BRITANNIC

The third and largest of the trio, at 48,158 gross tons, Britannic (which some sources say was originally to be named Gigantic) was laid down at the end of November 1911 and launched toward the end of February 1914. She was put into service just before Christmas 1915, but never saw civilian use. In fact, she was requisitioned by the navy as a hospital ship (HMHS Britannic) and didn’t last a year—she hit a mine in the Aegean in November 1916, and sank with the loss of thirty lives. Luckily, she wasn’t carrying any wounded. Safety improvements meant that six of her fifteen watertight bulkheads had been raised to the level of B deck, and that she carried massive lifeboat davits, big enough to lower boats on the opposite side to where they were slung. Alas, these sophisticated improvements didn’t help on the day of her sinking: two lifeboats were lowered too fast and were sucked into her propellers, which tore the boats and their occupants to shreds. Fortunately, the engines were then stopped and the rest of the ship’s complement was able to abandon ship safely. By far the largest Allied ship lost in the First World War, Britannic, whose wreck was discovered by the oceanographer Jacques Cousteau in 1975, still lies on the seabed off Kea in the Cyclades.

The only survivor of the entire Olympic family is the tender Nomadic. She still awaits restoration in dry dock in Belfast. She, together with her sister Traffic, ferried passengers to and from Titanic at Cherbourg on the evening of April 10, 1912.