Britannic was the last of the three 'Olympic-Class' ships built in Belfast by Harland and Wolff for the White Star Line. Her oldest sister, Olympic had proved to be the graceful and luxurious ship White Star Chairman Joseph Bruce Ismay had imagined, but her other sister, Titanic, had found her way to the bottom of the Atlantic on her maiden voyage after an encounter with an iceberg. 1500 people perished when Titanic sank that cold, April night, and becuase of the ships poor structure, the ship sank so quickly, only 2 hours and 40 minutes after hitting the berg. Lack of lifeboats were also to blame for the death toll. Only 1178 lifeboat spaces for 3511 people.
When Titanic sank, work on Britannic was already well underway, but work was halted to await the outcome of the inquieries into the disaster. When work resumed, many new safety features were added. The watertight bulkheads went as high as B deck, compared to Titanic's E deck and a 16th bulkhead was added in the engine room, more watertight doors could be closed automatically from the bridge, a new watertight hull was added with two layers, making it harder to penetrate into the bowels of the liner and the ship was designed to be fitted with many new lifeboats. With these new features, Britannic could stay afloat (stationary) with her first 6 watertight compartments flooded. She could now survive the damage that sank her sister. A name change was also undergone. The original name, Gigantic, was changed to a more patriotic Britannic.
Britannic's keel was laid number 433 in slip 1, the same slip Olympic was contructed in before hand on November 30th, 1911. While she was being built, her decks were considerably strengthened because of new lifeboat davits that were to be fitted. These new 'Gantry' davits were huge. There were set to be 8 in all, two near the forward funnel, 4 towards the aft end of the boat deck and 2 on the poop deck. They davits were all electrically opperated adnd had lights to assist with night time lowering. She could hold 48 open boats plus two motor launched, motorised boats with their own wireless deivces. Britannic was launched on February 26th, 1914 at 11:15 am. In 81 seconds, she was in the water, and tugs began moving her 24,800 tonne hulk to the fitting out basin where her fittings would be added. Added with the famous fittings like the Parisian Cafe, Reception Room and Grand Staircase, more features would be added. A children's play room, a fourth first class elevator, women's hairdressers etc. to make Britannic's final weight over 50000 tonnes, the largest British ship afloat. |
