Monday, November 21, 2016

HMHS Britanic, sister ship to the Titanic, sunk by mine

The intended White Star liner Britannic, serving the English war effort as a hospital ship, hit a mine at 08:12 on this date, in 1916, in the Kea Channel off of Greece.


She sank in a period of a little under an hour. She was the largest ship to be sunk during the First World War.

1,035 of the passengers survived the sinking.  30 lost their lives.  A further 38 were injured in the incident.  The ship carried no patients, but rather 1,065 servicemen and women, of which 673 were crew for the vessel, 315 members of the Royal Army Medical Corps and 77 were nurses.  Oddly, one of the nurses was a survivor of the sinking of the Titanic.

The Britannic was the last of the Olympic class of White Star liners.  She had only been commissioned in December 1915 after being launched in February 1914.  She had never served in her intended role.  Her loss made the Olympic the last member of the three ship class.

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