拍品专文
The submarine U73 was one of ten type UE ocean-going minelaying submersibles, the so-called "U71" class, laid down for the German Navy in 1915. Boasting a single hull divided into nine watertight compartments, the UE's displaced 832 tons submerged and measured 186½ feet in length with a 19½ foot beam. Most, including U73, were powered by two Körting 6-cylinder 2-stroke diesel engines in combination with motor-dynamos and mass-call batteries, and had top speeds of about 10 knots on the surface or 8 knots submerged. Armed with a single 50cm. torpedo tube at bow and stern, and twin 100cm. mine-launching tubes at the stern, the boats each carried 38UE mines and had operating crews of 32 men. U73 herself was built at the Danzig Navy Yard, launched on 16th June 1915 and commissioned on 9th October the same year. All of her service was spent in the Mediterranean attached to the Austro-Hungarian flotilla and, having survuved hostilities, she was scuttled at Pola (on the Adriatic) on 30th October 1918 after the Austrian surrender.
Although the exact cause of the explosion with sank the 'Britannic' remains unproven, all the available evidence indicated that the liner hit one of the string of mines laid by U73 barely one hour before the tradgedy occurred. This was confirmed by the submarine's commander after the War, who was also held responsible for the mining of the hospital ship 'Braemar Castle' in the same two days after 'Britannic' was lost.
His Majesty's Hospital Ship 'Britannic' began her short but not uneventful life as the last of the great four-funnelled passenger liners launched before the outbreak of the First World War. Along with her sister ships 'Olympic' and 'Titanic', 'Britannic' was built for the White Star Line -- in American ownership since 1901 -- as their response to Cunard's domination of the lucrative North Atlantic passenger trade. All White Star ships had been built in the Belfast yards of Harland and Wolff and 'Britannic' was no exception. She was launched there on 26th February 1914 and although work to fit her out continued apace, she was far from complete when war was declared on 4th August. Slightly larger than her two consorts, 'Britannic' was 903 feet in length and registered 48,158 gross tons. Her powerful triple expansion engines and low pressure turbines produced the 50,000 h.p. needed to steam her at 22 knots yet she was destined never to carry any of the 790 First, 836 Second and 935 Third Class passengers for which she had sumptuous accommodation. As soon as the was broke out and passenger revenues started to decline, 'Britannic's' future began to look increasingly uncertain although work to finish her continued, albeit rather sporadically, until halted by the dramatic sinking of the Cunard liner 'Lusitania' of 7th May 1915.
This disaster came as a severe shock to the entire Mercantile Marine, with government and ship-owners alike appauled at the ease with which this huge ship had been sunk by the puny torpedoes of a German U-boat. Apart from the obvious political consequences, the more immediate result was the laying up of the remaining four-stackers still operational, including 'Mauretania' and 'Olympic'. In view of their enormous passenger capacity, it was decided that henceforward both should be put to work as hospital ships and, such was their success that, late in 1915, the Admiralty commandeered the almost finished 'Britannic' and ordered her completion as a hospital ship. Her final trials began of 8th December and on the 12th she was formally handed over to the Admiralty being comissioned H.M.H.S. 'Britannic' the same day. Her combination of speed and eminently suitable facilities for large numbers of wounded men soon proved her worth and she rapidly settled into a regular service to the port of Mudros on the Agean island of Lemnos. It was there that a large recieving station had been established for casulties not only from Galipoli, where the campaign to knock Turkey out of the war was going disasterously wrong, but also from other theatres of war in the Balkans and the Middle East.
In November 1916 'Britannic' was making her sixth round trip to Mudros when, having coaled at Naples as usual, she put back to sea in the teeth of a voilent gale. Picking up speed as the weather improved, the morning of the 21st November found her in the Kea Channel (off southern mainland Greece) where, less than an hour before, the German submarine U73 had laid a minefield. At 8.12am. 'Britannic' was rocked by a violent explosion on her starboard side near the bulkhead between compartments 2 and 3. For subsequently unexplained reasons, the watertight door system in that part of the ship failed to operate and water flooded into the two forward boiler rooms. Realising his ship could not survived this injury, 'Britannic's' master Captain Barlett, altered course to run aground and sent out an S.O.S. He then issued orders to clear away the lifeboats and both crew and medical personnel -- 1,134 persons in total -- left the vessel in an orderly, almost routine evacuation. She was still underway however and, barley one hour after the initial explosion, 'Britannic' heeled over to starboard before rolling rolling onto her beam ends. Her still smoling funels collapsed, the sea poured intop her casings, her boilers exploded and, like her sister 'Titanic' before her, 'Britannic's' stern rose into the air before she slid gracefully beneath the waves. The survivors were picked up by the cruiser H.M.S. 'Heroic', the destoyers 'Foxhound' and 'Scourge', and a French tug, all of whom had responed to 'Britannic's' distress calls, and, miraculously, the death toll was a mere twenty-nine.
