All language subtitles for BBC.Titanics.Tragic.Twin.The.Britannic.Disaster.720p.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org.eng

The sinking of the Titanic in April
1912 was a tragedy unlike any other.

Surely it could never happen again?

But it did.

Because, incredibly, Titanic
had a near identical sister,

who suffered an almost identical
fate.

And here, deep in the warm waters
of the Mediterranean,

within only a few years of her older
sibling,

she met her end.

Her name was Britannic.

She was Britain's biggest ship.

After the Titanic disaster,
Britannic was re-engineered to be

even more unsinkable. And yet,

on the 21st November, 1916,

she sank in just 55 minutes -

three times faster than Titanic.

I'll be speaking to the descendants
of survivors who we've tracked down

for the very first time.

Using rarely seen and unpublished
diaries and letters of captain

and crew, we'll recreate what it
was like for Britannic's survivors

to have one hour to fight
for their lives.

And we'll discover how Britannic's
victims died horribly,

and avoidably.

Tonight we'll be piecing together
what happened in that 55 minutes.

On the anniversary of her sinking,

we're recreating the first

minute-by-minute account
of the events

that led to the tragic end of
Titanic's lost sister, Britannic -

Britain's mightiest ship
of World War I.

This is the dry dock in Belfast
where both Titanic and Britannic

were built. And it is truly vast.

In 1910, it was the biggest dry dock
in the world,

established to allow the building of
two of the biggest ships that anyone

had ever seen. Just to give you
a scale of them,

Titanic or Britannic alone would
have filled this entire space.

Our guide to Britannic's story
is Simon Mills,

owner of the Britannic wreck.

Simon is going to help me find
eyewitness accounts to the disaster.

Now the Britannic story isn't nearly
as well-known

as the Titanic's story,

and I'm trying to, kind of, unpick
it and discover what happened.

Titanic sank, very high publicity,
I mean,

they interviewed as many survivors
as possible,

newspaper coverage all over
the place.

Britannic sank in the First World
War.

OK. Are there any key characters,
any relatives,

anyone I can talk to who can give me
a, kind of,

picture of the people that were on
this ship?

I can give you some starting points.

For instance, we have here Captain
Charles Alfred Bartlett.

He was in command of the Britannic
on the day she sank.

Archie Jewell, who was also on the
Titanic... Oh, really?

..actually one of Titanic's
lookouts, believe it or not.

Violet Jessop, very experienced
White Star Line stewardess.

Oh, she's beautiful, isn't she?
She is indeed, yeah.

Anyone else that would be able to
shed any more light on what it might

have been like that day?

Sheila Macbeth, nurse... Right.
..kept a very detailed diary.

One of the big challenges,
and you know this as a historian,

is to hear the voices of people
who weren't educated.

The people who were, I don't know,
right in the bowels,

at the coal face doing the work,

but not necessarily ever recorded.

There's a story of an Antrim seaman

we believe, who was actually on
the Britannic.

He told a very, very dramatic story
down in the engine room.

He was from Ulster?
He was an Ulsterman.

Can you also give me a sense of...

Of what the ship was doing?

Was this a, sort of, to all intents
and purposes, an ordinary day?

Pretty routine, yeah. I mean,

Britannic was a very, very safe
posting.

She was a hospital ship. She was,
in theory, inviolable,

could not be attacked. It was
beautiful, calm, clear weather.

There was nothing unusual about
what was going on.

They'd all been sitting down
to breakfast,

and suddenly the world collapsed.

So all is smooth sailing aboard His
Majesty's Hospital Ship, Britannic.

Everyone, and everything,
is in order.

The day before, we'd worked like
factory hands,

tying up all the kits
ready for the next day,

so that we might rest the day before
the patients came on board.

What a day of rest that was.

The first person I need to meet
is Margaret Meehan,

niece of Violet Jessop,
the adventurous stewardess who,

amazingly, survives both Titanic
AND Britannic.

What's important for me,

is that Violet writes the most
complete account

of the Britannic's sinking.

Do you remember your, sort of,

first time meeting her
and what she was like?

She was great fun.

I think she was just highly
practical

as well as everything else.

And she never complained about the
things she brings up in her memoirs.

And certainly of the terrible
experiences she'd had,

she didn't talk about.

It wasn't till later that I realised
what she'd been through.

I've got this thing here.

Is this the original? Oh, well,
this is 1930 typing, you know.

I can read a little bit out
if you like.

I'd love you to.

"It was the feast of Our ,
November 21st, 1916.

"The early sun was shining through
the windows of the lounge,

"they were there for Mass..."

Everybody scrambled down to
breakfast talking and joking.

