The ocean liner Britannic is the last of the Olympic series. Britannic - the last of a series of unsinkable titan liners

HMHS Britannic, originally built as the Gigantic passenger liner, was the last of a series of three Olympic class ships ordered by the White Star Line shipbuilding company. Harland & Wolf company. It was originally conceived as a replacement for the lost Titanic. On February 26, 1914, the liner was launched and put into operation on December 23, 1915.
Britannic had a number of improvements - for example, watertight bulkheads also passed through the decks with first-class cabins. Britannic also carried 44 lifeboats (on eight pairs of crane davits, which were capable of holding 6 lifeboats each, as a transatlantic liner option, and on five pairs of crane davits and 7 lifeboats along the boat deck as a hospital ship option) .

"Britannic" on the slipway

One of the Britannic boilers

Steam liner pipe

Improved davits

Britannic in White Star Line livery

However, it never managed to end up on the Southampton-New York line for which it was built. Instead, the liner was immediately requisitioned by the British Admiralty, which ordered it to be converted into a hospital ship. In this capacity, Britannic could take on board more than 3,000 patients. In November 1915, he was enlisted in the navy and sent to the Mediterranean. The ship made five successful voyages to the eastern Mediterranean and transported from there a total of 15,000 British soldiers and military personnel of other nationalities of the British Empire.

Postcard from the First World War. "Britannic", converted into a floating hospital

Converted airliner

Hospital bed on the liner

Nurses aboard the Britannic

On the promenade deck

On November 12, 1916, Britannic left Southampton for the Mediterranean Sea to the island of Moudros to take on board wounded British soldiers. On the morning of November 17, Britannic entered the port of Naples. On November 21, 1916, at 8:12 a.m., Britannic struck a mine laid by the German submarine U-73 in the Aegean Sea. The liner began to trim on the bow and roll to starboard. Until the last moment, Captain Bartlett hoped to run the ship aground near the island of Kea, but the ship was sinking too quickly. The decisive factor in the death of the liner were the open portholes of the lower decks, through which water entered the ship’s compartments, and the sealed bulkhead doors: one door did not close, and the second was leaking. Since the ship was moving and the evacuation was already in full swing, 2 boats were pulled under the exposed propeller and 30 people died. 55 minutes later, His Majesty's hospital ship Britannic capsized and sank, taking the lives of 30 people. Britannic was one of five White Star Line ships sunk during the war.

Captain of the Britannic Charles Bartlett

Picture of the wreck of the Britannic

Several expeditions were organized to the Britannic. Cousteau was the first to visit it in 1976. This was the first expedition of divers using autonomous equipment and trimix mixtures at such depths, but the expedition did not bring good underwater filming or a clear description of the object.

The research vessel Carolyn Chouest worked much more productively in 1995. The remains of the liner were filmed, and after that a clear picture of its position at the bottom emerged.

Britannic lies on the starboard side with a maximum depth of 90 meters. A huge number of parts of the liner, including one of its pipes, are located in close proximity to the remains of the once great ship...

"Britannic" at the bottom of the Aegean Sea

...to be continued...

The English liner Britannic was a representative of the Olympic series, consisting of three units, and originally bore the name Gigantic. For its time, the ship was the largest in the world, and being the last in the series, it was seriously different from its predecessors due to the introduction of numerous changes to eliminate shortcomings identified during the operation of previously built ships in the series. The entire series consisted of passenger airliners"Olympic" , « Titanic " and "Britanique".

Dimensions and technical specifications

The laying of the Britannic took place on November 23, 1911 at the Harland and Wolf shipyard in the Northern Irish city of Belfast. For its time, the ship was a real giant. Having a length between ends of 269 meters with a maximum hull width of 28 meters 65 centimeters.

The height from the waterline to the boat deck was 18.4 meters. The total displacement of the vessel was 48,158 register tons. At the same time, the draft when fully loaded was 10.54 meters. The total height of the vessel from the keel to the top of the chimney was 52.4 meters.

Construction work was carried out very intensively, but after the death of the Titanic liner of the same type on April 14, 1912, on which about one and a half thousand people died, work was temporarily suspended to make changes to the project to increase survivability. In particular, an additional longitudinal bulkhead was introduced in the electrical engine room, which made it possible to increase the number of compartments to 17.