Had the 'Britannic' been packed with thousands of casulties, the loss of life would have been catastrophic but as it was, her sinking still provoked international outrage. Germany responed blandly and, after the Armistice, the White Star Line eventually recieved the prestigious Hapag-America steamer 'Bismarck' to replace their lost flagship. With 'Titanic' and 'Britannic' gone howvever, White Star's hopes of North Atlantic supremacy began to fade and, despite 'Olympic's' best efforts, the company never really recovered from these two crippling losses.
Although the exact cause of the explosion with sank the 'Britannic' remains unproven, all the available evidence indicated that the liner hit one of the string of mines laid by U73 barely one hour before the tradgedy occurred. This was confirmed by the submarine's commander after the War, who was also held responsible for the mining of the hospital ship 'Braemar Castle' in the same two days after 'Britannic' was lost.
His Majesty's Hospital Ship 'Britannic' began her short but not uneventful life as the last of the great four-funnelled passenger liners launched before the outbreak of the First World War. Along with her sister ships 'Olympic' and 'Titanic', 'Britannic' was built for the White Star Line -- in American ownership since 1901 -- as their response to Cunard's domination of the lucrative North Atlantic passenger trade. All White Star ships had been built in the Belfast yards of Harland and Wolff and 'Britannic' was no exception. She was launched there on 26th February 1914 and although work to fit her out continued apace, she was far from complete when war was declared on 4th August. Slightly larger than her two consorts, 'Britannic' was 903 feet in length and registered 48,158 gross tons. Her powerful triple expansion engines and low pressure turbines produced the 50,000 h.p. needed to steam her at 22 knots yet she was destined never to carry any of the 790 First, 836 Second and 935 Third Class passengers for which she had sumptuous accommodation. As soon as the was broke out and passenger revenues started to decline, 'Britannic's' future began to look increasingly uncertain although work to finish her continued, albeit rather sporadically, until halted by the dramatic sinking of the Cunard liner 'Lusitania' of 7th May 1915.
This disaster came as a severe shock to the entire Mercantile Marine, with government and ship-owners alike appauled at the ease with which this huge ship had been sunk by the puny torpedoes of a German U-boat. Apart from the obvious political consequences, the more immediate result was the laying up of the remaining four-stackers still operational, including 'Mauretania' and 'Olympic'. In view of their enormous passenger capacity, it was decided that henceforward both should be put to work as hospital ships and, such was their success that, late in 1915, the Admiralty commandeered the almost finished 'Britannic' and ordered her completion as a hospital ship. Her final trials began of 8th December and on the 12th she was formally handed over to the Admiralty being comissioned H.M.H.S. 'Britannic' the same day. Her combination of speed and eminently suitable facilities for large numbers of wounded men soon proved her worth and she rapidly settled into a regular service to the port of Mudros on the Agean island of Lemnos. It was there that a large recieving station had been established for casulties not only from Galipoli, where the campaign to knock Turkey out of the war was going disasterously wrong, but also from other theatres of war in the Balkans and the Middle East.
In November 1916 'Britannic' was making her sixth round trip to Mudros when, having coaled at Naples as usual, she put back to sea in the teeth of a voilent gale. Picking up speed as the weather improved, the morning of the 21st November found her in the Kea Channel (off southern mainland Greece) where, less than an hour before, the German submarine U73 had laid a minefield. At 8.12am. 'Britannic' was rocked by a violent explosion on her starboard side near the bulkhead between compartments 2 and 3. For subsequently unexplained reasons, the watertight door system in that part of the ship failed to operate and water flooded into the two forward boiler rooms. Realising his ship could not survived this injury, 'Britannic's' master Captain Barlett, altered course to run aground and sent out an S.O.S. He then issued orders to clear away the lifeboats and both crew and medical personnel -- 1,134 persons in total -- left the vessel in an orderly, almost routine evacuation. She was still underway however and, barley one hour after the initial explosion, 'Britannic' heeled over to starboard before rolling rolling onto her beam ends. Her still smoling funels collapsed, the sea poured intop her casings, her boilers exploded and, like her sister 'Titanic' before her, 'Britannic's' stern rose into the air before she slid gracefully beneath the waves. The survivors were picked up by the cruiser H.M.S. 'Heroic', the destoyers 'Foxhound' and 'Scourge', and a French tug, all of whom had responed to 'Britannic's' distress calls, and, miraculously, the death toll was a mere twenty-nine.
Had the 'Britannic' been packed with thousands of casulties, the loss of life would have been catastrophic but as it was, her sinking still provoked international outrage. Germany responed blandly and, after the Armistice, the White Star Line eventually recieved the prestigious Hapag-America steamer 'Bismarck' to replace their lost flagship. With 'Titanic' and 'Britannic' gone howvever, White Star's hopes of North Atlantic supremacy began to fade and, despite 'Olympic's' best efforts, the company never really recovered from these two crippling losses.