For breakfast was quite the nicest,
friendliest time on board.

The ship was steaming 20 knots,
weather fine, and the sea is smooth.

Bound to Moudros to embark sick
and wounded.

But this is just the calm before the
storm. At 8:12am, disaster strikes.

The Britannic and her crew now have
just 55 minutes left.

There was a dull, deafening roar.

Britannic gave a shiver.

A long drawn-out shudder
from stem to stern,

shaking the crockery on the tables,
breaking things.

Until it slowly subsided...

We all knew that she had been
struck.

I'd only managed two spoonfuls
of porridge before...

Bang! And a shiver...

..right down the length of the ship.

There was a horrible jar, and a...

..grinding noise. But...

down below we hardly realised
what had happened.

At 8:12am, a tremendous but muffled
explosion occurred.

The ship trembling and vibrating
most violently fore and aft.

Britannic has taken a hit on her
lowest deck,

ahead of her boiler rooms.

But surprisingly, no-one on board
is particularly worried.

That's because when Britannic's more
famous sister Titanic sank,

Britannic was still being built
in Belfast.

Ship builders Harland and Wolff
need to avoid another disaster.

They give Britannic a second hull,
watertight engine rooms,

and plenty of lifeboats.

Britannic really is the world's most
unsinkable ship.

As World War I broke out,

the British government decided that
sturdy, safe Britannic

would make a terrific hospital ship.

Sailing peacefully from Southampton
via Naples to Greece, Britannic is

in fact on her fifth mission.

She'd already brought over 12,000

wounded British soldiers
safely home.

Now, in the wake of the Gallipoli
disaster,

she's off to collect
another boatload.

This is Kea island,

it lies 60 miles south-east of
Athens on the beautiful Aegean Sea.

And 100 years ago, His Majesty's
Hospital Ship, the Britannic,

sailed past here on its way to
the port of Moudros to pick up

thousands of injured Allied troops
who'd been fighting the Turks.

But little did the 1,065 sailors,
doctors and nurses on board realise

that this would be the Britannic's
last journey.

During my 25 years of diving,

I've always dreamed of reaching
Britannic.

Now, on the centenary
of her sinking,

I've been lucky enough to join
highly experienced British
and American divers

on a rare expedition to the wreck
of Britannic.

It's 100%. 100%.
Here it is, it's in order.

Team leader Richie Kohler has dived

both Britannic and her sister,
Titanic.

What do you think the risks are
on a dive like this?

It's an incredibly hostile
environment at 400 feet.

We're using multiple different
gas mixtures,

some would not support life here
on the surface,

and yet they are life-supporting
at 400 feet.

If you make a mistake,
it can cost you your life.

As a diver who's dived shipwrecks
all round the world,

why is Britannic so special?

Like many other people, the story
of Titanic is what drew me
to Britannic.

And not to be glib, I fell in love
with the younger sister.

She's even more beautiful.

When you look at Titanic, it's dark,

it's gloomy, it's broken apart,
it's in pieces.

When you look at Britannic,
she's in beautiful clear water,

surrounded by life.

As Britannic is hit by the
explosion,

Able Seaman Archie Jewell
is working on deck

right over the point of impact.

Archie also survived Titanic.

I'm meeting his great, great-niece,
Tamsin Jewell.

So he was on the Titanic first?

He was, yes.
He was on the Titanic as a lookout.

So was HE responsible for the
Titanic hitting the iceberg?

He was a lookout,
yes, but not THE lookout.

He was actually in bed

and it was the sound of the impact
that woke him.

Right. When you look at the photo
of him here, he looks very formal,

he looks very...
I don't know, composed.

But presumably he must have been
hugely upset,

hugely traumatised by the
experiences that he went through?

There was plenty of times he
describes openly weeping when he's

reminiscing about the things
that he saw.

And I would imagine, even though he
had a relatively short-lived life,

it was something that stayed
with him the whole time.

So do we know his role in the story
of Britannic?

We do. Archie wrote a very detailed
letter about what happened

on the morning, where it happened
on the ship,

and in the days and weeks
that followed on his journey.

He's quite descriptive
in this letter.

There's one part that always,
sort of, stands out.

That's a part where he says,
"But thank God I am not dead...

'For that is the nearest to death
that I have ever been.'

'I was working right close to where
she was struck.

I saw the water coming in.
The smell of powder.

Before I knew where I was, this man
came rushing out of a cabin door,

right where she was struck,
and ran into me -

struck me with his head
just above my eyes, so...

I was blood, all over.

I ran up to the boat deck.

And then someone tied up my eye...

..so I was like old Nelson.

Only one eye.

Archie was incredibly lucky.

