![]() His Majesty's Hospital Ship (HMHS) Britannic
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History | |
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Name | HMHS Britannic |
Owner | ![]() |
Operator | ![]() |
Port of registry | Liverpool, United Kingdom |
Ordered | 1911 |
Builder | Harland and Wolff, Belfast |
Yard number | 433[1] |
Laid down | 30 November 1911 |
Launched | 26 February 1914 |
Completed | 12 December 1915 |
In service | 23 December 1915 |
Out of service | 21 November 1916 |
Fate | Sank after striking a mine set by SM U-73 on 21 November 1916 near Kea in the Aegean Sea 37°42′05″N 24°17′02″E / 37.70139°N 24.28389°E |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Olympic-class ocean liner |
Tonnage | 48,158 gross register tons |
Displacement | 53,200 tons |
Length | 882 ft 9 in (269.1 m) overall |
Beam | 94 ft (28.7 m) |
Height | 175 ft (53 m) from the keel to the top of the funnels |
Draught | 34 ft 7 in (10.5 m) |
Depth | 64 ft 6 in (19.7 m) |
Decks | 9 passenger decks |
Installed power |
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Propulsion |
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Speed |
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Capacity | 3,309 |
HMHS Britannic (originally to be the RMS Britannic) (/brɪˈtænɪk/) was the third and final vessel of the White Star Line's Olympic class of steamships and the second White Star ship to bear the name Britannic. She was the youngest sister of the RMS Olympic and the RMS Titanic and was intended to enter service as a transatlantic passenger liner. She was operated as a hospital ship from 1915 until her sinking near the Greek island of Kea, in the Aegean Sea, in November 1916. At the time she was the largest hospital ship in the world.[not verified in body]
Britannic was launched just before the start of the First World War. She was designed to be the safest of the three ships with design changes made during construction due to lessons learned from the sinking of the Titanic. She was laid up at her builders, Harland and Wolff, in Belfast for many months before being requisitioned as a hospital ship. In 1915 and 1916 she served between the United Kingdom and the Dardanelles.
On the morning of 21 November 1916 she hit a naval mine of the Imperial German Navy near the Greek island of Kea and sank 55 minutes later, killing 30 people. There were 1,066 people on board; the 1,036 survivors were rescued from the water and lifeboats. Britannic was the largest ship lost in the First World War.[3]
After the First World War, the White Star Line was compensated for the loss of Britannic by the award of SS Bismarck as part of postwar reparations; she entered service as RMS Majestic.
The wreck was located and explored by Jacques Cousteau in 1975. The vessel is the largest intact passenger ship on the seabed in the world.[4] It was bought in 1996 and is currently owned by Simon Mills, a maritime historian.
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