According to the design, the ship remained buoyant when six of them were flooded. The existing bulkheads also went through the passenger areas. The most critical parts of the side in the area of the engine and boiler rooms received reinforcement in the form of a double bottom.

Serious changes have also occurred in the equipment of the ship with life-saving equipment. It turned out that the number of boats was significantly increased (up to 48 units), placed 6 units on davits. The use of such a solution had a negative impact on aesthetics, but increased the overall effectiveness of rescue equipment.

The ocean liner's power plant was a combination of two steam engines and one steam turbine. In this case, the turbine rotated the middle propeller, and the steam engines rotated the outer ones. The total power of the power plant was 50 thousand horsepower, including 18 thousand hp. steam turbine power. The production of the required amount of steam was ensured by the operation of 29 boilers.

As a result, Britannic had a cruising speed of 23 knots, and could accelerate to a maximum of 25 knots. 860 crew members were involved in operating the ship and maintaining the machinery.

Passenger capacity

Britannic was launched at the end of 2012, after which its completion began afloat, which was supposed to make the new liner the most luxurious and comfortable in the world.

In total, the ship received eight decks intended for passengers and crew members and was designed to accommodate two and a half thousand passengers, divided into three classes.

The liner was positioned as a masterpiece of world shipbuilding, and received the appropriate equipment. Numerous salons, halls, and restaurants were distinguished by the richness of their interior decoration and spaciousness, but all this was not destined to come true, since the First World War began in early August 1914, which completely changed the fate of the ocean-going vessel.

The British Admiralty immediately appreciated the merits of the unit under construction, and requisitioned the Britannic with completion as a hospital ship, while initially the admirals did not interfere with the completion of the ship according to the original design. The liner was commissioned into the navy on November 13, 1915. At the same time, its internal premises were converted to receive the wounded and provide medical care. In particular, all the cabins on the upper decks, located as close as possible to the boat deck, were turned into chambers. All salons, dining rooms and recreation areas were turned into operating rooms and various types of care spaces.

Medical personnel consisting of 489 doctors and nurses were located on the middle decks. In total, after the conversion, the Britannic could simultaneously take on board 3,309 sick and wounded. In accordance with international legislation, the ship was painted white with red crosses.

At the very end of 1915, the hospital ship went to its duty station in the Mediterranean Sea, where it made several voyages to deliver wounded military personnel to the British Isles for further treatment.

Towards the middle of 1916, the ship spent some time inactive, after which it was sent back to the Mediterranean. The main port for receiving the wounded was the port of Mudros in Greece.

On November 21, 1916, while passing through the Kea Strait, the hospital ship Britannic ran into a German mine, resulting in a large hole in the bow. Four compartments were flooded. At the same time, open portholes and unlatched doors in the bulkheads led to further spread of water. As a result, less than an hour later the ship capsized and sank.

At this moment there were no casualties on board (only the crew and medical personnel), which made the evacuation easier. A total of 1,036 people were rescued. Only 30 people died, and 21 of them died in two unauthorized lifeboats, tightened under working propellers.

The evacuation of the Britannic crew is still considered one of the most successful in the history of navigation.

Fate allowed the liner to remain on the lists of the active fleet a little longer than its famous sistership. And if the Titanic sank during its maiden voyage, the Britannic sailed for less than one year.

MOSCOW, March 27 - RIA Novosti. The Olympic, one of the three superliners of the White Star Line, completed its last voyage 75 years ago, on March 27, 1935.

At the end of 1907, the White Star Line decided to build three liners measuring 259 meters long, 28 meters wide and displacing 52 thousand tons at the Harland and Wolf shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland. They provided space for 2,566 thousand passengers in cabins of three classes, and passengers of all classes were provided with unprecedented amenities.

First flights

In 1908 and 1909, construction began on the first two ships of the series. One was called "Olympic", the other - "Titanic". Both ships were built side by side, in the same workshop. Construction of the third was planned for a later date.

On October 20, 1910, the Olympic was launched; on May 31, 1911, after completion of the outfitting work, it began sea trials, and on June 14, it set off on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York.

The management of the White Star Line treated the first flights of the Olympic with great responsibility. It was during these voyages that decisions were made about a number of improvements on the Titanic, which was still under construction: the layout of some rooms was slightly changed, by reducing the area of the promenade decks, the number of passenger cabins was increased, cabin-apartments appeared, two in total, a cafe in the Parisian style was created, adjacent to the restaurant. Finally, the first voyages showed that part of the liner's promenade deck was not sufficiently protected from bad weather, so on the Titanic it was decided to make it closed, with sliding windows. Later, the Titanic and the Olympic could be visually distinguished precisely by this promenade deck.

