Expedition Britannic

Expedition Britannic is an insight into the art of deep wreck diving which features incredible original photographs of the largest ocean liner on the seabed. What does it take to dive Titanic’s sister ship? This huge vessel from a bygone golden age of ocean travel lies at over 100 metres (330’) below the surface. It is not a dive for the faint-hearted. Requiring meticulous planning, precise execution and good conditions, only the most capable technical divers will ever experience it. Even then, tragically some do not make it back to the surface. Expedition Britannic is the story of the May 2019 mission to dive the Olympic-class liner-turned-hospital ship, HMHS Britannic. Sunk near the Greek island of Kea during World War I, she will only be ticked off the bucket list of relatively few of the most dedicated deep divers. Steeped in history, the opportunity to see a largely intact near-replica of the world’s most famous ocean liner makes it an ultimate dive to aspire to. Deep wreck photography specialist Rick Ayrton is one such diver. Assisted by expedition leader Scott Roberts, he takes us through the planning, logistics and preparation essential for scaling one of the pinnacles of wreck diving. Then we explore the wreck with him — going deeper than most divers will in their lifetimes to photograph this once great ship — and make new discoveries. Reviews of Expedition Britannic A cracking book that will be of interest to any diver, and many others. From my perspective, if I need to persuade anyone why I love deep diving then I’ll simply hand them a copy and wait for them to ask how they can sign up.— SCUBA magazine. Expedition Britannic brings armchair divers closer than we’ve ever been to this magnificent wreck and perhaps will inspire one or two to get out of their armchair and experience it for themselves.— Encyclopaedia Titanica. If you have read detailed reports of group technical-diving trips before, this has something in common with those but it is done extremely well. The writing is crisp, well-organised and doesn’t get bogged down in needless detail. While it doesn’t seem to be making concessions, it is readily accessible to any level of diver or even non-divers. And bringing it further to life, the photography from depth is way beyond what we usually expect, thanks to Ayrton’s dedication to his craft.— Diver magazine. Expedition Britannic will appeal to recreational divers who look up (or rather, down) in awe at our technical cousins; it will appeal to technical divers wishing to see how it was done; and it will certainly appeal to White Star line aficionados who want a fresh look at how Britannic appears today.— British Diver. Incredible… the images are stunning. But the really impressive achievement is to make it accessible for non-technical divers whilst also having all the detail that more experienced ones will want.— Dominic Robinson, Officer in Charge Joint Service Sub Aqua Diving Centre / BSAC Technical Chief Examiner. A marvellous way to help visualise one of the great diving treasures and archaeological monuments … it can only help to prepare any dive team contemplating their own visit to the ‘Mount Everest’ of technical diving.— Simon Mills, maritime historian, owner of HMHS Britannic. (Read full review) Rick’s scooter driven photographic epic is a fresh take on a wreck that many of us are familiar with, but are also distant from. You see things from a new viewpoint: the whole foredeck; the propellers from below; a new angle showing there is plenty of life left in ‘the old girl’. Nice one!– Kieran Hatton, www.divingindepth.co.uk I will never forget Rick Ayrton’s photographs. It was what we were waiting for every day, after every dive.— Yannis Tzavelakos (from the Foreword).

Launched in 1914, two years after the ill-fated voyage of her sister ship, RMS Titanic, the Britannic was intended to be superior to her tragic twin in every way. But war intervened and in 1915 she was requisitioned as a hospital ship. Just one year later, while on her way to collect troops wounded in the Balkans campaign, she fell victim to a mine laid by a German U-boat and tragically sank in the middle of the Aegean Sea. There her wreck lay, at a depth of 400 feet, until it was discovered 59 years later by legendary explorer Jacques Cousteau. In 1996 the wreck was bought by the author of this book, Simon Mills. Exploring the Britannic tells the complete story of this enigmatic ship: her construction, launch and life, her fateful last voyage, and the historical findings resulting from the exploration of the well-preserved wreck over a period of 40 years. With remarkable sonar scans and many never before seen photographs of the wreck, plus the original Harland & Wolff ship plans, not previously published in their entirety, Exploring the Britannic finally details how the mysteries surrounding the 100-year-old enigma were laid to rest, and what the future might also hold for her.

The Titanic. The Britannic. The Olympic. They are some of the most famous ships in history, but for the wrong reasons. The Olympic Class liners were conceived as the largest, grandest ships ever to set sail. Of the three ships built, the first only lost the record for being the largest because she was beaten by the second, and they were both beaten by the third. The class was meant to secure the White Star Line's reputation as the greatest shipping company on earth. Instead, with the loss of both the Titanic and the Britannic in their first year of service, it guaranteed White Star's infamy. This unique book tells the extraordinary story of these three extraordinary ships from the bottom up, starting with their conception and construction (and later their modification) and following their very different careers. Behind the technical details of these magnificent ships lies a tragic human story – not just of the lives lost aboard the Titanic and Britannic, but of the designers pushing the limits beyond what was actually possible, engineers unable to prepare for every twist of fate, and ship owners and crew who truly believed a ship could be unsinkable. This fascinating story is told with rare photographs, new computer-generated recreations of the ships, and unique wreck images that explore how well the ships were designed and built. Simon Mills offers unparalleled access to shipbuilders Harland & Wolff's specification book for the Olympic Class, including original blueprints and - being made widely available for the first time - large fold-out technical drawings showing how these extensive plans were meant to be seen.

Well-known underwater explorer Richie Kohler (of Shadow Divers and Deep Sea Detectives) and Best Publishing Company invite you to join the expedition to unravel the Mystery of the Last Olympian: Titanic’s Tragic Sister Britannic. The book gives you a firsthand account as Richie Kohler takes readers on the intriguing journey from the rise of the magnificent Olympians to the fateful day in 1916. He then moves forward in time through multiple expeditions beginning with the great Jacques Cousteau who located the ocean liner in 1975. Each successive team that risked their lives uncovered new clues, but it was not until 2009 when Richie and his dive partner definitively pinpointed the secret that had eluded them. Finally, in July 2015, Richie and a small team attained the goal of documenting their findings that answered the century-old question as to why all the engineering solutions built into the mighty Britannic could not save her from sharing the same fate as Titanic. Experience the expedition as Richie and his team unravel the mystery of the HMHS Britannic: - With damage to only one compartment, the ship should have been able to stay afloat, and yet she sank twice as quickly as did Titanic. How was that possible? - Was the hospital ship criminally torpedoed as the British press claimed, or did she ineptly blunder into a minefield, as the Bismarck Government countered? - Violet Jessop survived the sinking of Britannic and Titanic. Experience her intriguing story.

After rewriting history with their discovery of a Nazi U-boat off the coast of New Jersey, legendary divers John Chatterton and Richie Kohler decided to investigate the great enduring mystery of history's most notorious shipwreck: Why did Titanic sink as quickly as it did? To answer the question, Chatterton and Kohler assemble a team of experts to explore Titanic, study its engineering, and dive to the wreck of its sister ship, Brittanic, where Titanic's last secrets may be revealed. Titanic's Last Secrets is a rollercoaster ride through the shipbuilding history, the transatlantic luxury liner business, and shipwreck forensics. Chatterton and Kohler weave their way through a labyrinth of clues to discover that Titanic was not the strong, heroic ship the world thought she was and that the men who built her covered up her flaws when disaster struck. If Titanic had remained afloat for just two hours longer than she did, more than two thousand people would have lived instead of died, and the myth of the great ship would be one of rescue instead of tragedy. Titanic's Last Secrets is the never-before-told story of the Ship of Dreams, a contemporary adventure that solves a historical mystery.