(For a summary, go to the bottem of the page)
The short life of the third sister
1914~1916
On November 30, 1911, work began on the last and largest of the three "Olympic- class" ocean liners in slip No. 2 on the North Yard of Belfast Ship Yards in Belfast, Northern Ireland. That was the same slip where Olympic was built. In April of 1912 however, construction was stopped because of the sinking of Titanic. When work was restarted many changes to the design were made. The double bottom was extended up the side of the ship to give her a double skin, the water tight bulkheads were also extended up, and other safety
features were put in, making the ship capable of staying afloat with her first six compartments damaged (two more than Titanic). She could now survive the damage that sank her sister.
Five new life boat davits were also added. These new and larger davits, were each responsible for launching six of the largest lifeboats on the ship. In the event that the ship heavily tilted to one side, if it was ever to sink, in spots were a funnel didn't block the way, these davits were able to reach across the boat deck and pick up boats from the other side. In between the large davits were smaller, Wellin Davits, like the ones used on Titanic. At 48,158 tons, this new liner was the largest British ship at that time. Unlike her sisters though, this ship was never the largest ship in the world because in 1913, the Hamburg-Amerika Line's Imperiator, followed shortly after that by her sister the Vaterland, entered service and became the largest ship in the world at more than 900 feet (a little more than 300 meters) in length.
The White Star Line's Britannic was launched on February 26, 1914. Originally she was to be called Gigantic, but White Star chose the name Britannic to be patriotic with Europe on the brink of war. This ship was to be the most luxurious of the trio. The first class reception room was to be grander that the ones on Olympic and Titanic ever were or would be, the A la Carte Restaurant and First Class Smoking Room were to be expanded, and they were even planning to grace the forward grand staircase with an elegant pipe organ. Like her sisters she'd be able to carry about 790 first class passengers, 835 second class passengers, 950 third class passengers, and 950 crew members.
But Britannic's grand entry into commercial service was to be changed due to the outbreak of World War One in July of 1914. Shortly after that, the British government began pulling ships out of comercial service to use them for war duties. This caused a large drop in the number of passengers crossing the ocean. After only a few months, White Star alone had six of it's ships taken by the British Admeralty. However, the line was getting paid good money per ship for every month the ships were used. Few people at the White Star offices were very worried about their ships being sunk in the war because most people were sure it would be over by Christmas. Unfortunatly, this was not the case.
The First World War was a new kind of war. All the new technology invented during the turn of the century that was supposed to make life better, was now being used for it's destruction. Armies now had, for the first time, air planes that they could use to bomb trenches and troop vehicles. In earlier wars, troops had to use rifles which could only fire a few shots, one shot at a time, before they had to be re-loaded. But now, there was the machine gun, which could fire large amounts of bullets in only seconds. There were submerines, also called U-boats, which could sink ships from under water without being detected. There was a new type of poisonus gas that, when sprayed on people, could slowly but painfully kill them over a period of up to two days.With all this new technology, soldiers were no longer dying one by one, but in big amounts, very quickly.
The Straits of the Dardanelles are the small water passages that connect the Mediterranean Sea with the Black Sea. During the First World War, there was a great struggle to control this area because it was a major seaport for Russia. Many soldiers where wounded and the hospital ships that were supposed to take the soldiers back to England and France were too small to carry large amounts of men. So, the British Admiralty gathered together the two Cunard Liners, Mauretania and Aquitania.
Unfortunatly, the two super-liners could not keep up with all the wounded. Then, the Admeralty remebered the Britannic. Her fitting out had not been finished because all of the materials that would have been used for her were needed for the war. So, on November 13, 1915, after spending and entire year sitting in Belfast and doing nothing, Britannic was commissioned as a hospital ship by the British Admiralty and her lavish interiors were converted into dormitories and operating rooms. The first class reception room and dinning saloon became an intensive care ward. Places like the first, second, and third class lounges, smoking rooms, and dining saloons became dormitories. The beautiful promenades would be used as airy hospital wards. And her luxurious state rooms became doctors offices and hospital rooms.
Complete with a green stripe and six red crosses on her hull, on December 12, 1915, Britannic was ready for war service. She arrived in Liverpool, England and was fitted for her duties as a hospital ship with 2034 berths (beds) and 1035 cots (fold-up beds), as well as a staff of 52 officers, 101 doctors and nurses, 336 orderlies (hospital attendants), and a crew of 675 men and women. The ship was able to carry a total of 3309 patients. She was put under the command of Captain Charles A. Bartlett. He started his career with the White Star Line in 1874 and earned his Masters Certificate in 1903. Although passengers loved him, he wasn't a favorite of the White Star Line because of his concern for safety over speed.
