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Inside The Wreck Of The Britannic, The Titanic’s Sister Ship That Sank In 1916
State Library of VictoriaNearly identical to its sister ship the Titanic, the Britannic was a hospital ship during World War I – and sank during the conflict.
Roughly four years after the Titanic sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean in April 1912, its sister ship, the Britannic, met a tragic end as well. Today, the Britannic wreck sits 400 feet beneath the Aegean Sea.
But the story of the Britannic wreck was different than that of the Titanic. Built as a luxury ocean liner, but transformed into a hospital ship during World War I, the Britannic became a casualty of that conflict.
This is the story of the Britannic, from its construction, to its war service, to how it sank on a November morning back in 1916.
How A Luxury Ocean Liner Became A Hospital Ship
Public DomainThe Britannic near the end of its construction at Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast. Circa 1914.
The story of the Britannic began at Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast, where the White Star Line set out to make a trio of large, luxurious ocean liners: the Britannic, the Olympic, and the Titanic. Construction of the Britannic began in 1911, after the other two ships, and the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 resulted in some major changes to its design.
To make the ship safer, the White Star Line made a number of updates to the Britannic. The Titanic’s sister ship would have a double hull around its engine rooms. Its bulkheads would rise 40 feet above the waterline. And it would carry enough lifeboats to save every passenger.
But by the time the Britannic was ready to sail, World War I had begun.
Wikimedia CommonsThe Britannic had enough lifeboats to hold every passenger – a modification made after the Titanic disaster.
Because of the war, the Britannic would not be a luxury ocean liner. Instead, it joined the war effort at the world’s largest hospital ship.
Hospital beds crowded the promenade decks. The first-class dining room housed an intensive care ward, while the grand reception room became a surgical room. As the ship’s surgeon declared, according to PBS, the Britannic was “the most wonderful hospital ship that ever sailed the seas.”
More than 3,300 patients could travel on the Britannic. But most of its hospital beds were empty when the Britannic sank on Nov. 21, 1916.
The Sinking Of The Britannic In 1916
On November 19, the Britannic set sail for the final time from Naples, Italy, en route for Mudros, Greece, where it would pick up patients. There were roughly 1,000 people onboard, including the crew, doctors, and nurses, who busied themselves readying the ship for an influx of wounded soldiers.
Public DomainThe Britannic as a hospital ship, circa January 1916.
But on the morning of November 21, just after 8 a.m., the Britannic ran into a German naval mine near the Greek island of Kea.
Nurse Sheila Macbeth was aboard the Britannic when it sank. That morning, Macbeth had overslept, and had just started in on her breakfast. But she only managed to eat a few spoonfuls of porridge before, as she later recalled, “Bang! and a shiver right down the length of the ship.”
Another passenger, Reverend John Fleming, also felt the collision shortly after the hospital ship hit the mine. “[T]here was a great crash,” he remembered, “as if a score of plate-glass windows had been smashed together; the great ship shuddered for a moment from end to end.”
The mine had exploded on the starboard side of the ship, causing six of its watertight compartments to flood. Even with this flooding, the Britannic had been designed to withstand damage, and should have been able to stay afloat. However, even more water entered the ship through its starboard portholes and, when Captain Charles Bartlett ordered the ship to accelerate in hopes of reaching the island of Kea, this caused even more water to flood the vessel. It quickly became clear: the Britannic would sink.
Wikimedia CommonsThe sinking of the Britannic made headlines around the world. Initially, the media reported that a torpedo struck the ship.
The Britannic had sent a distress signal but, unbeknownst to its crew, the ship’s antenna wires had been damaged. Thus, the ship could send messages but could not receive them. Without knowing if help was on the way, Bartlett ordered an evacuation of the ship 23 minutes after the collision.
Unfortunately, two lifeboats were launched before this order — and 30 people died when they were sucked into the ship’s still-moving propellers.
From that point on, the Britannic sinking happened very quickly. At 9:07 a.m., 55 minutes after colliding with the mine, the Britannic slipped beneath the waves. Violet Jessop, a nurse who had happened to also survive the Titanic sinking roughly four years earlier, recalled:
“She dipped her head a little, then a little lower and still lower. All the deck machinery fell into the sea like a child’s toys. Then she took a fearful plunge, her stern rearing hundreds of feet into the air until with a final roar, she disappeared into the depths, the noise of her going resounding through the water with undreamt-of violence…”
Royal NavyHundreds of survivors escaped on lifeboats and were picked up by other ships.
Jessop was not the only Titanic survivor aboard the Britannic: crewmen John Priest and Archie Jewell had also been on the Britannic’s doomed sister ship. Unlike on the Titanic, however, most of the passengers of the Britannic survived. That said, things could have been much worse if the ship had already picked up its thousands of patients.
But the ship itself would not to be seen again until its shipwreck was discovered in 1975.
Discovering The Britannic Wreck After More Than 50 Years
Greek Ministry of CultureA diver making their way through the Britannic wreck.
Though the rough of location of the Britannic wreck was never lost to history, the wreck wasn’t officially documented until 1975, when it was found by oceanographer Jacques Cousteau. Twenty years later, Robert Ballard, who helped discover the Titanic wreck, also conducted a visit to the site.
These voyages determined that the Britannic remained largely in one piece. In fact, the Britannic is the largest intact passenger ship on the ocean floor.
However, it’s not easy to get to access. Though the Britannic wreck is at the relatively shallow depth of 400 feet (the Titanic, by comparison, is more than 12,000 feet deep) it remains a challenging dive site. Thus, only a couple hundred people have ever been able to explore its final resting place.
That said, a recent voyage to the Britannic wreck in 2025 returned some fascinating insights about the doomed ship. Divers recovered a number of artifacts, including the ship’s observation bell, its navigation lamp, ceramic tiles from a Turkish bath, and a pair of binoculars.
Greek Ministry Of CultureA pair of binoculars which were recovered from the Britannic wreck in 2025.
The ship’s story is thus still being told. The Britannic wreck, though challenging to reach, is incredibly well-preserved. Four hundred feet beneath the sea, it tells a story of war, destruction — and luck.
After reading about the wreck of the Titanic’s sister ship, go inside the history of the infamous iceberg that sank the Titanic back in 1912. Or, look through this collection of Titanic artifacts — and discover their heartbreaking stories.
The post Inside The Wreck Of The <em>Britannic</em>, The <em>Titanic’s</em> Sister Ship That Sank In 1916 appeared first on All That's Interesting.
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