The first piece of evidence I want
to see is the site of the explosion

that set Britannic on the path
to disaster.

But I'm going to need some hi-tech
help to reach the wreck.

Our base at sea will be
the extraordinary Russian ship,

the U-boat Navigator.

It's been designed specifically to
support underwater exploration.

Nearly three miles offshore,
we spot the wreck on sonar.

The two multi-million pound
mini subs will guide us

and light our way to the wreck,

while remote-controlled underwater
cameras will track our every move

with all the safety backup
of a space mission.

There is no clear single reason
why Britannic was lost,

just a series of clues which I want
to see for myself.

So I've plotted an exploration path
that will take me from the bow where

the explosion hit, up to
the captain's bridge,

deep down to the boiler room
corridor,

and finally to the mighty propellers
at the back.

Each of these points on the ship

will help me understand what led to
Britannic's end.

Ready? Let's go.

OK, lads.

Everything changes as we leave
the world of air

and enter the ocean.

Deep-sea diving is the closest thing
on earth to exploring outer space.

This line will guide us
to Britannic.

The subs, and the robot cameras,

will light our way in the darkness
when we're 400 feet down.

And then, out of the blue,
she appears.

Britannic.

I'm overwhelmed. Seeing Britannic is
like seeing her sister, Titanic,

as we imagine her to be -

majestic, intact,

and so peaceful on the seabed.

I'm meeting Jonathan Mitchell,
grandson of nurse Sheila Macbeth.

Sheila's testimony will tell me how
the crew reacted to the explosion.

Did you ever get a sense of the sort
of woman that Sheila was

before you were born? She was a
strong-minded, strong-willed woman,

like many of her family.

And she'd also, of course,

been driven in a way that everybody
was in those days by patriotism

and a feeling that you ought
to do your bit. Right.

What sort of age is she at this
point?

26.

Did you ever get a sense of how

Sheila felt or reacted
when the explosion happened?

Yes, my father decided to
record her memoirs.

Many, many hours' worth.

She talks about exactly this.

ARCHIVE: 'We were at breakfast.

'And we were sitting in the huge
dining room,

'there was this sudden bang
as the ship shook.'

Major Priestley told us to sit down
again, as the siren had not sounded.

It was quite the best thing to do

as the doors were few and narrow,

and there might have easily
been a panic.

As it was, there was only a most
unnatural silence.

The engines were going full speed at
the time, but they were stopped,

and everyone was ordered
to stand by.

We're about to see what Sheila
and the unnamed sailor could not -

we've come to the exact point of the
explosion that crippled Britannic.

100 feet back from the bow of the
ship, is the immense crevasse

in the hull where Britannic
was torn apart.

This massive canyon was caused first
by the explosion holing her,

and later, when she sank,

she was split apart by the ship
hitting the seabed.

But what caused the explosion?

The British press claimed the
Germans have torpedoed a defenceless
British hospital ship

against all rules of war.

But is this view credible?

At that particular stage of the war,
the Germans were not targeting

hospital ships,
and so it was unlikely.

But, you know, presumably, mistakes
are made, or presumably,

not everybody follows the rules.
I mean, this is a war, after all.

Yeah. The German commanders at this
stage were under increasing pressure

not to antagonise America.

So the potential consequences

for a commander who made a mistake
could be quite heavy.

Given that was the case,
given that was the rule,

why were torpedoes ever really
in the mix as a possibility?

Whenever ships were sunk in the war

there was always someone who saw
a periscope or a torpedo.

On Britannic, for instance, we had
two definite sightings of torpedoes.

The problem is that one person
saw the torpedo at the front of the
ship on the starboard side,

and the other saw it on the back
of the ship on the port side.

So it was one of these situations
whereby people see things,

but they're not really quite sure
what they've seen. Right.

So, if indeed it was a mine,

do we know that that area of the sea
had been mined?

We do, as it happens.
There's this gentleman here.

Kapitan Gustav Siess.

He was the commander of the German
submarine U73.

She was a mine-laying submarine.

Three weeks before Britannic hit
the mine, he laid mines

in the exact same waters
where she went down.

So you're saying it was a mine,
not a torpedo?

Absolutely. Categorically?
Categorically.

Bottom line, wrong place,
wrong time.

'My first impression was
that we'd struck a mine'

and would probably be safe.

Captain Charles Bartlett is
responsible for the safety

of the 1,065 souls on board.

He has 33 years' experience at sea,

so Britannic's crew should be safe.

His grandnephew, Richard Ellis,

might be able to help me judge the
captain's character and competence

thanks to stories passed down
from his father.

Did your father give you any idea
of what sort of man he was?

Well, he was quite a large man.

17 stone. Wow!

