Britannic

The HMHS Britannic was the 3rd & final vessel in White Star Line's Olympic Class trio. She was intended to be a passenger ocean liner like her sisters, Olympic & Titanic, but after World War 1 broke out, she was completed in July 1914, so she ended up entering service as a Hospital Ship. Her original interiors were removed & replaced with medical decks, though she did carry come bedrooms aboard. Her original name would be "Gigantic", but after the Titanic disaster, her name was changed to avoid association with the disaster. Due to the Titanic disaster, Britannic was given a better hull & extra lifeboats, as Titanic only had 20, which was not enough to accomedate the passengers.

## History:

The White Star Line commisioned 3 vessels, Olympic, Titanic & Gigantic, which was eventually changed to Britannic. Olympic & Titanic were completed 1st, then it was Britannic's turn to be built. However, after the Titanic sank, Harland & Wolff went back & to redesign the ship, giving her a better, stronger hull, adding extra lifeboats & adding cranes to accomedate for them. Britannic was launched in July 1914 sometime after World War 1 broke out. Britannic was given hospital interiors while her original interiors were replaced. They can now be found as interiors in some British housing today. The ship entered service as a hospital ship in December 1915. After completeing missions of carrying injured soldiers, she was to return to become a passenger ship, but was called back into service for the following year. In November 1916, she picked up injured soldiers across the Agean Sea. On November 21st, at 8:22am, she struck a mine on her starboard bow off the coast of Kea, Greece, blowing off the wires overhead of her 4 funnels. This meant that she could send messages to other ships, but couldn't recieve them. Captain Bartlett attempted to beach her to ensure that she would make it, but her crew ended up lowering the lifeboats without his knowledge. 2 lifeboats were sucked into the port propeller, killing at least 30 people. Once the captain realized that Britannic couldn't be beached, he called the order to abandon ship. Apparently, her front portholes were open, which made the ship's end inevitable. Everyone was lowered into the boats. Britannic sank within 55 minutes, less than half the time as her sister 4 1/2 years prior. Being longer than the water was deep, Britannic's bow slammed into the bottom of the channel while the entire ship was about to slip beneath the waves. Her wreck shows her bow having closely broken off from the rest of the ship. Britannic is claimed the largest passenger ship wreck in all time history. The ship rests on her starboard side, lived in by several amounts of fish & corals protecting her from deterioration. In 2000, 84 years after the accident, a documentary TV Film was released.

## Trivia:

Britannic was threatened by a german U-Boat in the Documentary TV film named after her, but this never happened in real life, as there no were no criminals aboard the ship at the time. Plus, it would be against maretime regulations to sink a hospital ship or even a passenger ship of any kind. Also in the TV movie, a villain character named Reynolds attempted to sink the ship via explosive bottle. The bottle was dropped into the engines & the port bow broke open as a result. However, this never happened either. Reynolds never existed. Another thing that the film got wrong was that the starboard propeller destroyed the 2 of the lifeboats. Britannic was also sinking by the bow before quickly tinlting onto its starboard side, despite the hole on the port side. The other worng side is that the ship sank further than in real life.

On some media, the ship sinks on its port side, while the actual ship sank on its starboard bow. Some might even say that a torpedo sunk the ship, but these are entirely false.

Britannic was also the 2nd vessel to sink after Titanic. The only ship in the Olympic Class that didn't sink was the Olympic, which was eventually scrapped in 1935, along side Mauretania.

Despite Britannic being the largest passenger ship wreck of all time, it's Titanic that gets most of the glory, possibly due to its story &/or iconic James Cameron film from 1997.

This ship was the 2nd vessel to bare the name "Britannic" after the original from the late 19th Century.

Britannic was not the only 4-Funnel Liner to be converted into a hospital ship during World War 1, Cunard's Mauretania & Aquitania were also converted into hospital ships during that time. Apart from Britannic, both Mauretania & Aquitania survived Wold War 1, apart from Lusitania which was torpedoed on the starboard bow off the coast of Southern Ireland en route to Liverpool. Aquitania would go on to survive World War 2 & was scrapped in 1950.