HMHS BRITANNIC

HMHS BRITANNIC
A. RMS OLYMPIC
B. RMS TITANIC
This ship was supposed to be a transatlantic ocean liner for passengers. However, when WORLD WAR I broke out this became a hospital ship. The ship sunk on the south side of Greece in 1916. With the loss of 30 lives. The ship hit a mine and sank.

Because of the TITANIC’S sinking they had made changes to the HMS BRITANNIC. And, these changes all happened before the launching. The changes that were made are:
A. DOUBLE HULL
B. ENGINE AND BOILER ROOMS
C. RAISING OF THE 6OUT OF THE 15 WATER TIGHT BULKHEADS UP TO THE B DECK
They changed the fittings of the boats. They are now on a swing arm to get to them faster. They also have additional space by the deck house. On the other side of the ship they have emergency life boats. The purpose of this was to get to the boats as quickly as they can.
After the loss of the TITANIC and the OLYMPIC they had made this ship 2 feet wider.
The boat was launched on Feb. 26, 1914. From Harland Wolff shipyard in Belfast. Before the BRITTANIC could make contact with NEW YORK. WORLD WAR I had broke out. With this the personal use of these ocean liners were put to a stop. Now these ocean liners were used for the military. In fact THE WHITE STAR LINE had put their passenger boats on hold until the war had stopped.
All of this had changed in May of 1915. The BRITANNIC was sent out after a 4 week notice. The same month The CYNARD LINER lost its ship to a torpedo.
The next month apart of the BRITISH NAVAL ADMINISTRATION had changed their minds in using ocean liners. They had started to use their passenger lines for the military. The first ships to go were the:
A. RMS MAURETANIA
B. RMS AQUITANIA

The AQUITANIA ship was now being transferred to a hospital ship. She would transfer the injured to a larger ship called the OLYMPIC. In September and in November of the same year, the BRITANNIC colors were changed. They changed them to RED and WHITE, with big red crosses on it. And, at this point they had changed the name to (HIS MAJESTY’S HOSPITAL SHIP) and placed under command of Captain Charles A. Barttlett. From the time of 1868-1945.

After he had completed 5 successful trips to the middle eastern there and back with the sick and wounded to the UNITED KINGDOM.

A storm had broken out on November 19 that kept the ship in dock until the next day which was which was Sunday afternoon. There was a break in the storm. So, the ship had headed out. When the ship left dock the sea had rose up again. The next day the storm had subsided.

On November 21, 19l6 there was a loud explosion. They had no idea what had hit ship. Not all the people had reacted the same way. Some of them left for their stations immediately. The others felt the hit a smaller vessel. While Captain Bartlett and Chief Officer Hume were on the bridge, they had saw what the explosion had done. This explosion had happened on the starboard side filling up the water tight bulkheads with water fastly to make this even worse then the fireman’s quarters were filling up with water.

The compartments with the sick and wounded were starting to fill up with water also, as they had the windows open to get fresh air. The Britannic could not stay afloat now.

And the swing arms that held the life boats were still in operation.

There was an unknown officer on board with six of his sailors. They were told to throw collapsible rafts and deck chairs overboard to make a make shift lift raft. They were told to save themselves.

A 6th of Officer Welch and other sailors were spotted on board. As this sixth sailor did not have enough sailors to lift the lifeboats. The Uknown sailor had ordered his men to help out the other sailors.

Bartlett sounded 1 final blast of the horn then walked out into the water as now the water was up to the bridge. He had swim up to the collapsible boat and started to help with rescue operations.

There was a nurse on board named (VIOLET JESSOP) who had survived the sinking of the (TITANIC) along with the ship (OLYMPIC). She had told her story of the events of what had happened. It was 9:07 P.M. when the Britannic finally went down.

The Britannic was the largest ship to have gone down in WORLD WAR I.

The first vessels to arrive on the scene was a Greek fisherman boat they picked up as many survivors as they could. The next boat to arrive on the scene was the HMS SCOURGE they had spotted the survivors and had picked up 339 of them.

The people of (KORISSIA) were in awe to see all the wounded. They had offered their assistance. They had put them in their houses, while waiting for rescue ships to take them to the hospital.

Another ship called the (HEROIC) had carried the sick and wounded also. These two ships the SCOURGE and the HEROIC had run out of room to take the survivors. Another ship was called in. This was the HMS FORSIGHT this was called in to collect the dead.

1,036 people were saved. But, only, five of them were buried. The others were left in the sea. And, are honored in THESSALONIA AND LONDON.

The Britannic lays in about 400 feet of water. This was the first discovered by (JACQUES COUSTEAU) in 1975. The ship is laying on the right side, hiding the hole where the damage occurred. The front of the boat is deformed as it hit bottom before the rest of the ship. The boat can be seen by trained scuba divers to go down that deep.

This is a BRITISH WAR GRAVE and must be approved by the British for any journey to go down to see this ship.

In 1995 during a filmage of the wreckage by NOVA. Dr. Robert Ballard went down to the wreck with sonar equipment. They were surprised to the boats’ funnels were still in good condition. But, the boat was not touched at all.

A historian named (SIMON MILLS) bought the HMHS BRITANNIC from the British and when they had asked him what he was going to do with it he replied, “I am just going to leave it there.”

In 1999 experienced cave divers went down to see the wreckage. They had made a video tape of what they saw. And, this was broadcasted on several different channels:

A. NATIONAL GEOGRAPIC CHANNEL
B. THE BBC (BRITISH BROADCASTING CHANNEL)
C. THE HISTORY CHANNEL
D. AND THE DISCOVERY CHANNEL