So he's a big man. He was renowned
for his caution.

He was a cautious captain.

But also, you know,
a man in command.

If you were in his presence,
you knew that he was in command.

He was in control. So what was his
route up to becoming captain of the

Britannic? He joined the White Star
Line and worked his way up the ranks

very quickly. He captained some of
their largest ships.

He then came onshore, he was marine
superintendent, and in fact,

he oversaw the final fitting out
and the crewing of the Titanic.

Oh, really? So he knew these
big ships enormously well.

So given his experience, you know,
the fact that he actually oversaw

the, kind of, final fitting
and crewing of the Titanic,

surely it would have made sense
if he'd been the captain?

I think if the timing was just very
slightly different,

then a few months later,

he almost certainly would have been
captain of the Titanic.

And, you know, with his cautious
approach, you know,

the Titanic disaster would never
have happened.

That's what the wags would tell you.

And when the Britannic was struck,

do you know, does history recall,

how Captain Bartlett reacted?

What he did? He was off duty,
but he raced up to the bridge,

he did what was needed to be done.

SOS. Have struck mine off
Port Nicholas, Kea island.

This is the bridge where Captain
Bartlett stood that day.

Incredibly, the tiles are still on
the floor

from where the ship was steered.

Though it's becoming a man-made
reef, if you look carefully,

you can see the steering gear
underneath.

And if you rub a little,

you can still find the glass of the
telegraph that Captain Bartlett used

to send orders to the engine room.

But time has taken its toll.

It's only thanks to the wood and
walls rotting away that the most

astonishingly intimate relic
has been revealed.

Captain Bartlett's bath tub.

He was the last man to sit in it,
and the plug is still in.

One story goes that he'd been
in his tub

when the explosion sent him running,

in his pyjamas, to the bridge.

Emergency quarters were sounded
on all alarms throughout the ship.

The engine stopped, and orders rung
below to close watertight doors.

I gave orders to clear away
all boats and have all possible
ready to be sent away.

As one man, the whole of the saloon
rose from their seats.

Doctors and nurses vanished
to their posts,

men jumped over presses
with the agility of deer.

In seconds, not a soul was
to be seen.

And not a sound had been uttered.

Britannic's crew mirrors society -

most men below deck are considered
the lower orders.

As medical staff like Violet
head to the lifeboats,

in the decks below,

men in the boiler rooms are fighting
incoming water.

Many of these men will die,

so the testimony of those
who survive is vital evidence.

When this explosion hit,

there must have been people in
those boiler rooms.

The boiler rooms would have been
full, absolutely.

There would have been a couple of
hundred people down there working.

One gentleman in particular,

is a guy here by the name
of Bert Smith.

Now, he was working in the forward
boiler room, number six,

when the explosion occurred.

The medical staff, captain are
away from it,

Bert was experiencing it first hand.
Look at this. This is amazing.

So he was right there.

He was right there. "Bert Smith
groped his way into the exit tunnel,

"his one route to possible safety.

"There he was met by the full weight
of in rushing water which pinned him

"against the boiler."

So the explosion had happened

and that water was then being,

effectively, funnelled down
that exit.

Absolutely. That corridor.

Like a tidal wave. All coming
in one direction.

Right up against Bert.

"Grabbing a handrail,
he was swept almost upside down

"in the salty torrent, then somehow

"he managed to scramble up a 90-foot
staircase to the boat deck."

That's an amazing story.
He was a very lucky man.

Well, sort of.

So Bert and these people down below

knew exactly what was happening

and would have had a very,
very good sense of the very real
danger this ship was in,

whereas the nurses and Captain
Bartlett, way up in the posh bits,

wouldn't have known at all.

But it's only the upstairs staff
like Violet who can tell me how well

the captain is managing.

And let's not forget,

Violet's already been through
this on Titanic.

This time though, she wants to be
a bit better prepared.

I sorted out things to take.

The things I treasured the most.

There was my prayer book...

..and my toothbrush.

Ned's ring, and my clock, of course.

Incredibly, that clock has outlasted
both Violet AND Britannic.

Is this the clock? Yeah.

What an extraordinary keepsake.

I can't believe she had the presence
of mind,

when the ship is going down,

to go down to her cabin
and fill her pockets.

But it sounds like that's quite
typical of her character,
would you say so? Yes.

I think it is. Also, her brothers
had told her,

"don't forget your toothbrush!"

I stuffed all sorts of things
into my pockets.

Even a roll from the breakfast
table.

Up on the bridge, Captain Bartlett

has no idea how much water
has come in.

Britannic's watertight boiler rooms
SHOULD prevent her taking on water.

But she's sinking - and fast.

