BRITANNIC HOSPITAL SHIP PLANS, 1916

Britannic‘s appearance as a hospital ship was markedly different to how she would have been seen in commercial service. These wonderful images from Cyril Codus’ HMHS Britannic plans show a longitudinal elevation and aerial view, depicting how she appeared as a hospital ship and the paint scheme that she wore. Her lifeboat arrangements are also different to her builder’s original plans. Although some have argued that the large ‘girder’ type lifeboat davits – seen here abreast the first funnel, and fore and aft of the fourth funnel – detracted from her profile, she remained an impressive ship. The largest British ship built until the advent of the Queen Mary, she was also the largest ship in service at the time of her loss and thus had a tenuous claim to being the largest in the world.

Cyril Codus' plan reflects Britannic's hospital ship configuration. (Courtesy Cyril Codus.)

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Copies of this remarkable and detailed plan, printed to the scale of 1/350, can be purchased from Cyril Codus for 65 Euros, plus postage. He can be contacted at his website here.