The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1916-11-23
No Wounded Aboard
Britannia When Hit,
Officials Declare


Tendon, Nov 23-Press dispatches
from Athens to the effect that there
were no wounded on board the hos
pital ship Drittanie when 1t was sunk
off the Greek coast were confirmed to-
day by the Admiralty, which made the
following announcement.
mo wounded were aboard the Brit
tantc, on which there were only the
ships crew and the hospital staff
The White Star liner Britannia was
the largest British ship afoat. She
was compile ted at the beginning of the
war, but her maiden trip to the United
States was postponed indefinitely
Since 1914 she had been in the service
of the British government. She was a
vessel of 4S,15S tons gross, being SEC
ond in size only to the German liner
Vaterland among the steamships of
the world.
The Britannia almost since the be-
ginning Of the war was used for a
hospital ship. She was painted white,
and strung between her two forward
tunnels was huge Red Cross en-
blenl, Illuminated at night by incan-
descent lights. She was not armed
l. AS a hospital ship the White Star
liner had accommodations for $500 in
jured soldiers, 100 surgeons. 200 nurses
and orderlies and a crew of several
hundred men.
Captain c.. A. Bartlett, former COM
mander of the White Star liner Cedric
and marine superintendent at Liver
pool was in command of the Britannia
in the hospital service. Her crew was
composed Of White Star seamen.
"Must Have Been Torpedo"
Nothing short of a torpedo could
have sunk the Britannia is the belief
Of White Star line officials here. P. A.
IS. Franklin, president Of the Interna-
tional Mercantile Marine company,
which operates the White Star line, is
in England, but other officers Of the
company were emphatic in their as
sertion that an inner hull with which
the Britannia was equipped would
render her safe from any contact with
mines.
Only high powered explosives, pro-
PEELED with great force into the 1nte-
rior Of the vessel. could have sunk
her, it was declared.
Doubts that the Britannia reported
sunk was the White STIR giant dis
appeared when the marine registers
showed that while there was one other
fair sized British vessel of that name,
La cargo boat of 3,400 tons, she fell a
victim to a mine or a submarine three
months ago.
The White Star liner Britannia was
1856 feet long and was of 1000 tons
greater register than the Olympic and
5000 tons above the Aquitania, the
Ohm I'd Inc hi
built at the yards Of Harland & Wolff
at Belfast, Ireland.
Had Fine Life Saving Equipment.
The fact that so many persons were
saved when the big vessel went down
is probably accounted for by the fact
that the Britannia was equipped with
all known modern life saving devices
including davits that made it possible
to lower three life boats at a time.
The Britannia is the second man.
moth liner that the White Star line
has lost, the Inflated Titanic, which
struck an iceberg in the Atlantic in
April, 1912, and sank with the loss of
about 1,5O0 lives, having been owned
by the same company.
A curious coincidence is that both
the Titanic and Britannia although
built for the express passenger service
between Southampton and New York
never reached this side of the Atlantic.
The Titanic went down on her maiden
voyage.
The Zea Channel where the British
Admiralty states the great ship was
lost, is a bit Of water between the
mainland Of Greece and the island Of
Zea. From this it is safe to assume
that the Britannic was bringing back
wounded -oldiers from Salonica. the
channel being one Of the direct routes
to the Allies depot in this section,