Titanic’s sister ship sunk off Greece in 1916. See first items divers recovered
Off the southern coast of Greece sits the wreckage of one of the Titanic’s sister ships, the HMHS Britannic. Over a century after the luxury-ocean-liner-turned-World-War-I-hospital sank, scuba divers recently recovered the first artifacts from the ship.
A team of specialized scuba divers and marine archaeologists spent about a week in May working on the wreck of the HMHS Britannic off Kea Island as part of the site’s first artifact recovery project, the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports said in a Sept. 15 news release.
His Majesty’s Hospital Ship (HMHS) Britannic was a British vessel built in 1911 as “a sister ship of the Olympic and the Titanic” and intended to be “larger and more luxurious,” according to Britannica. It launched in 1914, almost two years after the Titanic sank, but “never operated as a commercial vessel.”
Instead, the HMHS Britannic was used as a hospital ship during WWI until November 1916, when it hit a German underwater mine near Kea Island, Greece, officials said. The ship sank in less than an hour, killing 30 of the 1,065 people on board.
The wreckage of the HMHS Britannic was rediscovered in the 1970s at a depth of about 390 feet, per Britannica. Items from the ship hadn’t been brought to the surface — until now.
The recovery project in May faced difficult conditions due to water currents, depth of the wreck and limited visibility, officials said. Some of the objects the team planned to recover had to be left behind.
Photos show the rusty century-old artifacts divers successfully recovered. A YouTube video shared by the ministry shows part of the process to salvage the ship’s observatory bell.
After being cleaned, the bell appeared to be in relatively good condition, a photo shows.
Another photo shows the red signal light from the port, or left, side of the HMHS Britannica, which looks lantern-like.
Other recovered artifacts included silver-plated trays from first class, a pair of binoculars, detached tiles from the ship’s Turkish bath and other items from second class, such as a foldable washbasin, officials said.
Scuba divers used air bags to raise the artifacts to the surface, the ministry said. Next, the items were placed in special boxes and then later transferred to a conservation laboratory for continued cleaning and analysis.
Kea Island is along the southern coast of Greece and about 40 miles southeast of Athens.
Google Translate was used to translate the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports.
This story was originally published September 15, 2025 at 12:58 PM with the headline "Titanic’s sister ship sunk off Greece in 1916. See first items divers recovered."
