Since humanity built its first boats and began to conquer the seas and oceans, many centuries have passed. All this time people were accompanied by shipwrecks. Over time, the size of ships increased, as did the number of victims in disasters.
All records for shipwrecks were broken by the 20th century, when, it would seem, they had already learned how to build reliable and strong liners, cruisers and steamships, and not just sailing wooden ships subject to all winds. The liner "Britanic" is one of the victims of the shipwreck.
The story of three sister ships
The accelerated pace of life at the beginning of the 20th century required faster movement in space than it was before. Rapidly developing trade between countries and mass emigration to the USA from Europe and other parts of the world created a need for powerful and fast transatlantic vessels.
In 1902, the implementation ofthe Lusitania project, within the framework of which 2 ships of unprecedented size and speed were created in America. The sister liners Lusitania and Mauritania took over the transatlantic traffic, putting the prosperity of the British merchant marine at risk.
In response to the challenge of the United States at the shipyards "Harland &Wolf" in Belfast, it was decided to build 3 liners that are superior in power and reliability to the American ones. The customer was one of the directors of the White Star Ship Company.
Thus, in 1907, the British Admir alty project began, thanks to which the light saw the appearance of three brother ships - the Olympic, Titanic and Britannic. The passenger ship, as a category of ships, thus changed, became much faster than the military battleships existing at that time, thanks to the state-of-the-art equipment.
Characteristics of Britannica
What is curious about the three identical twin liners of the British company is that each subsequent ship was built taking into account the shortcomings of the previous ones, but the first ship, the Olympic, had the best fate. Unlike his "younger brothers", he crossed the Atlantic more than 500 times, while the Titanic had only 1 flight, and the Britannic had 5.
After the death of the Titanic, shipbuilders took into account all the shortcomings that led to the collapse of this ship when building the Britannic. The ship was outwardly very similar to its "brothers", but it turned out to be much more powerful and perfect. He was better equipped with boats, andpartitions between bulkheads were to prevent the ship from sinking in the event of an accident. This detail has become a significant advantage of the Britannic. The ship had 17 watertight partitions, which made it unsinkable when 6 compartments open to water were filled.
The characteristics of the boat deck have also been changed. The alteration of the davits and their installation not only on the sides, but also on the stern, made it possible to evacuate passengers at any roll of the liner.
Vessel specifications:
- hull length - 269 m;
- width - more than 28 m;
- height from the waterline to the boat deck was 18.4 m;
- 29 steam boilers were used to run the engine for two four-cylinder steam engines connected to external propellers (16,000 hp each);
- total engine power was 50,000 hp. p.;
- ship speed was up to 25 knots.
In February 1914, the Britannic was launched. The ship, whose photo was in the newspapers of all countries, struck with its size and grandeur.
Launching
The day of February 26, 1914 was significant for the builders of the Harland and Wolf shipyard (Belfast). The launch of the ship took place without the usual breaking of a bottle of champagne on board, as there was no such tradition at the shipyard.
For that time, the size of the Britannic and its equipment were unparalleled - it accommodated 790 passengers of the 1st class, the second - 835, the third - 950. There were also many crew members - 950 people.
Allplans related to the owners of the transport company with the ship's transatlantic flights were violated in August 1914. The outbreak of the First World War prepared for the "Britanic" the fate of a floating hospital. On board were 437 members of the medical staff, 675 crew members and 3,300 injured patients.
Rebuilding Britannica into a hospital
To transfer the passenger liner to the category of a hospital, it was necessary to slightly change the external and internal appearance of the Britannic. The ship was "decorated" with a green stripe and six red crosses, identification marks indicating that it was a civilian hospital and not a military ship.
Internal modifications were more significant. The cabins were converted into operating rooms, wards for the seriously wounded and a hostel for staff. The liner fit 2034 simple and 1035 folding beds. The promenade deck has been converted into a compartment for soldiers with minor injuries.
Charles A. Bartlett became the commander of the updated ship.
First Voyage of Britannica
The history of Britannica as a naval hospital began on December 23, 1915, when she left Liverpool, ready to take out the wounded soldiers, and headed for Naples and the Greek port of Mudros on the island of Lemnos.
