By Mark Chirnside

  Although classes of liners are essentially constructed from the same plans, every liner is unique as improvements are noted and features added. In the case of the Olympic class, Britannic was to be the crowning glory, able with the great Olympic to take on the German-built Imperator and Vaterland and Cunard's Aquitania on the North Atlantic. By the end of the 1914 season, although Aquitania and the new German ships were extremely popular on the Atlantic, Olympic's reputation 'was second to none' and her popularity had been steadily increasing since her April 1913 refitting following the tragic loss of her sister Titanic. Had it not been for the war, Britannic would have joined Olympic in the spring of 1915 and surely secured domination, earning useful profits for the White Star Line. Besides robbing Britannic of a long and successful life, the war shrouded in mystery many of the fine points of her outfitting and interior features. It is only from artist's impressions that we can glimpse Britannic's lavish interiors - her domed smoke room and panelled swimming pool for example - and see what they would have been like. As she was not properly completed before her war service, further changes were introduced, including the installation of Welin davits on the boat deck besides the five gantry davits out of eight that had already been installed. It is this element of mystery that makes Britannic more fascinating and hopefully this page will go some way to pleasing that fascination.