Story Highlights
- historical event: The captain tried desperately to steer the sinking Britannic to the coast of the island about five kilometers away and to beach her. However, the ship was sinking too fast.
On this day sank the sister ship of Titanic, Britannic. A trio of same class ocean liners was built: Olympic, Titanic and Britannic. Britannic was the last as well as the largest. Shortly after her launch,the World War I began. The ship was converted into a hospital ship, under the British flag.
As part of the war mission she was sent to the Middle Eastern front. When she reached the Greek coast she hit an underwater mine off the island of Kea. The explosion broke through the hull. Ten minutes after the explosion the ship was already in the same condition as the Titanic an hour after she collided with the iceberg. The captain tried desperately to steer the sinking ship to the coast of the island about 5 kilometers away and to beach her. However, the ship was sinking too fast. The propellers rose straight up towards the surface of the water as the ship was leaning. Since the captain tried to strand the boat the propellers were still turning.
Two lifeboats, which were dropped,drifted into the still-turning propellers and weretorn to pieces, along with the people in them. When the captain learned of this he decided to stop the engines. They lowered the remaining lifeboats and began to evacuate the ship. 1036 people were saved and 30 were killed (1517on the Titanic). Britannic was the largest ship sank in World WarI.