There was an accident on the fifth flight. On the morning of September 20, 1911, at the exit from Southampton Bay, the Olympic collided with the British cruiser Hawk and received a 12-meter hole in the starboard side. The voyage, which had barely begun, was interrupted and the Olympic returned to Belfast to the shipyard for repairs. Repair work on the Olympic somewhat delayed the completion and maiden voyage of the Titanic, which was completed in 1912.

The Titanic amazed with its size and architectural perfection; newspapers reported that the length of the liner was equal to the length of three city blocks, the height of the engine was the height of a three-story building, and that the anchor for the Titanic was pulled through the streets of Belfast by a team of 20 of the strongest horses.

The sinking of the Titanic

On April 10, 1912, the Titanic set out on its first and last voyage to America, taking on board more than 2.2 thousand people. On April 14, at the end of the fourth day of the journey, the Titanic collided with a huge iceberg. The starboard side of the ship was torn open from the very stem; the length of the hole was 90 meters. Panic began on the ship; in the cramped conditions and crush, people tried to get to the stern. Of the 20 boats, two were never lowered.

The Titanic sank at 2.20 on April 15th. According to various sources, from 1.4 thousand to 1.517 thousand people died, about 700 were saved.

The wreckage of the lost liner remained untouched until American maritime archaeologist Robert Bollard and his French colleagues discovered it on September 1, 1985, 325 miles off the coast of the Canadian island of Newfoundland. Since then, about 5 thousand artifacts discovered among the wreckage of the Titanic have been recovered. Many submarines visited the remains of the ship; submarines brought tourists there.

Dozens of books, hundreds of articles and essays have been written about the notorious steamship, and several films have been produced.

At the time of the sinking of the Titanic on the night of April 15, 1912, the Olympic was on its next voyage from New York to Southampton. Having received information about the disaster, "Olympic" hastened to help his twin brother, but he was at a considerable distance from the scene of the disaster, and the surviving passengers were picked up by the "Carpathia" liner. The captain of the Olympic offered to take some of the rescued people on board, but it was decided to abandon this idea because there were fears that the appearance of a copy of the Titanic would cause horror among people in shock. Despite this, the Olympic was asked to stay within sight of the Carpathia, since the ship's radio was not powerful enough to communicate with the shore, while the Olympic's radio had sufficient power. Lists of those rescued were transmitted to the Olympic radio operator, who immediately sent them to the coastal radio station. After some time, the Olympic, which carried hundreds of passengers hurrying to Europe, continued sailing along its route.

On April 24, 1912, the Olympic was scheduled to depart on its next voyage from Southampton to New York. But since there were not enough boats on the Titanic to save all the people, the Olympic crew refused to go to sea until the liner was provided with the necessary number of boats. Some of the crew abandoned the ship in Southampton. The flight was cancelled.

In the same year, the Olympic arrived at the Harland and Wolf shipyard, where an expensive reconstruction was carried out within six months: the second bottom was raised and the height of the watertight bulkheads was increased. These measures were taken as a result of the sinking of the Titanic. Now the Olympic could stay afloat even if six compartments were flooded. Only on April 2, 1913, the Olympic set out on its first voyage after reconstruction.

World War I

The liner was finishing its next transatlantic flight when the First World War began. By increasing its speed, the Olympic arrived in New York ahead of schedule. It was decided to leave the liner on the transatlantic route, especially since with the beginning of the war there were a lot of people who wanted to leave troubled Europe. In October, the Olympic rescued sailors from the warship Odeisies, which was struck by a mine off the coast of Ireland. Since September 1915, the Olympic became a transport ship for transporting troops and was named T-2810. The ship was repainted in camouflage colors and equipped with six-inch anti-submarine guns.

In April 1917, "Olympic" was included in the navy. During its military service, the famous liner transported 119 thousand military and civilians across the Atlantic, was attacked by submarines four times, but always remained unharmed, and once, with an incredible maneuver, rammed and sank a submarine.

