MV Britannic was a British transatlantic ocean liner that was launched in 1929 and scrapped in 1961. She was the penultimate ship built for White Star Line before its 1934 merger with Cunard Line. When built, Britannic was the largest motor ship in the UK Merchant Navy. Her running mate ship was the MV Georgic.
In 1934, White Star merged with Cunard Line; however, both Britannic and Georgic retained their White Star Line colours and flew the house flags of both companies.
From 1935, the pair served London, and at the time they were the largest ships to do so. From early in her career Britannic operated on cruises as well as scheduled transatlantic services. Diesel propulsion, economical speeds and modern "cabin ship" passenger facilities enabled Britannic and Georgic to make a profit throughout the 1930s, when many other liners were unable to do so.
In the Second World War Britannic served as a troop ship, transporting more than 170,000 troops during the duration of the war, and she ultimately emerged unscathed. In 1947 she was overhauled, re-fitted, modernised and returned to civilian service. She outlived her sister Georgic and became the last White Star liner still in commercial service. Britannic was scrapped in 1961 after three decades of service.
She was the last of three White Star Line ships called Britannic. The first was a steamship launched in 1874 and scrapped in 1903. The second was launched in 1914, completed as the hospital ship and sunk by a mine in 1916.
Background On 1 January 1927, the International Mercantile Marine Company sold White Star Line to the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company (RMSP). At the time White Star had one new steamship on order, , and was discussing designs with Harland and Wolff for a proposed 1,000-foot liner, but overall the White Star fleet needed modernising.
Motor ships were more economical than steam, and in the 1920s the maximum size of marine diesel engine had increased rapidly. RMSP had recently taken delivery of two large motor ships, and , and chose diesel to replace White Star's "Big Four" liners. The replacements were to be slightly larger than the Big Four and more luxurious.
Building On 14 April 1927 Harland and Wolff laid Britannics keel on slip number one in its Belfast yard. She was launched on 6 August 1929, started three days of sea trials in the Firth of Clyde on 25 or 26 May 1930, and was completed on 21 June 1930.
Britannic had two propellers installed, each driven by a ten-cylinder, four-stroke, double-acting diesel engine. Between them the two engines developed 20,000 NHP and gave Britannic a speed of . When new, Britannic was the largest motor ship in the UK Merchant Navy and the second largest in the World, second only to the Italian liner .
Britannic was built as a "cabin ship" with berths for 1,553 passengers: 504 cabin class, 551 tourist class and 498 third class. She had a gymnasium, a swimming pool, and her cabin class dining saloon was in Louis XIV style. She had eight holds, one of which could carry unpackaged cars. Two holds were refrigerated, and her total refrigerated capacity was .
12 bulkheads divided her hull into watertight compartments. Their watertight doors could be closed either electrically from the bridge, or manually. Installed were 24 lifeboats, two motor boats and two backup boats.
Britannic had two funnels. As on many early Harland and Wolff motor ships they were low and broad. Only her aft funnel was a diesel exhaust. Her forward funnel was a dummy that housed two smoking rooms: one for her deck officers and the other for the engineer officers. It also contained water tanks and, later in her career, radar equipment.
Britannic was painted in White Star Line colours: black hull with a gold line, white superstructure and ventilators, red boot-topping, and buff funnels with a black top. Both Britannic and Georgic kept their White Star colours after White Star merged with Cunard in 1934.
White Star years
In 1930 Britannic was delivered from Belfast to Liverpool amid enthusiastic press coverage. When she left Liverpool on 28 June to begin her maiden voyage an estimated 14,000 people turned out and gave her what was reported to be the "greatest send-off known to Merseyside". She called at Belfast and Glasgow to load mail, and then continued to New York.
On 8 July, Britannic entered New York harbour, dressed overall. Over the next few days, 1,500 people paid $1 each to go aboard her while she was in port, and on 12 July a crowd of more than 6,000 came to see her leave New York for Cobh and Liverpool.
For her first three trips Britannics speed was limited to until her engines were run in. Thereafter her speed was increased, and at the beginning of October 1930 she averaged on a westbound crossing. On an eastbound crossing in July 1932 she averaged , beating her own record.
By the time Britannic entered service, the Great Depression had caused a global slump in merchant shipping. Several White Star Line steamships operated cruises for at least part of the year to make up for the fall in transatlantic passenger numbers. But Britannics lower running costs enabled her to make a profit on the route. In 1931 White Star Line operated ten ships, but only four made a profit on scheduled routes. Britannic being the most profitable by far.
Between some scheduled transatlantic crossings Britannic fitted in short cruises from New York. White Star Line offered four-day weekend and midweek cruises. In 1931 the tourist class fare for these on Britannic was $35. She also attracted charter trade, such as a 16-day cruise to the West Indies in February and March 1932 to raise funds for the Frontier Nursing Service.
In summer Britannic shared the route with the older , and . In 1932 her running mate Georgic entered service and joined her on the route.
In her first 15 months in service Britannic averaged only 609 passengers per voyage, which was less than 40 per cent of her capacity. And two cruises from New York to the Mediterranean that she was due to make in spring 1932 were cancelled for lack of enough bookings.
