Everybody knows about the Titanic, but why is it you never heard about the Britannic, the Titanic’s younger sister?
At the turn of the 20th century, the top commercial shipping lines were in a bit of an arms race. In 1907, the White Star Line saw its largest passenger vessels eclipsed by Cunard Lines’ Lusitania and Mauretania. The company felt pressure to respond with a new line of ships. The public at the time was fascinated by size and awed by opulence. White Star Line did not feel their ships had to be faster, but they needed be the biggest. And they had to offer the height of luxury.
The White Star Line began planning the Olympic class that same year. The first two ships were the Olympic and the Titanic. The Olympic started her maiden voyage on June 14, 1911, the Titanic’s on April 10, 1912. The last ship of the line, Britannic, was still being built when the Titanic sank, and because of the disaster, amendments were made to the ship, further delaying its launch to early 1915.
However, war broke out before that could happen, in August 1914. Service was disrupted on both sides of the Atlantic as Americans and Europeans scrambled to return home, as transatlantic crossings would be under the threat of targeting by enemy ships and risk of striking sea mines.
The British military had a pressing need for hospital ships to bring the wounded back from the campaign in the Dardanelles. Hospitals in Greece were full to capacity and the British Navy lacked enough ships to clear them. The government pressed Cunard and White Star Line to refit their ocean liners as hospital ships in order to transport the wounded back to England. The giant luxury liner Britannic was refitted to hold two large operating rooms, an Xray room, dental works, dispensaries, and labs. It could carry a maximum of 3,310 patients.
Her Majesty’s Hospital Ship (HMHS) Britannic made its maiden voyage on December 23, 1915. For that first voyage, they departed out of Liverpool, stopped at Naples for coal and water, then went to Mudros, Greece, to pick up wounded.
Britannic made two more voyages before an end to fighting in the Dardanelles reduced need for hospital ships. HMHS Britannic was briefly placed in reserve but was called back into service as the war in Europe continued. She made her fourth trip to the Mediterranean in late September 1916, and her fifth in mid-October. Her sixth and final voyage—described in The Deep—began on November 12, 1916.