The fate of the Britannic

During the First World War, the younger brother of the Olympic and the Titanic, the third and last ship in the series, perished. At first it was planned that the new liner would be named Gigantic, but after the death of the Titanic, it was decided to choose the more modest and at the same time patriotic name Britannic. It was laid down on November 30, 1911 and was scheduled to set out on its maiden voyage in the summer of 1914, but structural modifications that needed to be made after the sinking of the Titanic delayed the ship's departure from the shipyard. On February 26, 1914, the Britannic was launched.

No different from its older brothers in appearance, but in terms of passenger comfort, the Britannic was the best of the series. There was another hair salon, a children's playroom, a gym for second class passengers, and a fourth elevator. The developers remembered that the Titanic's radio operators, due to their busyness, did not always have time to transmit radiograms related to the navigation situation to the bridge, and a pneumatic mail system appeared on the Britannic, connecting the radio room and the bridge.

However, passengers did not have time to appreciate the advantages of the new liner. When the war began, it was converted into a hospital ship, and in this capacity the liner set out on its maiden voyage at the end of 1915. On November 12, 1916, the Britannic hit a mine in the Kea Strait, near Greece. Despite the fact that the liner sank for only 55 minutes, most of the people on board were saved.

"Olympic" after the war

After the end of the war, Olympic returned to peaceful work on the transatlantic line, and soon embarked on another lengthy reconstruction, during which its engines were switched from coal to fuel oil. The reconstruction lasted almost a year, and only on June 25, 1920, the Olympic, which was the first of the large transatlantic liners to begin using fuel oil as fuel, returned to work.

The 1920s were a high point for Olympic. The death of his twin, the Titanic, was forgotten. The liner has gained a reputation as an extremely reliable vessel. During these years, the ship regularly crossed the Atlantic Ocean with passengers on board and was very popular.

There was also an accident. On May 22, 1924, in New York, the Olympic collided with the St. George liner, after which it had to replace a significant part of the stern plating.

In 1928, the passenger quarters of the liner were modernized. But age was beginning to take its toll. By 1930, mechanical problems and fatigue cracks in the hull began to appear. It got to the point that in 1931 the ship was issued a certificate of seaworthiness based on the condition of the hull for only six months. Later it was nevertheless extended.

In the 1930s, the global economic crisis caused serious problems for shipping companies. To stay afloat, the White Star Line merged with another British company, Cunard Line. In 1934, a new company, Cunard-White Star, appeared, to which the entire passenger fleet of the two companies, including Olympic, was transferred. Shortly thereafter, on May 16, 1934, the Olympic struck the Nantucket lightship off the coast of Canada in thick fog and sank it and its seven crew members.

I immediately remembered the Titanic disaster. In addition, construction was underway on the new Queen Mary liner, next to which there was no place for the Olympic. In the context of the ongoing global crisis, this decided the fate of the liner.

The last days of Olympic

Despite the fact that the Olympic's transatlantic flight schedule for the summer of 1935 was officially published, already in January 1935 the company announced the cancellation of the liner's flights. Olympic completed its last voyage on March 27, 1935. He remained to await his fate in Southampton. In September of the same year, "Olympic" was sold for cutting into scrap metal.

On October 11, 1935, the liner left Southampton and went to Scotland for breaking up. A month later, an auction took place in London, where property from the Olympic was sold over the course of ten days. To this day, details of the liner’s exquisite finishing can be seen in the interiors of some British hotels and restaurants. The restaurant of the cruise ship Millennium is decorated with wall panels from the Olympic restaurant.

"Olympic" crossed the Atlantic Ocean more than 500 times and remained in the memory of passengers and sailors as a beautiful, comfortable and reliable liner. It took an honorable place in the history of transatlantic shipping.

Military service

The war had a serious impact on the shipbuilding industry. The shipyards that had contracts with the Admiralty were given the closest and highest priority and also the largest share of the available raw materials. The Admiralty ordered nothing from Harland and Wolf, leaving them able to continue their civilian contracts, but at a much slower pace. By September, Britannic was placed in drydock to install propellers. The port of Southampton was requisitioned by the military to be used as the main departure point for sending troops to France. White Star Line was forced to move its home port back to Liverpool. In addition, many of the company's ships were requisitioned by the Admiralty. Oceanic (III), Celtic, Cedric and Teutonic were converted into commercial cruisers, while Megantic and Laurentic served as military transports. The large Britannic and Olympic were both laid up until the need arose. On 3 November Olympic arrived in Belfast, where he spent the next ten months with his younger brother.

