Where is hmhs britannic

Hmhs britannic at southampton. Hmhs britannic departing from moudros to great britain. Hmhs britannic departing from naples. Hmhs britannic on the way to the great britain. HMHS Britannic turbines being assembled. HMHS Britannic. Launch of rms britannic, RMS Britanic4.

RMS Britannic crop. RMS Britannic Model. Rms britannic during construction in belfast. RMS Britannic. Play media. Robert Fleming engineer.

She returned to Southampton on October She is seen here in Naples loading coal. These smaller hospital ships would do the work in the local areas and transfer their wounded to the larger ships as they arrive. On board she has additional medical personal and a large stock of medical supplies which are to be used in Malta , Egypt and in India! She arrived at Mudros on October Everything is offloaded and departs as soon as possible with further wounded onboard and returns to Southampton on November 6.

The Britannic is looking somewhat worn, but she is a hard working ship! She is seen here at Mudros during having offloaded the medical supplies onto barges.

However rather than departing on time in the afternoon, she was held up, because of extreme bad weather conditions and she departed three days late for Lemnos on November After completing five successful voyages to the theatre of war and back to England transporting countless of ill and wounded soldiers and others, the Britannic departed Southampton for Lemnos at 2. The Britannic passed Gibraltar around midnight on 15 November, she arrived at Naples at around 7 am on November 17, for Naples was usually her coaling and water refuelling stop, thus it being the first port of call on each voyage, except one.

However, a storm stopped the ship from departing until Sunday afternoon the 20th, as there was a break in the weather and Captain Bartlett decided to take advantage of this quiet spell and sail. The seas rose up again as soon as the Britannic had left port. Tuesday November 21, The following morning November 21 the storms had thankfully gone and the seas were calm and Britannia had passed the Strait of Messina in the very early hours and without problems.

Next was Cape Matapan and that was rounded during the first few hours of the day. Soon the Britannic was steaming at full speed into the Kea Channel, between Cape Sounion , which is the southernmost point of Attica, the prefecture that includes Athens , and the island of Kea.

Whilst en route to pick up patients off the coast of Greece in the Kea Channel at Lemnos , Mudros , the Britannic was rocked without warning by a violent explosion and amazingly this great and well-built ship sank in just 55 minutes! Here is what happened.

At am on November 21, without any warning there was a very loud explosion and the ship was thrown instantly off-course by three points During this, she suffered severe shaking and vibrations along her hull.

The actual cause was as yet unknown, was it a torpedo from an enemy submarine or a mine. However as it turned out, the ship had apparently hit a mine that had been laid that same week by the U-Boat - U The reaction on board and those who were having breakfast in the dining room was obviously immediate; doctors and nurses departed for their posts.

But as human nature is, not everyone reacted in the same manner. Obviously further aft the power of the explosion was far less and most thought the ship had hit an object, or even a smaller boat. Captain Bartlett and Chief Officer Hume were on the bridge at the time and the gravity of the situation very evident to them.

The explosion was on the starboard side, between holds two and three. The force of the explosion damaged the watertight bulkhead between hold one and the forepeak, thus the first four watertight compartments were filling rapidly with water. Captain Bartlett ordered the watertight doors closed immediately, sent a distress signal and ordered the crew to prepare the lifeboats.

Thankfully aboard Britannic there were sufficient lifeboats for all on board, and even more if needed! Along with the damaged watertight door of the firemen's tunnel, for some reason the watertight door between boiler rooms six and five failed to close properly. Water was flowing further aft into boiler room five and thus the great ship Britannic was quickly reaching her flooding limit.

She could stay afloat whilst motionless with her first six watertight compartments flooded. There were five watertight bulkheads rising all the way up to B-deck. Those measures had been taken after the Titanic disaster.

The next crucial bulkhead between boiler rooms five and four and its door were undamaged and should have guaranteed the survival of the ship. However, there were open portholes along the lower decks, which tilted underwater within minutes of the explosion. The nurses had opened most of those portholes to ventilate the wards.

