But with the vessel launched just two years after The Titanic's tragic end, The Britannic underwent several design changes to give her the best chance of survival and to avoid another disaster. One of the biggest changes was fitting large crane-like davits - or safety arms - that each held six lifeboats. This would allow people - more than the maximum number of people the ship to carry - to escape from any potential disaster.
At the time of her launch, she was described as "a 20th Century ship in every sense of the word" and "the highest achievement of her day in the practise of ship building and marine engineering. As the First World War became increasingly demanding, The Britannic was prepared for emergency entrance into service.
Ferrying the sick and wounded from the Middle East to the UK, the ship was generally given safe passage thanks to being clearly marked as a hospital ship. Sailing under the command of Captain Charles Bartlett, the shop travelled to Naples, refilling on coal and water.
These two warships, together with two French tugs, arrived at 10am and between them, picked up over ; they headed for Piraeus, on the mainland, crammed with survivors.
Survivors of the Britannic. Image courtesy of the Imperial War Museum , Q Of the 1, crew and medical staff on board, only 30 21 crew plus one officer and eight men of the RAMC were to lose their lives; most of these were probably in the lifeboats that drifted into the propellers. For many years the cause of the explosion was unknown.
Some reports at the time talked of the track of a torpedo being seen just before the explosion, but recent dives on the wreck have revealed chains which almost certainly indicate that mines tethered to the bed of the sea, probably laid by German submarine U , caused the explosion. Regrettably, diver Carl Spencer died whilst investigating the wreck in Being so close to the shore as indicated here , Britannic is relatively near the surface — at less than feet which is less than half her overall length.
The wreck of the Britannic lying on the sea bed off Kea. Image courtesy of Britannic wiki. Britannic was the largest vessel to sink during the Great War; there was no catastrophic loss of life, unlike with the Lusitania , and no deliberate targeting of a Hospital Ship was evident although the possibility of a torpedo attack remained a possibility for many decades.
As a result the story of the Britannic is now largely forgotten. Commemorated on the Mikra Memorial, Greece. Served in the South African Campaign. Private Henry Freebury , Aged Wounded in France in Private William Stone , Aged Husband of Anna Wilks formerly Stone. Commemorated on the Tower Hill Memorial.
Born at Higher Tranmere. Fireman Frank Jospeh Earley , Aged Born at Southampton. Born at Bristol. Second Electrician Pownall Gillespie , Aged Born at Liverpool. Fireman George William Godwin , Aged Born in Dorset. Second Baker Walter Jenkins , Aged Born at Egremont, Cheshire. Oswald Street, Liverpool. Trimmer Charles Phillips , Aged Buried at Piraeus Naval and Consular Cemetery. Fireman George Bradbury Philps , Aged Born at Alton. Greaser George Sherin , Aged Fireman William Smith , Aged Born in London.
Steward Henry James Toogood , Aged Steward Thomas Francis Tully , Aged Born at Roscommon. Although damage was extensive, only six of the watertight compartments flooded and the ship remained afloat, but as it listed, water began to enter open portholes on the starboard side.
In an attempt to beach the ship off Kea, Capt. Charles Bartlett ordered full speed ahead. The movement, however, caused more water to enter, and Bartlett quickly ordered the engines stopped. At approximately 9. Breached in the bow section just forward of the bridge, she went down far faster than the Titanic, in just 55 minutes, but with much less loss of life. Thirty people died when the Britannic sank.
Those critical design changes helped, as she was equipped with lifeboats for 3, people, her maximum load on return from the front with casualties. Much warmer waters would have helped the survival rate too. The grand liner now sits on the seabed, m below the surface of the Aegean Sea. The underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau rediscovered Britannic in The ensuing documentary included a visit to her former workplace by year-old Mrs Sheila Macbeth, who had been 26 and a serving nurse on the ship at the time of her sinking.
British filmmaker and maritime historian Simon Mills has owned the UK government's legal title to the wreck since Mills has been visiting the Britannic since , when he accompanied the marine explorer Bob Ballard to her final resting place. That first visit took place in a US Navy nuclear submarine.
The impact buried part of the bow section under the seabed. The 25m support vessel U-Boat Navigator that the team operates in the Kea channel above the wreck is equipped with two Triton manned submersibles: one three-man vessel and a one-man sub. Dmitri Tomashov is one of the sub pilots. He has been visiting and filming the wreck for a documentary series since and has logged 65 hours on the Britannic since then.
The addition of the second Triton this year is an added element of safety and each Triton can film the other working, or they can shoot the same subject simultaneously from two different angles.
Another advantage of these Tritons, which are depth-rated to 1,m, is the viewing sphere made of optical glass allowing filming at desirable angles without distorting the image. Her depth at m places the wreck just inside the depth limits for exploration by human divers. The expedition has pretty much completed what we need in terms of exterior surveys.
We've done as much imaging as we reasonably can," says Mills. The next phase will be penetration of the wreck to identify, retrieve and conserve selected artefacts. However, that is now in the hands of the diplomats from the UK Foreign Office and the Greek Ministry of Culture, as no historic artefacts may be removed from Greek territory without the permission of the Minister of Culture. Marine exploration technology has massively improved since the mids, especially on the technical diving front.
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