The Britannic was designated "His Majesty's Hospital Ship" (HMHS), hospital ship No. G618. She left Liverpool on her maiden voyage on December 23, 1915, bound for Naples, Italy and the port of Mudros on the Greek island of Lemnos. The tiny island of Lemnos had been chosen as a base for attack on the Dardanelles. However, it was later found that this would be a great spot for hospital ships to pick up wounded soldiers. Unlike her sisters, Britannic had no celebration for her maiden voyage, no parties, no cheering crowds. She joined the Mauretania, Aquitania, and later, the Statendam in the Dardanelles Service. All together, the ships could carry more than 10,000 sick and wounded. The Lusitania was not with her sister Mauretania because she was sunk by a German U-boat in May of 1915 with a great loss of
life. Although her main service would be the Dardanelles, Britannic would also be used for other
places as well.
For the people who worked on Britannic, the huge ship became a home. Christmas was celebrated on her in 1915 as she sailed for Naples, Italy. It took five days to get from England to Italy and Britannic arrived there on December 28. It was common for hospital ships to get filled up with coal here so that, after taking on wounded soldiers, they could make a non-stop dash back home. Once Britannic and her fellow ships had loaded up on coal, they departed on December 29, 1915 and headed for Mudros. It took her two days to get there.
Britannic spent four days at Mudros and took on 3,300 wounded and sick military personnel. She and her comrades would have to anchor off the coast of Mudros, because of there size, while many smaller ships would ferry the wounded from the docks to the great liners. She returned to Great Britain on January 9, 1916 where her patients were put on waiting trains to be taken to hospitals in London, England. The second voyage was shorter than her maiden one. She left on January 20 and this time, she only sailed as far as Naples where she took on wounded and returned to England on February 9, 1916.
On Britannic, there was a routine that everyone had to follow. Patients had to be woken up at 6:00 am so that the wards and beds could be cleaned. Breakfast was served at 7:30. After eating, the staff had to clean the dinning rooms. The captain would inspect the ship at 11:00 to make sure everything was running smoothly. At 12:30, lunch was served, and after that, the wards and dinning rooms had to be cleaned again. Tea was served at 4:30 and at 8:30, patients were put to bed. At 9:00, the captain made one last inspection of the ship before going to bed. In between meals, patients would be treated for whatever wound or illness they had. If they weren't schedualded for any treatment, those who were well enought would be allowed to go on deck and get some freash air.
For her third voyage, Britannic left England on March 20, 1916, and arrived in Naples on March 25. She left two days later and headed for Augusta, a port city on the Italian island of Sicily. After taking on wounded, she left Augusta on March 30 and arrived in Southampton on April 4, 1916. She then left Southampton and went to Belfast where she was released from war service. Harland & Wolff had just begun to refit her for commercial service, when the British Admiralty recalled her to war service and she returned to Southampton on August 28, 1916.
The Britannic then went to the port city of Cowes on the British, Isle of Wight and spent four weeks here as a floating hospital. She left Cowes and began her fourth voyage on September 24, 1916. For this trip, she transported members of the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD). Following her coaling stop at Naples, the ship arrived at Mudros on October 3, 1916. Here, the VAD members were transferred to the HMHS Galeka. At Mudros, officials investigated the possible cause of food poisoning which had stricken some of the staff and crew.
Britannic returned to Southampton on October 11, 1916. For the fifth voyage, Britannic left on the twentieth of October and went from Southampton, to Naples, to Mudros, and back. The ship encountered heavy sea storms on the last day of this voyage. Fortunately, she safely made it to Southampton and her patients were transferred to waiting trains. The HMHS Aquitania had suffered damage in the same storms and was unable to make the trip back to the Mediterranean to pick up more wounded. So, Britannic had to fill Aquitania's spot and start her sixth voyage after only four days in port.
She left Southampton on Sunday, November 12, 1916. The trip to Italy was uneventful. On Friday November 17, she arrived at Naples, for coaling. She was supposed to leave there on November 18, but rough seas delayed her departure for a day. Tuesday, November 21, 1916, was a perfect day. As the sun shown down, the HMHS Britannic steamed through the Kea Channel, the small water way between the tiny Greek island of Kea and the Greek mainland, on her way to the island of Lemnos. At about 8:00 am, the crewmen who worked down in the boiler and engine rooms, were changing sifts. To make changes like this quicker, the officers sometimes opened the water tight doors for a short time.
It was a few minutes after 8:00 am when Sheila Macbeth, a nurse onboard who had slept very late, rushed into the dinning saloon. "I only managed to get two spoonfuls of porridge," she said, "before: BANG! and a shiver right down the length of the ship." Britannic's Presbyterian minister, John Fleming, was just walking out of his cabin, "when there was a great crash," he wrote, "the great ship shuddered for a moment from end to end." Historians aren't sure but Britannic either struck a mine (laid by German U-boat, U-73 ) or was torpedoed.
The Britannic now began sinking at the bow. Captain Bartlett ordered the wireless operators to send out distress signals. He then ordered the crew to ready the lifeboats and sound the general alarm, the alarm that told everyone that there was an emergency. It was then that Sheila Macbeth ran to her cabin. She grabbed a few things, put on her life jacket, then took one last look at her room before running up to the boat deck. She then got into a boat and was saved.