As the ship's list increased, water reached this level and began to enter aft from the bulkhead between boiler rooms five and four. With more than six compartments flooded, the Britannic would not be able to stay afloat. At am lifeboats are still being filled but they are not allowed to leave. Yet without authority some boats leave the ship from the portside and because of the list, they are scraping along the ship's side. In addition as the ship is underway again heading for the beach, the propellers are turning fast, and they are breaking the surface by now.

However, he is unaware that just a few minutes prior to his order that two unauthorised lifeboats left the ship and were drawn into the portside propeller killing most of the occupants, while a third one has a narrow escape as the propeller stops seconds before impact. It is now.

Bartlett decides to try again to beach the ship and restarts the engines. Britannic's sinking rate increases again and water is soon reported forward on D-Deck. Water has by now reached the bridge and Assistant Commander Dyke informs his Captain that all have left the ship. Dyke, Chief Engineer Fleming and Bartlett simply walk towards the sea near the forward gantry davits.

Shortly after their escape funnel No. The last few men who were below decks not seen by Assistant Commander Dyke have by now left the ship. Fifth Officer Fielding estimates the stern rising some feet into the air. 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 What is so amazing is that all this occurred in calm weather and within sight of land and she sunk in just 55 minutes, and having 1, crew and medical staff aboard, there were only 30 deaths, and then these deaths were sadly related to those who were in the two unauthorised lifeboats!

Eventually, the beaching attempt was abandoned and the rest of the crew escaped to the lifeboats and to shore. Fortunately, the ship was carrying no patients at the time of the sinking, and thus the evacuation was made a great deal easier! Today the cause of the sinking of the Britannic is universally attributed to a German mine.

However over the years, there have been various theories, 1: that it was a torpedo, or 2: that it was indeed a mine. Many somehow preferred the idea that it was hit by a torpedo, because it would have been in violation of the Geneva Convention. But, there is very little evidence to support the torpedo theory. In addition it became soon known that German U-Boat U had mined the channel that the Britannic passed only a few weeks prior the sinking.

At HMS Heroic had arrived some minutes earlier and picked up On the morning of November 21st, ; the ship hit a germany mine with a devastating explosion, it's force almost broke the ship in two. She sank in only 55 minutes because the nurses left the portholes open to keep the wounded healthy and the explosion was bigger, so water got in more quickly. Some of the crew panicked and decided to launch the lifeboats without orders, but that ended tragically as the captain was sailing towards the island of Kea which was just 3km away because the lifeboats where sucked into the ship's propellers, later then ripped apart, creating the loss of almost 30 lives.

The ship slipped below the surface at AM. There were 1, people on board, and all of them but 30 were taken from the water and lifeboats. In spite of Britannic being the biggest ship lost during the First World War, her sinking was not as tragic in terms of loss of human life as were the sinking of the Titanic and Cunard's RMS Lusitania , or many other ships lost during the First World War.

Britannic was thrown instantly off-course by three points Severe shaking and vibrations along the hull. The engines are stopped and the lifeboats are made ready to be lowered.

After less than 2 minutes Boiler Room 6 is already flooded and inoperable. Advancing flooding into Boiler Room 5. The water was about meters deep. Captain Bartlett was soon informed that the forward holds are rapidly flooding. The forward E-Deck portholes went underwater and the ship started taking a starboard list.

Soon after the Captain restarted the engines in a desperate attempt to beach the ship. The lifeboats were still being filled but not allowed to leave. Still, some of the boats leave the ship -from the portside- without authorization. Because of the list, they found themselves scraping along the ship's side. The propellers were breaking the surface by now.

Due to the increasingly bad situation, Bartlett decided to stop the ship and order all boats to be sent away. He's must have known that just minutes before his order, the two lifeboats have been drawn into the portside propeller killing their occupants , while a third one has a narrow escape as the propeller stops seconds before impact. While lying idle, the Britannic was settling more slowly and most of the lifeboats managed to escape without further problems.