Three miles from Kea island,

he decides he must beach the ship.

Steering gear appeared
to have failed.

So I turned the ship to port
to head for land by the engines.

But as Britannic pushes towards
shore, she continues to sink.

The forward holds filled up rapidly

and water was reported in numbers
five and six boiler rooms.

But why? Bartlett has ordered

the watertight doors to the boiler
room shut,

no more sea water should get in.

But stoker Bert Mills has told us

that water IS flooding through
the boiler room corridors -

could the explanation lie right here

inside the corridor
to the boiler rooms?

But I can't go in.

It's so frustrating.

Britannic's interior is so
dangerous,

the Greek government has now banned
anyone from going inside.

But two of our dive team DID get
inside her before the ban.

Evan Kovacs took the dangerous path
through the boiler room corridor

also known as the fireman's tunnel
to try and confirm if the watertight

safety doors were fully closed.

Evan, what did you see that very
first time you went into the wreck?

We travelled down the fireman's
tunnel and eventually we got to the

watertight door. That was open.

Through the next set of boilers
and then that opens up,

and that's where we saw the other
watertight door, open.

Fully open,
not even partially closed.

What this means is that as Captain
Bartlett is steaming full speed,

trying to get to Kea

to save his ship,

in effect he is actually ramming

more of the water,

forcing more water into these boiler

rooms and flooding the ship
even quicker.

So why do you think the
watertight doors didn't close?

Now, it's been a mystery
for nearly 100 years.

We know that Captain Bartlett threw
the switches to electrically

close the door, maybe the wires
were broken.

Engineers believe that the explosion

twisted the ship,
and that prevented,

or wedged the doors, and wouldn't
allow them to close.

So maybe it was a technical error.

But Ritchie suspects the all too
human behaviour

of the boiler room workers.

These men were not trained sailors.

They were referred to as the black
gang,

and you would have stokers
and firemen,

trimmers and people that just had
to work

in an incredibly unforgiving
environment.

I mean, can you imagine it, being
at the very bottom of the ship

with the lights flickering

and a gush of water coming in
through that fireman's tunnel?

And you have seconds
to make decisions.

Am I going to sit here and try
to monkey around with this door?

Or am I going to run for my life?

Some people wouldn't blame them
for running.

But even if they did,

it doesn't make the sinking
of Britannic their fault.

She was so well engineered,

she should stay afloat a lot longer
than 55 minutes,

even with this many compartments
flooded.

Nurse Sheila Macbeth's family point
the finger far higher up the social

ladder towards one of the ship's
doctors.

Somebody had opened
all the portholes.

On both sides of the ship,
so as to ventilate the wards,

in which there were, in fact,
no patients requiring ventilation.

Now, who this doctor was who had
given these orders,

nobody by now will ever know.

Nobody has ever come forward
and said, "It was me."

But we have it.

It happened. And it shouldn't.

The ship should have been
unsinkable.

It should have beached on the island
of Kea

with no casualties whatsoever.

We didn't get any inrush of water
where we were.

That seemed to be in the forward
part of the ship.

As the list grew worse...

..we knew what was happening.

The unknown sailor knew one thing
for sure.

Despite the claims that this ship,
like her sister could never sink,

a terrible domino effect was now in
play that would pull Britannic down.

No-one on board imagined she'd go
down as quickly as she did.

With the doors open, water rushed
down the fireman's passage

and flooded boiler room six.

From there, it spread through
another set of open doors

into boiler room five and now

the whole fore part of the ship
is flooded.

And as the ship sank, it was listing
to starboard,

and with water rushing through
the portholes on E deck,

the ship's fate was sealed.

But why will Britannic suffer
such terrible loss of life?

Unlike her sister, Titanic,
there are plenty of lifeboats.

And by 8:36am,

most of the crew were up on deck
ready to board them.

We were kept hanging over the side
of the boat for a long while,

as the vice captain, who was looking
after the lowering of the boats,

had to dash off in the middle to
call back some 14 or 15 firemen

who'd gone off from the poop deck

in a boat that should have held
about 84 persons.

No lifeboat should be released
without the captain's orders.

But Sheila sees some of the boiler
room gang jump into a boat

and set off early.

They were desperate to get away,
but, of course,

they were the masters of their own
fate because the "abandon ship"
command had not been given.

Frankly, you would have expected
officers to have stopped it,

but clearly they were unable
to prevent these men, sort of,

grabbing the boats, if you like,
and going.

Meanwhile, Captain Bartlett is
trying to save Britannic

by driving her hard towards
Kea island.

He has no idea several dozen of the
crew

have already launched their
lifeboats.