Together with two other converted liners - "Aquitaine" and "Mauritania", he cruised in the Dardanelles.
The captain of the Britannica introduced a strict regime, to which not only the staff, but alsopatients:
- wake up at 6.00 + bunk cleaning;
- breakfast at 7.30 followed by cleaning of the dining room;
- captain's tour at 11.00;
- lunch at 12.30 with cleaning of the dining room;
- tea at 16.30;
- dinner at 20.30;
- Captain's tour at 21.00.
Strict discipline kept the hospital in order. To refuel the ship, it was necessary to go to Naples, which was done on December 28, 1915 by the Britannic. The ship, whose photo in its new appearance became recognizable in the vastness of the Mediterranean, got coal and water and went to Mudros, where the wounded were waiting for it.
The loading lasted 4 days, and already on 1916-09-01 the ship unloaded patients in Southampton. After making 2 more “walkers” for wounded soldiers, the Britannic returned to the commercial fleet due to a lull in the Mediterranean Sea.
Britanic's return to war
In September 1916, hostilities intensified again in the Mediterranean Sea, which required the presence of a large liner to transport the victims to the battlefield.
German submarines cruising in those waters set traps from rows of floating mines in a narrow part of the Mediterranean Sea to destroy the enemy. On the outskirts of the military base on Lemnos, Allied ships often fell into these traps.
November 21, 1916 in the strait between the islands of Kea and Kythnos, the Britannic wrecked when she ran into one of the underwater mines. The explosion occurred at 8:70 in the morning, when some of the patients and staff were still in the dining room for breakfast.
Final minutes of Britannica
Captain,assessing the situation, he decided that he would be able to bring the ship to the nearby shore and run aground. This maneuver only increased the flooding of the ship, as the partitions between the compartments were open.
Witnesses to the shipwreck were able to describe how the Britannic sank. Two explosions - the first from the starboard side and a few minutes later the second from the port side, tilted the ship. Water began to quickly fill the holds and cabins, in which the portholes were open to ventilate the premises.
Evacuation in boats was carried out in strict order, as everyone remembered well what the panic had done to the passengers of the Titanic. The first 2 lifeboats, launched before the captain's mate ordered to do so, fell with the people there under the Britannica's propellers that had risen from the water, but were still working.
After 55 minutes, the bow of the liner hit the bottom, and the ship shuddered and capsized from the impact. Thanks to the discipline and clear leadership of the captain and his assistants, out of 1066 passengers on board, 30 people died.
Cousteau expedition
The sinking of the Britannica has given rise to many rumors and accusations. Some said that the British government itself sank the ship, others blamed it on torpedoes fired from a German submarine at an unarmed hospital.
Designed as a transatlantic passenger liner, the Britannic never made a single crossing of the Atlantic or carried a single passenger. She went down in history as the largest ship that took part in the First World War.
Toto figure out what exactly sank this liner, in 1975 a team led by the famous Jacques Yves Cousteau entered the Aegean Sea on the ship Calypso. Based on the data indicated in the charts by the British Admir alty, the team did not find the vessel and began to search for it using radar. After a three-day search, the Calypso crew discovered the place of the liner's death under completely different coordinates.
The purpose of Cousteau's expedition was to determine the causes of the crash and describe how the Britannic sank. At the bottom, the researchers found almost the entire hull of the ship, in which only one break was clearly visible from the impact of the bow on the bottom. More serious studies were not conducted due to the limited equipment of that time. It was a superficial inspection that brought the Britannic, lying on its right side, to the front page of all the newspapers. The bottom photo also sparked a lot of speculation, given that the ship was found nearly 7 nautical miles away from where the charts indicated.
Finding the truth
In 2003, a diving expedition decided to test the German government's claims that the Britannic had hit a mine. They discovered a minefield, and even the remains of a shell on which the ship was blown up. They remained on the chain anchored to the bottom.
Modern diving equipment made it possible to get inside the ship and check that indeed at the time of the explosion all the watertight bulkheads were open, which indicates someone's negligence.