At the same time, Violet Jessop, a nurse's aid onboard, was fixing a breakfast tray for a friend who was too sick to eat in the dinning room. She later wrote in her memoirs, "Suddenly, there was a dull, deafening roar." Although she though that the ship was in danger, she calmly helped her friend eat breakfast, then she sent her, with a companion, up to the boat deck. At that time, she grabbed a few things from her cabin. Most importantly, her ring, her clock, and a toothbrush. She then went up to the boat deck got into a lifeboat. It was at this time that the captain tried unsuccessfully to beach the ship on Kea Island, only two miles away. This was his only real mistake. By doing this, he pushed more water into Britannic's wound. He finally cut the engines. However, before the ship stopped moving, two lifeboats were launched. In one of them was Violet Jessop. Once the boats were detached from the ship, they were sucked into the still turning propellers. Violet and a few others leaped out of the boats before they (the lifeboats) were cut to pieces.
Unfortunatly, Violet did not know how to swim. She kicked very hard, trying to get the water's surface. As she came up, she hit her head on the bottom of a life boat and again began sinking. Fortunatly, she found the hand of a man in the water and together the two people swam to the surface. They were then picked up by another life boat. Violet survived, some of her co- workers were not so lucky.
This was not the first emergency Violet Jessop had been in. She was a stewardess onboard Britannic's sister, RMS Olympic when the Olympic and Hawke collision occurred. She was also a stewardess on the RMS Titanic when it sank. She there for survived all three Olympic-class ship emergencies.
As time went on, more boats were launched. On the whole, the evacuation of Britannic was successful and orderly. Of the approximate 1066 people onboard her at the time, only thirty died. Most deaths, if not all of them, were due to the propeller incident. Had Britannic been carrying her full quota of more than 3000 injured soldiers, her deaths would have rivaled Titanic's. In one of the last boats to leave the ship, was Major Harold Priestly, who had taken a leading role in the evacuation of the ship that day, and the ship's log. Captain Bartlett was the last to leave the ship. After giving one last blast on her whistle, he jumped off the deck and into the water. He swam away from Britannic and entered an empty collapsible lifeboat that had drifted away from the great liner. Alone in the lifeboat, he watched his ship disappear under the calm waters.
Violet Jessop described the ship's final moments in her memoirs. "She dipped her head a little, then a little lower and still lower. All the deck machinery fell into the sea like a child's toys. Then she took a fearful plunge, her stern rearing hundreds of feet into the air until, with a final roar, she disappeared into the depths, the noise of her going resounding through the water with undreamt-of violence." It was about fifty-five minutes after the explosion, and the largest British ship at that time was gone. Thirty-five lifeboats, with 1036 survivors in them, now lay scattered on the sea.
Help was at hand though. Many ships had heard Britannic's distress call. The first ship to come was the British cruiser, HMS Heroic, followed by a local fishing boat. The two ships began taking on survivors. Shortly after that, the G-class destroyer, HMS Srourge arrived. An hour or two after that, another G-class destroyer, the HMS Foxhound, came to rescue the remaining survivors. From these ships, the women and commanding officers were put on a boat to the small island of Malta. There they waited until a hospital ship took them back to Britain. The rest of the men were sent to Marseilles, France. From there they traveled on trains to Le Havre, and then made the quick trip across the English Channel to England.
Even with all her modifications Britannic still sank. The first five watertight compartments were flooded. The sixth one was also flooded because the watertight door separating the fifth and sixth compartments didn't close all the way. The ship was capable of staying afloat with her first six compartments damaged. However, most of the ship's windows were open because the nurses where airing out the ship for the wounded soldiers that were going to board her in a few hours. This let water get in because with all the water in her bow, the ship was a little low in the water. Had the windows been shut, she probably wouldn't have sunk.
She lies now on her side in 395 feet of water. So shallow, that the bow hit bottom before she totally sank (because she was 883 ft long) and with the weight, the bow is now cracked. The crack is in the forward well deck and extends all the way down from the deck to the keel. After a brief spot in the papers, Britannic was forgotten. This is because, the day after her sinking, the Austrian emperor, Franz Joseph, passed away and her story was overshadowed by stories about him and his nephew, Charles, the new emperor. The wreck of the HMHS Britannic was discovered in 1976 on an underwater exploration by oceanographer, Jacques Cousteau (1910 - 1997). She is largely intact except for the crack in her forward bow. After
discovering Britannic, Cousteau gathered together the remaining survivors to hear their stories. Unfortunately, John Fleming had died in 1953 and Violet Jessop in 1971. But, of the people who were still alive, Sheila Macbeth was one of them. Each of the survivors took turns in Cousteau's diving saucer. Each got a chance to see the ship that was once their home away from home.
Britannic was never to carry a paying passenger. She was never to cross the Atlantic. She was never to earn her place on the transatlantic route. Instead, she was the largest ship sunk in World War One, and is the largest liner on the ocean floor.
HMHS Britannic
The White Star Line never admitted that they were ever going to call Britannic Gigantic, but this brochure proves it.
Britanic again.