He would never have expected anyone
to be in the water,

because HE had not given
the "abandon ship" command.

And he is the only person,
as captain, who could do that.

So he had the right to expect that
nobody would be in the water.

They should not have been there.

There's a couple of things
that I want clarified.

The first is that I thought
lifeboats

could only be released from a ship

on the orders of a captain.

Yes, that's right. So how on earth
could Captain Bartlett be unaware

that there were lifeboats
in the water?

The initial order, after the
explosion was to uncover the boats,

to fill them, and to lower them
over the side.

No order was given to release
the boats.

So how did they end up being
released without his authority?

It could have been part of the
chaos, confusion that was going on.

We do know that a couple of boats
went away off the stern without

permission and had to be called
back. It depended where

your officers were. A degree of
control was lost in places.

People were in a panic.

Maybe in a panic, yeah. And what
state was the ship in at this time?

At this stage, very serious.

She's increasingly listing to
starboard on the right-hand side.

As she moves forward, she's flooding

so fast in the bow that the stern
is now beginning to rise up.

As a result, the poor propeller
is now working above the surface.

As the propeller rises, it pulls
towards it the lifeboats
already in the water.

I'm now approaching that very
propeller.

23 feet of enormous spinning power.

Meanwhile, Violet is hanging above,

in a lifeboat suspended
off the side of the ship.

She can see the propellers turning.

Just at that moment, a lifeboat
caught my eye.

It had been lowered safely to the
water but then drifted with sudden

impetus, resisting the efforts
of skilled oarsmen -

right into those cruel,
swirling...blades.

It was cutting the poor fellows
to pieces.

There was legs, arms and bodies
flying everywhere.

What made it so bad,

the blades, they were half
out of the water.

So they were coming down right
on the boat.

Eyes were looking with horror
at the debris.

And the red streaks
all over the water.

Up on the bridge, Captain Bartlett
is unaware of the tragedy unfolding

at the back of the ship. He has not
yet given the official order

to release the lifeboats.
Violet, Archie,

and many of the crew are about to
find themselves fighting
for their lives.

The ship started listing to
starboard

as our lifeboat began to lower.

A young sea scout near me took
a deep breath as he got in,

he was only a kid.

So tell me a little bit about
this sea scout.

Well, that little sea scout
was George Perman.

He was 15 at the time.

He was one of the lift operators
on board,

and he was very fortunate to
be on duty,

because his quarters were actually
destroyed in the explosion.

So he ran to the lifeboats
and got in,

and I managed to speak with
him in the late '90s.

This is what he said.

ARCHIVE: I made my way to the top
deck,

and on my way to my lifeboat,

I was given this lifebelt.

And lowered into the water.

His first shock came as our
lifeboat,

hooking itself onto an open
porthole, tilted us,

then righting itself again,

started gliding rapidly down...

..making a terrible impact
upon the water.

After we touched the water,

I turned around to see how my small
friend had taken the impact...

..only to find him halfway
up the ship's sides...

..still attached to the rope.

Violet was beckoning him to come
into the sea before it was too late,

so he lowered himself down into
the water,

nothing worse really than bad burns
on his hands,

but George was very psychologically
scarred for the rest of his life.

He saw the red blood being flecked
against the side of the white ship,

and they always thought, George's
family, although they were

quite tall people, George never
really grew very much and they

believed that his growth had been
stunted by the shock of what he saw.

So George is in this red,

blood-filled water, I mean,

it's unimaginable what that must
have been like.

Violet, she's still in the lifeboat,
is she?

She's still in the lifeboat. She's
surrounded by this scene of complete

carnage. Blood everywhere,
hacked bodies in the water.

It must have been very traumatic
for her.

In Violet's lifeboat,
it's every man for himself.

Deciding they have more chance
trying to swim for it, one by one,

her companions dive into the water.

Fumbling hands, struggling,
unsuccessfully to get control.

Every man jack in the group
of surrounding boats

took a flying leap into the sea -

taking to the water
like a vast army of rats.

It was extraordinary to find myself,
within a few minutes,

almost the only occupant
of the boat.

One man, a doctor,

was standing
in the silence beside me.

I turned around

and saw Britannic's huge blades
churning

and mincing everything near them -

men, boats - everything was just
one ghastly whirl.

In another moment, I would be under
those blades.

Unless...

I have always been afraid
of the water.

I'd not learned to swim.

Then I just jumped overboard down
and down into bottomless depths,

clutching at my lifebelt.

"Why had I put it on over my coat?"

was one thought, as I felt
its weight dragging me down deeper.

I kept my eyes tightly closed.

And held my breath.

The only hope for Archie's boat
is to stay tethered to Britannic.

I shouted out not to let go
of the boat.

