HMHS Britannic 1916
Marker: recorded wreck position (First World War).
Key facts
| Name | HMHS Britannic | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Year lost | 1916 | Wikidata P793 significant event, point-in-time qualifier |
| Era | First World War | derived from year |
| Ship type | hospital ship, four funnel liner | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Cause of loss | War action | Keyword match in English Wikipedia lead sentence |
| Nationality / flag | United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland | Wikidata P8047 country of registry |
| Operator | White Star Line | Wikidata P137 operator |
| Sea / ocean | Aegean Sea | Natural Earth marine areas (public domain), point-in-polygon |
| Nearest coast | Greece | Natural Earth (public domain); approx. 4 km from land |
| Position | 37.7014, 24.2839 | Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0) |
About the wreck
HMHS Britannic () was the third and final vessel of the White Star Line's Olympic class of ocean liners and the second White Star ship to bear the name Britannic. She was the younger sister of RMS Olympic and RMS Titanic and was intended to enter service as a transatlantic passenger liner. She 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 Britannic was the largest hospital ship in the world, and the largest vessel built in Ireland.
Britannic was launched on 26 February 1914, months before the start of the First World War. The ship 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. Britannic was laid up at her builders, Harland & Wolff, in Belfast, for many months before being requisitioned by the British government to be operated as a hospital ship. In 1915 and 1916 she operated between the United Kingdom and the Dardanelles.
On the morning of 21 November 1916, Britannic struck an Imperial German naval mine near the Greek island of Kea and sank 55 minutes later, killing 30 of 1,066 people on board; the 1,036 survivors…
Diving & visiting
The wreck of HMHS Britannic is at 37°42′05″N 24°17′02″E in about 400 feet (122 m) of water. It was discovered on 13 November 1975 by Jacques Cousteau via side-scan sonar imagery. In filming the expedition, Cousteau also held conference on camera with several surviving personnel from the ship including 86-year-old former nurse Sheila MacBeth Mitchell, a survivor of the sinking. In 1976, Cousteau entered the wreck with his divers for the first time. He expressed the opinion that the ship had been sunk by a single torpedo, basing this opinion on the damage to her plates.
The giant liner lies on her starboard side relatively intact, hiding the large hole that was torn open by the mine. There is a huge hole just beneath the forward well deck.
Location
- Recorded position: 37.7014, 24.2839 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
- Sea / ocean: Aegean Sea
- Nearest coast: Greece
Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article HMHS Britannic (revision 1379752301), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “Wreck”; condensed by selecting paragraphs and trimming at sentence boundaries; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
Nearby wrecks
- SS Oria 1944 · 27 km
- U-133 1942 · 64 km
- U-596 1944 · 70 km
- SS Reina del Mar 1981 · 70 km
- U-565 1944 · 70 km
- IMO 5074226 78 km
Browse more: Europe wrecks · wrecks off Greece · Aegean Sea · First World War