It was 1915, and on September 1, the Olympic was requisitioned as a troop transport, and the Britannic was still unfinished in Belfast.

By this time the war, which was expected to end by Christmas 1914, was almost out of control. In the Mediterranean, the number of casualties increased, mainly due to the Dardanelles Campaign. The Cunarders Aquitaine and Mauritania were already serving as hospital ships, but more were needed, and on 13 November 1915, Britannic was requisitioned by the Admiralty as a hospital ship.

Work to transform the unfinished liner was in full swing. Cabins on the upper decks were converted into wards as patients needed to be as close to the boat deck as possible. The first class dining room and lounge were converted into operating rooms and the main ward due to their central locations. Surgeons, doctors and nurses would live in cabins on Deck B so they would be close to patients at all times. When the conversion to a hospital ship was completed, Britannic could accommodate 3,309 patients, only Aquitaine could accommodate more, 4,182.

Outwardly, not everything went as planned. There was no time to equip the ship with davit cranes. Therefore, five pairs of crane davits were installed and 6 standard pairs, which could not hold more than 2 boats, so fewer boats were installed.

The ship was painted in the international colors of a hospital ship: white side, green stripe along the hull, interrupted in three places on each side by red crosses. The pipes were painted mustard, similar to the White Star Line pipes, but did not have the black top. These colors guaranteed the ship inviolable status for all warships according to the Geneva Agreement. On December 14, 1915, Captain Charles Bartlett was given command of His Majesty's Hospital Ship Britannic, number G618. By Christmas he was ready for his maiden voyage.

On December 23, the Britannic set off on its maiden voyage, heading to the port of Mudros on the Greek island of Lemnos. Five days later he reached Naples, the only port for taking coal and water before Mudros. Reaching Mudros on New Year's Eve, he began accepting victims on board, which took 4 days. On January 9, the Britannic arrived in Southampton and began disembarking patients. Two more voyages were made, but by the spring of 1916 the situation in the Mediterranean had calmed down and hospital ships were no longer needed. The Britannic was laid up at Southampton and was on its way to.

At 8:12 a.m., the ship was suddenly rocked by an explosion in the starboard bow. Major Harold Priestly immediately took command and ordered the nurses to continue breakfast, since the captain had not given orders to abandon ship. Few thought that the situation was very serious, and some joked that they had rammed a submarine. Meanwhile, Captain Bartlett was thinking about how to save the ship, because it was already listing to starboard and plunging its nose into the water. He ordered the bulkheads to be battened down and SOS signals began to be sent out. The explosion destroyed the forepeak bulkhead and, in addition, the fire tunnel was also damaged, thus allowing water to enter the boiler rooms. With her four forward compartments flooded, Britannic was still able to remain afloat. But the situation was worsened by the fact that the door in the bulkhead between boiler rooms No. 5 and No. 6 was unable to close, allowing water to pass further. Also that morning, portholes on the starboard side were opened to ventilate the cabins - now the deck was flooding through them.

Knowing this, Captain Bartlett decided to try to run the ship aground off the nearby island of Kea. He quickly abandoned this idea, since water entered the moving vessel faster. The primary issue was evacuation. Help was on the way, distress signals were received by several ships. The British ship Scourge, the auxiliary cruiser Heroic and the British ship Foxhound were among the ships that received the distress call.

The evacuation continued aboard the Britannic. There were several cases of panic; one of them was when a group of firefighters took a lifeboat without asking. Few boats were lowered, but since the ship was still moving, the crew refused to lower the boats until the ship stopped. Despite this precaution, an accident occurred - the two boats were launched and pulled in by the still rotating propeller. 21 people died under the propeller. Plus 9 more people died on the ship.

At 9:07 am the ship capsized to starboard and sank 55 minutes after the explosion. Captain Bartlett, who was in the water, swam to the lifeboat and was pulled out of the water. By 10:00, Scourge reached the crash site and began picking up survivors.

A total of 1,036 people were saved.

History after

There were a large number of questions that remained unanswered. First of all: how could the Britannic, which was safer than the Titanic, which sank for almost 3 hours, sink to the bottom in just 55 minutes? There was also debate about whether the ship was carrying weapons, but the Admiralty denied this. And was it really a mine or a torpedo? The first person to look for answers was Jacques Cousteau, who, in collaboration with the Titanic Historical Museum, on December 3 Interesting Facts

On board the Britannic was nurse Violet Jessop, one of the survivors of the Titanic disaster. She was in a boat that was pulled under the propeller of a sinking ship and survived. What is even more surprising is that V. Jessop was a stewardess on the Olympic (the older brother of both liners) when it collided with the cruiser in the port of Southampton.

