Titanic

The divers have recovered artifacts from Titanic’s Brother System, the Britannic, for the first time since the Ocean Delineator sank into the Aegean Sea more than a century after hitting a mine during World War I.

The Ministry of Culture in Greece said on Monday that a deep water diving team of 11 members carried out a one -week operation in May to recover artifacts, including the bell of the ship and the navigation light on the side of the port. The Ministry released a video on social networks that show the divers exploring the remains and the recovered objects.

Britannic of the White star line, released in 1914, was designed as a luxury cruise, but was requested as a hospital ship during World War I. He headed towards the island of Lemnos when he hit a mine and sank on the island of Kea, about 45 miles southeast Athens, on November 21, 1916.

The ship, the largest hospital ship at that time, sank in less than an hour. Thirty of the more than 1,060 people on board died when the lifeboats in which they were attacked by the propellers that still turned.

The wreck is at a depth of almost 400 feet, so it is accessible only for technical divers. The diving team used closed circuit network equipment in a recovery operation organized by British historian Simon Mills, founder of the British Foundation, said the Ministry of Culture.

The conditions in the wreck were particularly difficult due to the currents and the low visibility, the ministry said. Among the elements high to the surface were artifacts that reflect both the utilitarian paper of the ship and its luxurious design: the observation bell, the navigation lamp, the silver first class trays, the ceramic tiles of a Turkish bath, a pair of passenger binoculars and a porcelain sink of the second -class cabins.

The Ministry launched multiple objects that were taken from the remains, including the bell and binoculars.

The artifacts are now in conservation in the Greek capital Athens and will be included in the permanent collection of a new museum of underwater antiques in development in the port of Piraeus. The museum will have a dedicated section of World War I, with Britannic articles as a centerpiece.

• Titanic
• Greece