By 1932, bookings for cabin class was still slack, but demand for Britannics tourist class exceeded the number of berths available. On a sailing on Britannic from New York on 4 June that year White Star allocated cabin class berths to a number of tourist class passengers to meet demand.
In May 1932 White Star Line organised a fashion show of travel clothes aboard Britannic when she was in port in New York in a bid to earn extra income.
In 1933 the largest number of passengers on Britannic on a single crossing was 1,003, which was less than 65 per cent of her capacity. But it was the highest number of any transatlantic liner that year. Britannics luxury and well-appointed public saloons attracted enough passengers for her to pay her way when other ships did not.
On 15 December 1933 Britannic ran aground on a mud flat off Governors Island in Boston Harbour and the ship was refloated the next day with the aid of six tugboats.
Cunard White Star Line
On 20 July 1931 the Royal Mail Case opened at the Old Bailey, which led to the collapse of White Star Line's parent company. On 10 May 1934 White Star Line merged with Cunard, with the latter holding 62 per cent of the capital. By 1936 the resulting Cunard-White Star Line sold most of the former White Star fleet except Britannic, Georgic and Laurentic.
In April 1935 Britannic and Georgic were transferred to the route between London and New York via Le Havre, Southampton and Cobh. This made them the largest ships to visit London.
In June 1935 Britannics Master, Captain William Hawkes, RD, ADC, RNR, was made a CBE. On 22 July two passengers got married aboard Britannic just before she sailed on a cruise to Bermuda. Captain Hawkes did not conduct the ceremony, but he did give the bride away.
On 4 January 1937 Britannic suffered slight engine trouble on arrival in New York. She was held at Ellis Island for 45 minutes for temporary repairs before proceeding to dock.
In October 1937 the BBC experimented with a television receiver in one of the state rooms on Britannics A deck. After she left London on 29 October, BBC technicians tested the reception of "telephotograms" transmitted from the Alexandra Palace television station in London as Britannic voyaged away from the capital and down the English Channel. The experiment continued for 24 hours, until Britannic was south of Hastings. The receiver's screen was . Britannics Master, Captain AT Brown, watched the experiment and said that both the picture and the sound were clear.
Britannic and Georgic faced modern competition from United States Lines' and and CGT's and Lafayette (fr). In 1937 Britannic carried 26,943 passengers, Georgic carried a few hundred more, but Champlain carried more than either of them.
In 1938 Britannic carried 1,170 passengers on one eastbound crossing in June, which was 75 per cent of her capacity. However, on a westbound crossing in October she carried only 729 passengers.
Second World War On 27 August 1939, a few days before the Second World War began, Britannic was requisitioned as she was returning from New York. She was converted into a troop ship at Southampton. A few days later left she embarked British Indian Army officers and naval officers, whom she then took from Greenock to Bombay. While in Bombay she was fitted with one BL 6-inch Mk XII naval gun for defence against surface craft and one QF 3-inch 20 cwt high-angle gun for anti-aircraft defence to make her a defensively equipped merchant ship.
Britannic loaded cargo, returned to England and then returned to commercial service between Liverpool and New York. By January 1940 her superstructure had been repainted from white to buff, and a pillbox had been built on each wing of her bridge as protection for the deck officer on watch.
By January 1940, UK passenger ships, including Britannic, displayed posters warning passengers "BEWARE. Above all, never give away the movements of His Majesty's ships." Crews were warned that disclosing information such as ship movements violated the Defence of the Realm Act 1914.
But in the US, which remained neutral until December 1941, newspapers continued to publish the arrival and departure of every Allied passenger liner. In April 1940 The New York Times even published how many UK Merchant Navy seafarers arrived on Britannic and the Cunard liner to join which cargo ships, and even gave some idea where those cargo ships were.
On 20 February 1940 an anonymous telephone call to the New York City Police Department warned that a bomb would be planted aboard Britannic. NYPD officers searched the ship but found nothing.
Britannics westbound crossings carried many refugees from central Europe, including Germans fleeing Nazism. She also carried many UK children sent to North America by the Children's Overseas Reception Board. The overseas evacuation of children was terminated after a U-boat tragically torpedoed the Ellerman Lines ship SS City of Benares on 17 September 1940, sinking it within 31 minutes, and killing 258 people, including 81 of 100 children on board.
In January 1940 the pianist Harriet Cohen travelled on Britannic to begin a concert tour of the US. On the same voyage Britannic also carried eight racehorses that had been sold to US buyers. Five of the horses had belonged to the Aga Khan. Louis B. Mayer bought four of the horses, Charles S. Howard bought two, and Neil S. McCarthy and a Gordon Douglas of Wall Street each bought one.
In June 1940 Britannics westbound passengers included the Earl and Countess of Athlone, who disembarked at Halifax, Nova Scotia as the Earl had just been appointed Governor General of Canada. On the same voyage Jan Masaryk, who had been Czechoslovak ambassador to the UK and was about to become Foreign Minister of the Czechoslovak government-in-exile, travelled to New York.