Exploring the Wreckage of the Britannic (the Titanic’s Sister Ship) and Discovering Why It Sunk in 50 Minutes

Exploring the Wreckage of the Britannic (the Titanic’s Sister Ship) and Discovering Why It Sunk in 50 Minutes

The RMS Titanic is history’s most famous shipwreck, but it wasn’t the only ship of its kind. The White Star Line built two other nearly identical vessels: The RMS Olympic and Britannic. The Olympic carried passengers until 1935 and can be visited today. The Brittanic sank only four years after her sister ship the Titanic off the Greek island of Kea in the Aegean Sea like due to striking a German mine while serving as a hospital ship during World War One. It sank in only 55 minutes (compared to 160 minutes for the Titanic) but only 30 of the 1066 passengers due to better lifeboat procedures, warmer waters, and being closer to land.

What

While the wreck of the Titanic is 2 miles below the surface and rapidly deteriorating, the Britannic is much more accessible (only 400ft down) and remains largely intact. It’s in “shallow” enough waters that divers can reach it, although submersibles do most of the investigation work. What can the ship tell us about the sinking of the Titanic, the lives of its passengers in the early 20th century, and whether something nefarious happened that caused it to sink, as some claim (like German sabotage).

These are the questions that today’s guest, Simon Mills, tried to answer when bought the wreck of the Britannic in 1996. He is a maritime historian who has coordinated multiple expeditions into the underwater wreckage and most recently finished extensive internal surveys in 2021 and 2023. He’s also the author of the new book Inside the Britannic which is the sum of decades of work covering every inch of the ship. We discuss exactly how this ship sunk, what happened during the frantic 50 minutes of its sinking, what happened to the survivors, and other unanswered mysteries.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jaksot(1074)

From Orphan to RAF Hero

From Orphan to RAF Hero

Many of the WW2 generation faced hardship in their youth (they did spend their childhood in the Great Depression), but few had as bad of an early life as Denis Elliott, who became an RAF Flight Lieute...

17 Loka 202338min

The Life and Tragic Death of R101, The World’s Largest Flying Machine

The Life and Tragic Death of R101, The World’s Largest Flying Machine

The tragic story of the British airship R101—which went down in a spectacular hydrogen-fueled fireball in 1930, killing more people than died in the Hindenburg disaster seven years later—has been larg...

12 Loka 202345min

The Postwar Lives of WW2 Leaders, Both Axis and Allies

The Postwar Lives of WW2 Leaders, Both Axis and Allies

Check out this episode sample from James Early's "Key Battles of American History," In this episode, which wraps up a season devoted to World War 2 in the European Theatre, hosts James Early and Sean ...

11 Loka 202320min

Why Robert E. Lee was America’s Most Admired General For Over a Century

Why Robert E. Lee was America’s Most Admired General For Over a Century

Robert E. Lee has become a target of activists in the last decade, with statues of him being taken down across the United States, and eponymous schools and streets being renamed. But for over a centur...

10 Loka 202348min

Parthenon Roundtable: Which Person From History Deserves a Movie?

Parthenon Roundtable: Which Person From History Deserves a Movie?

Who are people from the past whose lives are so cinematic that they deserve their own movie, but haven't received the right silver screen treatment, such as, say, Abraham Lincoln from Steven Spielberg...

5 Loka 202351min

Charlie Chaplin vs. America

Charlie Chaplin vs. America

Charlie Chaplin was the most famous movie star in the world, especially at his height in the 1920s, when the silent film star won the hearts of audience around the globe. But in the aftermath of World...

3 Loka 202344min

Joe McCarthy, the Hydrogen Bomb, and Ten Fateful Months That Kicked Off the Cold War

Joe McCarthy, the Hydrogen Bomb, and Ten Fateful Months That Kicked Off the Cold War

There’s a good argument to be made that the entire trajectory of the Cold War was set off by ten fateful months of American and global history, between the first Soviet atom bomb test in the late summ...

28 Syys 202340min

The SAS Began as a Lie but Became Britain’s Most Elite WW2 Commando Unit

The SAS Began as a Lie but Became Britain’s Most Elite WW2 Commando Unit

Created during the World War II, the SAS was a small band of men brought together in the North African desert. They were the toughest and brightest of their cohort, the most resilient, most capable in...

26 Syys 202351min

Suosittua kategoriassa Yhteiskunta

olipa-kerran-otsikko
sita
siita-on-vaikea-puhua
kaksi-aitia
i-dont-like-mondays
gogin-ja-janin-maailmanhistoria
uutiscast
poks
antin-palautepalvelu
rss-nikotellen
mamma-mia
kolme-kaannekohtaa
yopuolen-tarinoita-2
aikalisa
rss-murhan-anatomia
meidan-pitais-puhua
rss-palmujen-varjoissa
rss-haudattu
naakkavalta
mystista