After the film won 11 Oscars D. Cameron“Titanic mania” began in the world. But not many people know that the legendary superliner had two twin brothers - the Olympic, launched about a year before the Titanic, and the Britannic, which left the stocks after its tragic death, but did not escape the same terrible fate.

Following the Titanic

Construction of the Britannic had already begun when news of the Titanic's sinking reached the Heartland. To avoid such a tragedy, the ship's creators made a number of changes to its drawings: the height of the watertight bulkheads was increased, the ship's double bottom was made thicker, and the space between the outer and inner bottoms was divided into compartments. In addition, giant davits were built - winches for lowering boats, which were so lacking on the Titanic.

The company that owned the liner announced that the ship would begin service on the Southampton-New York route, the same route as the Titanic, in 1915. But due to World War I, the British Navy commandeered the Britannic and they made it a hospital ship.

“His Majesty's Hospital Ship Britannic” Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Survive three disasters

The hospital ship was crossing the Aegean Sea with 1,134 people on board.

Immediately after the end of morning mass on November 21, 1916, a young Irish maid Violet Jessop I heard a dull roar. Let us add that by this time she had already survived the accident on the Olympic in 1911 and miraculously escaped in 1912 during the sinking of the Titanic. It was this woman who became the prototype for Rose, the heroine of D. Cameron's epic. “It was as if an inexplicable explosion had gone through the ship,” Jessop recalls, “it caused a continuous vibration along the entire length of the ship.”

Sinking Britannic. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

The captain, trying to steer the ship into shallower waters, ordered the engines to work at full power and go full speed ahead. He did not know that the ship’s propellers, rotating at great speed, pulled the boats into the whirlpool and crushed the passengers.

Survivors of the sinking of the Britannic. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / Royal Navy

Jessop jumped out of the boat to avoid the deadly propellers. And after some time I watched as another great ship went under the water. “The white pride of the oceanic medical world dipped its nose slightly, then sank deeper and deeper,” Jessop wrote in her memoir, Titanic Survivor, published in 1997.

Riddles at the bottom

Soon after the tragedy, the British government put forward two official hypotheses: the ship was either torpedoed or was blown up by a German mine.

In 1976 Jacques Cousteau 64 kilometers south of Athens discovered the exact location of the remains of the Britannica. The ship (about 270 meters in length and with a displacement of 48,000 tons) lies on its side at a depth of 119 meters, almost intact. The fracture caused by the impact on the bottom is clearly visible.

Cousteau's dive to the Britannic wreck. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / U.S. Navy Cousteau discovered that the ship was 6.75 nautical miles from the site declared by the British Admiralty in 1916. According to Simon Mills, cameraman and amateur maritime historian, who bought the wreckage for $25,000 in 1996 from another shipwreck collector Mark Bamford, this discrepancy has given rise to several theories. It got to the point that some researchers even suggested that the British government itself sank the ship as a propaganda move to involve the United States in the war.

There are no unsinkable ships

But other questions remain: why did the Britannic, whose safety was greatly enhanced after the Titanic tragedy, sank in 57 minutes? - three times faster than the Titanic?

Organ on board the Britannic. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

The head of one of the five expeditions, Nick Hope assured that he found no traces of German mine explosions. One of Hope's crew members entered the fire tunnel to ascertain whether the sealed hatches in the ship's bulkheads were battened down. He discovered that one hatch was open. “Another version,” says Hope, “the portholes near the waterline were open...”

Nick Hope said: “We spent 1,600 minutes around the wreckage. — record time for underwater observation, including photography and filming.” And it will help, Simon Mills hopes, to find the key to a mystery as big as a murder mystery. John F. Kennedy.

Robert Ballard, marine explorer, who found the wreckage of the Titanic in the North Atlantic, also examined the site of the sinking of the Britannic in 1995. They discovered several holes in the ship's hull.

Ballard would like to turn the Britannic into a kind of underwater museum, with movie cameras on board that would transmit images to shore. Now many people are turning to him with a proposal to raise the Britannic. But Ballard's wish is to leave the ship where it is, as another shrouded in mystery reminder that no ship is unsinkable.

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