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Investigations have been carried out at the wreck site of the RMS Titanic’s sister-ship, which was sunk during the First World War.
HMHS Britannic was the last of three ‘Olympic-class’ ocean liners built for the White Star Line at Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast in the early 20th century. Although originally intended to serve as a transatlantic passenger liner, the ship was requisitioned by the British Admiralty and converted into a floating hospital during World War I.
In November 1916, HMHS Britannic hit a German naval mine off the Greek island of Kea while en route to the hospital station of Lemnos and the ship sank in under an hour. The majority of the 1,065 people on board were safely evacuated, with the exception of 30 people who died when two of the lifeboats, lowered prematurely, were hit by the ship’s propellers.
The wreck now sits at a depth of more than 120m. This year, the first research and recovery project was carried out at the site, with permission from the Greek Ministry of Culture, Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities. Efforts to lift objects from the sunken ship were hampered by low visibility, strong currents, and the depth of the wreck. Nonetheless, the 11-person team of divers managed to retrieve a number of items, which included the ship’s observation bell, the left signal lamp, various pieces of portable equipment from the first- and second-class sections of the vessel, ceramic tiles from the Turkish bath (which were found detached), and a pair of observation binoculars.
There are plans to display these objects in the National Museum of Underwater Antiquities, which is currently under construction in Piraeus.
Text: Amy Brunskill / Image: Greek Ministry of Culture