But someone let her go. And away we
went, right towards the blades.

So I shouted, "jump overboard,"
and most of us jumped in the water,

but...it was no good.

It was pulled right in
under the blades.

Violet is now trapped beneath
the shattered lifeboat,

surrounded by dismembered body
parts.

I myself felt rising,

and my head came into violent
contact with something solid.

Something that prevented me
from reaching the surface.

CRASHING BOOM

There was another terrific crash
above me.

And something struck the back
of my head.

My brain shook.

Panic seized me,

and I groped blindly in that water.

There was a thundering
centre of noise.

Suddenly, I touched something...

..an arm,

that moved as mine moved.

My fingers gripped it like a vice.

Until my almost senseless head
remembered that it is said

that people drowning
retain their hold after death...

..bringing death to another.

I let go.

As Violet disappears under water,

Archie is pulled under
the propeller.

Archie could hear the blades
swirling above him,

and he goes on to write,

"The last thing I heard was
the blades hit the boat,

"and I closed my eyes and said
goodbye to this world."

But I was struck by a big piece
of the boat, and I went under
the blades,

and I was going around like a top.

And...when I came up again,

I came up under some wreckage.

And I couldn't get clear.

And everything was going black to me
when someone on top who was

struggling pushed the wreckage away,

and I came up just in time.

I was almost done for.

There was water coming out
of my nose.

And my mouth.

There was this poor fellow drowning.

He caught hold of me...

But I had to shrug him off.

So the poor fellow went under.

I was sinking.

My lifebelt was not sufficient
to support me.

I saw another floating by.

So I grabbed at it.

At last I had something
to hold on to.

And just in time,

Violet bursts upwards.

The first thing my eyes beheld
was a head near me.

A head split open like a sheep's
head served by the butcher.

All around were limbs,

wrenched out as if some giant
had torn them in his rage.

The dead floated by so peacefully.

There were men coming up only to go
down again for the last time.

A look of frightful horror
on their faces.

Captain Bartlett stopped
the propellers.

But only because Britannic
had started sinking faster.

He knew nothing of the bloodbath
in the water.

Do we know now how many people died?

We do. There were 30.

Nine of them were from the
medical corps,

so they weren't actually
ship's crew.

The rest were ship's crew,

but the majority of them were from
what was known as the black gang.

They were stokers, firemen,

who had come up from below decks
when the water entered.

So these men whose jobs were to be
right in the bowels of the ship,

who were right there when the mine
struck, reacted in, probably,

the only way they possibly could.

Sheer blind panic and survival
kicking in

to get them out of that place

where the water was flooding in,

only to end up going to their deaths
by a very human mistake.

It was. It was just a totally
unnecessary loss of life,

because if procedures had been
followed,

it should not have happened.

But you can understand,
in the chaos and panic,

particularly coming up
from below decks,

it's understandable that people want
to get off the ship.

But, of course, that was actually
what led to their deaths.

As a nurse, Sheila must stay on duty
amidst the carnage.

In our boat, we'd got well away
from the sinking ship,

and busied ourselves with the
wounded

whom we'd pulled out of the water.

Our brandy flasks were invaluable.

Also, aprons and pillowcases

which were torn up as bandages.

Finally, Captain Bartlett gives
the order to abandon ship.

Our chief engineer, Mr Fleming,

who was cool through everything

was the last of our department
to join us on deck.

He had to swim for it,

narrowly escaping being drowned.

The ship was sinking very quickly
then,

going by the head and listing
to starboard.

Soon the water came to the bridge.

At 9am, 48 minutes
after the explosion,

Bartlett reports that he and his two
senior officers

are still standing on the bridge.

There is nothing more the captain
can do.

As with Titanic, would he go down
with his ship?

I've heard that it is
a captain's duty

to be the last one to abandon ship,

is that true? Absolutely.

That's the traditional way.
And that's what happened.

He ordered his officers to leave
the bridge, they left,

he blew the whistle
for one last time,

and then he literally walked off
the ship into the sea.

Assistant Commander Dyke, having
reported to me that all had left,

I told him to go

and shortly after, followed myself,

walking into the water

by the forward boat gantry,
on the starboard side.

Moments later, the bridge
was underwater.

With sounds wailing and gurgling,
Britannic sank bow first.

But she was so massive,

that when she hit bottom,
her stern was sticking

over 30 metres out of the water.

With a final roar...

..she disappeared into the depths.

The noise of her going
resounding through the water

with undreamt-of violence.

At 9:07am,

Great Britain's largest and finest
ship of World War I is gone.

It's taken just 55 minutes to sink

the most unsinkable ship
in the world.

