Divers Recover First Artifacts From Titanic’s Sister Ship Britannic Off Greece

An 11-member team of professional deep-sea divers recently recovered artifacts from the wreck of the HMHS Britannic, the Titanic's sister ship, which sank off the Greek island of Kea in 1916 after striking a German mine during World War I. The wreck lies at a depth of about 120 meters, making the recovery operation challenging due to strong currents, low visibility, and the depth itself. Among the artifacts retrieved were the ship's lookout bell, a port-side navigation lamp, silver-plated trays from first class, ceramic tiles from a Turkish bath, binoculars, and other items from first- and second-class cabins. These artifacts are now undergoing conservation in Athens and will be displayed in a new National Museum of Underwater Antiquities in Piraeus, with a dedicated World War I section featuring the Britannic items. The recovery was organized by British historian Simon Mills, founder of the Britannic Foundation, and supervised by Greece's Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities. Some planned objects could not be retrieved due to their poor preservation and difficult locations on the wreck site.