the light cruiser HMS Foresight arrived. The Foxhound left for Piraeus at 14:15, while the Foresight stayed behind to arrange the burial at Ceos of Sergeant William Sharpe of the RAMC, who had died from his wounds. Two other men died in the Heroic and one in the French pull Goliath. All three were buried with military honors in the consular and naval cemetery in Piraeus. The latest death was that of G. Honeycott, who died at the Russian Hospital in Piraeus shortly after the funeral.
In total, 1,035 people survived the sinking, which left 30 people dead. Of the deceased, only five bodies were buried; others were never recovered and are honored in monuments in Thessaloniki (the Mikra Memorial) and London. Another 38 people were injured (18 crew, 20 RAMC). The survivors were housed on warships that were anchored in the port of Piraeus, while the nurses and officers were housed in separate hotels in Phaleron. Many Greek citizens and officials attended the funeral. The survivors were sent home and few arrived in the UK before Christmas.
Wreck
The wreck of the Britannic was discovered on December 3, 1975 by French explorer Jacques Cousteau, and was later explored in 1976. It was located 2.78 miles< /span> (5.16 km) northwest of Coresia and lies at a depth of 120 meters. It is considered a war cemetery and, therefore, its exploration is limited although accessible by professional divers. The wreck lies completely on its starboard side and, compared to the Titanic, is relatively well preserved. She has a twisted bow due to sinking, fixed to the rest of the hull by a few pieces of the B deck, and also has a large hole projecting outwards that suggests a large internal explosion. The interiors of the Britannic are quite well preserved and today she is the largest sunken liner.
In mid-1995, during an expedition filmed by NOVA, Robert Ballard, discoverer of the Titanic wreck, explored the wreck with underwater robots. He did not inspect the interior of the ship, but located the four smokestacks. In 2003, Carl Spencer led a team that entered the ship and discovered a number of mine anchors on the seabed, confirming the German submarine U-73's notes that the Britannic was sunk by a single mine.
Debates about the sinking
For years there were many debates about the sinking, especially since the discovery of the remains of the Britannic by Jacques Cousteau, who after carrying out investigations showed that in the bow section there was indeed a hole caused by an explosion, but everything pointed to to have originated from inside the ship, rather than from the outside in, as it would have to be if the explosion had been external. As a result, it has long been debated whether the Britannic was torpedoed or whether it was an act of terrorism carried out by the German Empire, which sought to subdue the pride of English sailors.
Film adaptation
In 2000 the story of the Britannic shipwreck was adapted to film. The film, Britannic, starred Edward Atterton, Amanda Ryan and Jacqueline Bisset. Unlike the real events of the sinking, the film shows many freedoms in terms of the story, such as the clarity and depth of the plot about a German spy on board the ship, a mutiny and a torpedo attempt and the belief in ship sabotage.
Exterior appearance
RMS Britannic
The exterior appearance of the RMS Britannic was very similar to that of the stricken Titanic, with promenade deck A closed in its first half, either to provide a promenade protected from squalls or to include a winter garden. The ship's anchors were delivered with the initial name "Gigantic" engraved, and in the Harland & Wolff also appeared this name.
After the war, the Britannic would have been converted into a luxury liner. The gantry davits would probably have been removed (as in the case of the RMS Arundel Castle and the RMS Windsor Castle). Some of her original interiors could have been replaced by new art deco designs, [ citation needed ] making her the most luxurious ship in her class. Plans drawn up for Britannic showed that she was intended to surpass her sister ships in luxury to compete with the SS Imperator, SS Vaterland and RMS Aquitania. Sufficient cabins were provided for passengers divided into three classes. The White Star Line anticipated a considerable change in its customer base. Therefore, the quality of third class (intended for immigrants) was improved compared to that of the Olympic and Titanic, as was the case for second class accommodations. Additionally, the planned crew number increased to 950, in contrast to the 860/880 of her twins.
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The quality of the first class was also improved. Children would begin to appear as part of the clientele necessary to be satisfied, and so a games room was built for them on the boat deck. Like the other Olympic class ships, the first class rooms included the Grand Staircases, but their design was improved to be much more sumptuous, with better details on the balustrades and decorative panels, as well as including a large pipe organ for the bow staircase. Deck A would be dedicated entirely to the first class, with a main saloon, two Verandah cafeterias, a smoking room and a reading room. Deck B would have a hair salon. The most important innovation was to install private bathrooms in almost all first class cabins, the first being incorporated on an ocean liner (on ships of the time, most passengers had to use public bathrooms, and only the Olympic would incorporate bathrooms). private to almost all their cabins in the late 1920s).
These developments were never installed because the Britannic was converted into a hospital ship and sank before it could enter commercial service, so the planned installations were cancelled, destroyed, reused on other White Star ships (as in the Olympic or the Majestic) or they simply never materialized.
Pipe organ
A Welte philharmonic organ was planned to be installed in front of the Britannic's bow Grand Staircase. However, due to the outbreak of war, the instrument never reached Belfast.
In April 2007, restorers of a Welte organ, currently on display at the Museum of Music Machines (German: Museum für Musikautomaten) of Seewen, Solothurn (Switzerland), detected that the main parts of the instrument were signed by the German organ builders with the word "Britanik". A photograph of an illustration in a company prospectus, found in Welte's bequest in the Augustinian Museum in Freiburg, demonstrated that this organ was the one intended for the Britannic.
HMHS Britannic
As a hospital ship, the Britannic had five gantry stations (since there was not enough time to install the eight stations planned, the rest of the boats were installed two by two in gantry stations). >welin on the boat deck and on the aftcastle deck B) and a huge white hull with three red crosses and a green line from bow to stern. From the front of the B deck to the aft end, there was a line of green lights that turned on at night.
Interior appearance
Boat deck
The gym and the Grand Staircase were used by the medical team. The gym continued with its original equipment. However, the staircase was completely modified. The panels and decorations, such as carved cherubs and pine cones, were removed, leaving only the balustrades, the dome and the white steel wall. The panels were auctioned after the war. On the first landing, on the white wall (where the carved clock of "Honor and Glory crowning Time", also present on the Titanic and the Olympic, should have been placed), was the inscription "Out of bounds for patients" (in Spanish: «not accessible to patients»), indicating that it was a staircase for exclusive use by healthcare personnel.
Cover A
On this deck was the Company Office, which would be located in the first class lounge, in the smoking room or in the Verandah cafes. The nurses' dormitories were also located here, the first class walks were transformed into officers' and sick rooms and the reading and correspondence room was used by the medical staff for its original use.
Cover B
The second and third class smoking rooms were used by the officers for the same purpose. The enclosed promenade of that deck was used as a hospital room for the officers.
Cover C
The ship's small hospital, as well as the third class general room, were transformed into isolation rooms. The second class library was converted into a room for the RAMCs. This deck also housed cabins.
Cover D
The first class dining room and reception room on D deck were transformed into operating rooms.
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