Britannic joined her sister,
Titanic, on the seabed -

where she has lain for 100 years.

Well, that is certainly something.

The most impressive shipwreck
I have ever seen.

You can peer in through windows,

and you see the medical room
with the equipment where the doctors

and the nurses would have worked

and those injured soldiers
would have been treated.

And it's these glimpses of humanity

that act as a reminder that it's the
people and their stories that are so

closely interwoven
with the story of Britannic itself.

Those who died on Britannic
met terrible, violent ends.

But while Titanic's passengers and
crew froze to death in the icy north

Atlantic, waiting for rescue
that came far too late,

Britannic sank much closer
to the shore,

allowing a fleet of Greek fishing

boats and three British destroyers

to come to her crew's rescue.

The largest number of losses came
from the black gang at the bottom

of the ship and the bottom
of the social ladder.

1,035 of Britannic's nurses, sailors
and doctors survived.

A sailor pulled a chair
from the water

and gave me a piece of the back,

which I guarded safely,
under my coat.

And here it is. No way!

Absolutely. She didn't keep that
for the whole of her life?

Can I see it?
She kept it the whole of her life.

She gave it to my father.
My father gave it to me.

I keep it in my living room.

What an amazing story!

Sheila lived to be 103,

and towards the end of her life,

she featured in a documentary

about the discovery of
the Britannic wreck.

So at the age of 86, she
helicoptered off from Athens to Kea.

She takes this back with her,

so back goes the chair top
to the island.

And off she goes, submarining.

No way!
To see the wreck of the Britannic.

She has a look inside it,

and then she put flowers into
the water above the wreck.

Oh! And then, of course,

a few years later, James Cameron
directed Titanic.

That's right. And you remember
the incident there of Rose

throwing flowers...
Yes, the older lady

whose story is being told.

So we always say, in our family,
that Rose was built, as a character,

upon my grandmother.

And what of Captain Bartlett,

who may have just missed being
captain of Titanic?

Our commander was retrieved
from the waters in his pyjamas.

SHE CHUCKLES

His face as unperturbed as ever.

He was swimming in the water
for about 30 minutes or so,

before he was picked up by
one of the lifeboats.

It was only then that he was told

about the tragic and unnecessary
loss of life.

Do we know how he felt when he made
this terrible discovery?

I think he was immensely
sad about it,

because it should not have happened.

If those men had not panicked
and been in the boats,

there would have been no life lost
whatsoever.

And if, in fact, if the nurses
hadn't opened the portholes

to air the cabins, you know,

he would have managed to save
that ship as well.

But he did not sail a ship again.

No-one left Britannic unaffected.

When I tried to stand,

I discovered that my leg had been
deeply torn and badly gashed.

I had not felt it happen.

All I had been conscious of
underwater

was my head being battered,

almost to a pulp.

She didn't realise at the time she
had this terrible blow on her head,

but she fractured it in two places.

But I know she had very

troubling time with her head later

and the strange result was
that she lost her hair later.

Really? Hm.

I think it's a stress thing.

Despite experiencing the horror
of both the Titanic AND Britannic

disasters, Violet never did lose
her taste for adventure.

She did marry, once, rather briefly.

But she was a ship stewardess
for her whole working life,

visiting every corner of the globe.

I do remember, when I was four,

and going to her house always scared
me a bit because she had an

alligator, a stuffed alligator
hanging by the staircase.

I used to look at that going
upstairs. I can imagine!

She brought it from South America.

What happened next to Archie?

When Archie was picked up with the
wounded, he then goes on to write,

"I could not feel my legs and arms
when they got me into the boat".

There was this one sailor,
he was with me in the boat,

his legs were nearly cut off.

They picked him up,
but he didn't live long.

So Archie survived the Britannic,

he'd survived the Titanic,

he was 27 years old.

What did he go on to do next?

He went on to work on another
hospital ship,

a smaller vessel called
the SS Donegal.

And he was on it
for just five months

before it was struck by a torpedo

and he died on the 17th April,
1917, and he was just 28.

As for the unnamed seaman
from Ulster,

we have no trace of what happened
to him after the sinking.

He's disappeared from history,

a bit like Titanic's tragic twin,

Britannic.

Well, we've listened to the
testimonies of our witnesses,

we've amassed the evidence,

and it seems that Britannic sank
because of bad luck and human error.

And the people who lost their lives
alongside her did so

because in their desperation to
survive,

they made a decision
with fatal consequences.

But there's one other puzzling
factor.

Why has a story as dramatic as this
remained unknown for so long?

Well, think about the timing.

It was 100 years ago,

the tragedy of the Britannic
was just one more in the monumental
tragedy that was World War I.