BRITANNIC liner 1915.

[shipstamps]

Built as a passenger vessel under yard No 433 by Harland & Wolff, Belfast for the Oceanic S.N.Co. Ltd, (White Star Line), Liverpool.
30 November 1911 laid down as GIGANTIC.
When her sister the TITANIC was lost on her maiden voyage, construction was halted to await the outcome of the inquire in her loss.
Several new design changes were incorporated in her building.
26 February 1914 launched as the BRITANNIC.
Tonnage 48.158 gross, dim. 269.1 x 29 x 10.5m. (draught).
Powered by triple expansion & steam turbines, total 50.000 hp, three screws speed maximum 23 knots.
When World War I broke out she was unfinished.
13 November 1915 requisitioned by the British Government and refitted in a hospital ship, repainted white.
08 December 1915 completed.

12 December 1915 she arrived in Liverpool under command of Capt. Charles A Bartlett with a crew of 675.
In Liverpool she was fitted out with 2034 berths, 1035 cots, a medical staff of 52 officers, 101 nurses, and 336 orderlies joined her there. The same day was she commissioned as HMHS BRITANNIC.

23December 1915 she left Liverpool bound for Mudros on the Isles of Lemnos, where she would join the AQUITANIA, MAURETANIA and OLYMPIC in the Dardanelles Service.
She completed five successful voyages from the Middle Eastern theatre of war to the U.K with sick and wounded troops.

12 November 1916 she began on her sixth voyage from the U.K. to the Mediterranean. She made a call at Naples, where she arrived on 17 November for coaling, a storm delayed her departure there, and she sailed on Sunday after the weather had improved. Via the Strait of Messina and Cape Matapan Greek south coast which was rounded 21 November.
When passing the Kea Channel, Aegean Sea the same day around 20.00 she hit a mine laid an hour previously by the German submarine U-73 under command of Lt. Comdr. Siehs.
She sank after 55 minutes, from the 1125 peoples on board 30 died, most of this deaths happened when two lifeboats were launched before the vessel was stopped, and the boats were sucked into the still turning propellers, 28 people were injured.

The wreck was discovered in 1976 by Jacques Cousteau and she lay on her side in about 350 feet of water.

The stamp of Gambia her name is misspelled with on N.
The Great Britain stamp of 1999 sg2090 is almost certain the BRITANNIC under construction at Belfast.

Source: Wikipedia. http://pages.prodigy.net/cierpke/britanic.htm Dictionary of Disasters at Sea during the age of steam 1824-1962 by Charles Hocking.

[john sefton]

DIVERS this week hope to shed light on the fate of the luxury liner Britannic, sunk by a mysterious explosion near the Greek island of Kea in 1916 while on her way to pick up British war casualties from the Middle East. Of more than 1,100 people on board, 28 died, sucked under by the ship's propellers as she went down. A sister ship to the Titanic and about a tenth larger, the Britannic lies on her starboard side nearly 400ft down in the Kea channel. As one of the world's biggest wrecks, the largely intact hull and superstructure have been
by such marine luminaries as the late Jacques-Yves Cousteau, who discovered it 20 years ago, and Robert Ballard, who discovered the wreck of the Titanic. Despite those efforts, why the Britannic sank a mere 57 minutes after the blast ripped a gash in her bow, and what caused the explosion, remain unanswered questions.
Nineteen divers working on "Project Britannic 97" said they had taken video footage of metal fragments found on and near the wreck to test the prevailing theory that the ship hit a mine or was torpedoed. The team, which includes one Briton, has been diving at the site for several weeks.
On November 21, the day of the sinking, Britain had been in the process of increasing its military presence in the Middle East for more than a year. British forces were finding it difficult to dislodge the Turks from Palestine and had lost two battles in Gaza. Mounting casualties drove the Government to requisition the Britannic after her maiden commercial voyage and turn her into a hospital ship.
She never finished her first voyage in her new capacity — to collect wounded soldiers on the island of Lesbos, and take them to Southampton. Survivors described later how Captain Charles Bartlett, the master, nosed the liner at full speed towards Kea in a vain attempt to run her aground and save lives.
(Newspaper article date not known.)

[placid]

on what basis do you think that the ship on the gb stamp is" almost certainly the brittanic " when her sister ships might have had the same colour hull ?
Derek Mabbs

[aukepalmhof]

Her two sisters were built together, and there is only one ship on the slipway, the BRITANNIC was built later.

Liberia 2000 $5.00 sg?, scott?
Sierra Leone 2018 LE9800 sg?, scott>

[john sefton]

A highly respected British diver has died during the exploration of a shipwreck off the coast of Greece.
Carl Spencer, 37, had been leading a 17-man National Geographic Society expedition to film Britannic, sister ship of Titanic, off the island of Kea when he suffered severe decompression sickness (DCS), also known as the bends, during an emergency ascent to the surface.
The 53,000-ton Britannic, even larger than her famous sibling and deemed equally "unsinkable", was lost in 57 minutes after hitting a mine in 1916 while serving as a hospital ship during the First World War.
The wreck was discovered in 1975 by the French undersea explorer Jacques Cousteau, but, lying at about 300ft (90m), it pushes divers to the limits of endurance.
Report in the "Times" Newspaper May 26th 2009.

[john sefton]

There has been some discussion regarding which ship is illustrated on the GB stamp.
Derek Mabbs has contacted the Royal Mail and has had a reply as follows:-
According to the artist, Bill Sanderson, the ship depicted on the stamp is a "composite of RMS Titanic, HMS Britannic and RMS Olympic".
I think that clears the matter up. Well done Derek.