HMHS Britannic

Everyone knows about the RMS Titanic, but do you know about her younger sister, Britannic?  I'm currently researching the topic as I continue working on a fiction story involving the doomed liner.  She was the third in a trio of ships designed by Harland and Wolff to be the next stage in the evolution of transatlantic travel.  There's evidence that her name was initially supposed to be the Gigantic, but after the Titanic disaster, White Star and H&W decided that Britannic would be a more suitable moniker.  Just as Titanic had been slightly larger and a little more luxurious than Olympic, the first of the three sisters, Britannic was designed to be larger and better than the Titanic.  Among the enhancements: A second-class gym, a fourth elevator, a more luxurious swimming pool room, a children's play room, and a pipe organ.  After the Titanic sank, the improvements expanded to the area of safety.  Titanic was fitted with larger davits called gantry davits to accommodate the additional lifeboats that were installed.  The hull was also reinforced.

Unfortunately, many of the luxurious enhancements to the passenger areas were not utilized because Britannic was requisitioned for service during the First World War, serving as a hospital ship for Britain.  White Star planned to put her into service as a transatlantic steamer after the war ended, but it was not to be.  Britannic didn't survive past 1916.  In November of that year, she sunk off the Greek island of Kea. 

I've been using Wikipedia and the Encyclopedia Titanica website for some of my research, but the real treasure trove of information I'm finding comes from a website called The Hospital Ship Britannic.  There's a wealth of information here, including photos, diagrams, and artists' renderings of Britannic.  If you're at all interested in the history of the Britannic, I strongly encourage you to check it out.