Artifacts from the Britannic, sister ship to the ill-fated Titanic, have been recovered for the first time in over a century since the vessel sank in the Aegean Sea during the First World War.
The Greek Culture Ministry confirmed on Monday that an 11-member deep-sea diving team successfully retrieved items, including the ship’s bell and its port-side navigation light, during a week-long operation conducted in May.
Launched in 1914 by the White Star Line, the Britannic was originally conceived as a luxury cruise liner. However, its destiny shifted with the outbreak of World War I, when it was repurposed as a hospital ship.
The vessel met its end on 21 November 1916, while en route to the island of Lemnos. It struck a mine off the island of Kea, approximately 75 kilometres (45 miles) southeast of Athens, leading to its sinking.
The island of Kea:
The vessel, the largest hospital ship at the time, sank in less than an hour. Thirty of the more than 1,060 people on board died when the lifeboats they were in were struck by the ship’s still turning propellers.
The wreck lies at a depth of 120 meters (nearly 400 feet), making it accessible only to technical divers. The dive team used closed-circuit rebreather equipment in a recovery operation organized by British historian Simon Mills, founder of the Britannic Foundation, the Culture Ministry said.
Conditions on the wreck were particularly tough because of currents and low visibility, the ministry said. Among the items raised to the surface were artifacts reflecting both the ship’s utilitarian role and its luxurious design: the lookout bell, the navigation lamp, silver-plated first-class trays, ceramic tiles from a Turkish bath, a pair of passenger binoculars and a porcelain sink from second-class cabins.
The artifacts are now undergoing conservation in Greek capital Athens and will be included in the permanent collection of a new Museum of Underwater Antiquities under development at the port of Piraeus. The museum will feature a dedicated World War I section, with the items from the Britannic as a centerpiece.
