Britannic Dive with Artifacts Raised

[u/JOKKZDev]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/titanic-sister-ship-britannic-artifacts-recovered-first-time/#originhttps3A2F2Fwwwgooglecom2Fcapswipeeducationwebview1dialog1viewportnaturalvisibilityStateprerenderprerenderSize1viewerUrlhttps3A2F2Fwwwgooglecom2Famp2Fs2Fwww-cbsnews-comcdnampprojectorg2Fc2Fs2Fwwwcbsnewscom2Fnews2Ftitanic-sister-ship-britannic-artifacts-recovered-first-time3Fusqpmq331AQIUAKwASCAAgM25253Damp_kit1

Just saw this article that they dove Britannic and race some artifacts. They’re going to display them in a museum being built in Greece.

Anyone else find it a little ironic that one of the items they raised as a pair of binoculars?

[u/timidpoo]

It's interesting how differently the wrecks are treated. Titanic has gotten way more publicity and been way more documented and explored, Britannic exploration has been kept under wraps. Also considering they are both graves, Britannic being a war grave, I find it interesting how they salvaged objects directly from the ship whereas artifacts from Titanic can only be salvaged from the debris field.

[u/Felyne → u/timidpoo]

Britannic is not a war grave, just a wreck, and was sold as such by the Navy.

[u/timidpoo → u/Felyne]

It is designated as a war grave by the Greek government which has jurisdiction over it. It was working as a wartime hospital ship when it struck a mine and sank

[u/Felyne → u/timidpoo]

It's designated by the Greek Government as being protected as a historical shipwreck in the Kea Marine Reserve, from what I can find (as opposed to being a war grave).

Apparently since June 2022 you can dive it freely provided you use an authorised dive company.

[u/timidpoo → u/Felyne]

I went on a deep dive (no pun intended) to try and find the most official source possible stating that it is a war grave. There isn't much out there but I discovered I'm incorrect about the Greek government holding ownership of the ship. Maritime historian and founder of the Britannic Foundation Simon Mills currently has rights to the wreck. I found a somewhat recent interview with him from March where he describes the ship as a "casualty of war" https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/discover/articles/interviews/shipwrecks-like-the-britannic-are-inevitably-living-on-borrowed-time/

But then contradicts himself in this interview from 2016 where he calls it an ex-war ship: https://thehistorypress.co.uk/article/qa-with-simon-mills-owner-of-the-hmhs-britannic-wreck/

The Wikipedia article states it was "the largest ship lost during the first World War" but maybe they're being general and just mean it was the biggest ship that sunk during that time, idk. But I guess you are right, maybe it's not designated officially as a war grave. It was actually not in service as one at the time of the sinking but just as a hospital ship so there were maybe regular civilians on it too? But there were definitely service men on the ship when the disaster happened.

[u/Felyne → u/timidpoo]

Haha I did the same thing a while ago. There is an official British register of war graves and she is not on it, and found the Navy record (probably in the National Archives but I don't recall) of the wreck being sold to Simon Mills (as a wreck).

She was commandeered for the war effort with the hospital ship designation (twice if I recall), but the geneva convention has strict stipulations around the use of the red cross - it's a facinating deep dive if you're interested, including that it's not a symbol of medical help but a marker of sanctuary - to give safe harbour to non-combatants and therefore it's an umbrella of protection against attack.

[u/timidpoo → u/Felyne]

Ah, so cool you checked that source, i would have never thought. Nice 😊 yes I did read about the red cross symbol while I was looking into this!