The Final Voyage of HMHS Britannic

Britannic Sailed Towards Her Destiny 97 Years Ago Today

The RMS Britannic, sister ship to RMS Titanic, was to have been a grand ocean liner.

Instead of setting out on a grand inaugural transatlantic voyage, she underwent serious changes, including a name change to HMHS Britannic.  The grand ship went to war as a hospital ship.

HMHS Britannic, By Soerfm [CC-BY-SA-3.0],
via Wikimedia Commons

She made five voyages from Southampton to the Mediterranean theater, bringing back sick and wounded soldiers each time.

On November 12, 1916, she embarked on what was to have been  her sixth round trip.

But fate awaited her, nine days away, before she could pick up another load of soldiers.  There is still some debate as to whether it was a torpedo or a mine that ripped the hole in her side on November 21, 1916,  but it swiftly took her to the bottom.  Of the 1,066 souls aboard, all but 30 were saved.

She was the second of the three Olympic class ships to go down.   It's a shame HMHS Britannic never survived the war.  I'm sure she would have been every bit as much a beloved ocean liner as the sister that did survive. To learn a bit more about these two lesser known ships, click here:  Titanic's Sisters - Britannic and Olympic.

By the way, I noticed today that a new book about Britannic is in the works. It's titled The Unseen Britannic: The Ship in Rare Illustrations.  The mere fact that the author is Simon Mills (a maritime historian with a particular interest in the Olympic class ships) was enough to grab my interest.  You can sign up to be notified when the book becomes available.

One Month and Counting

"Titanic Sinking," (PD-US, PD-1923)
by German maritime artist, Willie Stower

A month from now, we'll be commemorating the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic.  You'll be hearing plenty about the fateful voyage of the luxury ocean liner between now and then. 

Chances are, you'll be party to some conversation, somewhere, during which the subject may come up.  It's timely, and it's an historical event with which many people are utterly fascinated.  If you'd like to familiarize yourself with some of the details, you might want to browse through several easy to read articles about several different aspects of what happened during and as a result of the events of the night of April 14 - 15, 1912, beginning with Pictures of the Titanic. 

For example - is it just a myth that the band went down with the ship, and played until the end?  No, not really!  They did go down with the ship, and played until they could no longer.   Wallace Hartley and the Titanic Band were hailed as heroes.

Do you know the name of the ship that came to the rescue of the 700+ passengers who survived the sinking of the Titanic?  Captain Rostron of the RMS Carpathia pushed his ship to her limits to get her swiftly to the site of the tragedy.

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