Spirit of the Britannic

Why was this happening to me? Here I was, helping out in the war effort as a hospital ship instead of doing what I was designed to be doing. It was only been a year since my maiden voyage and two years since my first launch in which my spirit awakened. I was cruising along on my sixth voyage to Lemnos when a sudden pain ripped through me. I began taking on water through a hole in my bow. I knew instantly that I had hit the enemy of all ships, a mine. Thank God, there were no sick or wounded men within me, my only passengers being my crew and hospital personnel. While everyone gathered to load my lifeboats, plenty for everyone on board because of a tragedy that sank the sister ship I never knew, my captain attempted to beach me. We weren't far from land. It was no good. Moving me only hastened my fate and I shudder to remember that two of my lifeboats and passengers were torn apart by my turning propellers.

Water poured into my wound, flooding six compartments and I knew I was doomed like my sister ship which sank four years prior. I gained a list to starboard where the mine exploded and my bow started going under. From what I would learn later, within the first ten minutes, I was roughly in the same condition Titanic was an hour after she struck the iceberg. I could hear the German U-boats laughing at me. I'll never know if any where in the area but I could still hear them. My brave crew filled my lifeboats and launched as best they could, my list complicating things. My captain remained on me until the last possible moment when he gave the order for the rest of the crew to abandon me. After he swam to safety, I could no longer keep myself above water. With a last moan of pain, I rolled over to my starboard side and sank in one piece.

My spirit was freed from my ruined body and, long after my passengers and crew left me, I aimlessly wandered the ocean when I came upon my unknown sister Titanic. Her spirit wasn't with her wreck and local spirits told me she had left to visit some other more recent wrecks. I took the opportunity to examine the four-year-old wreckage. I was horrified to see that she was truly split in twain. Many people who weren't on her fatal maiden voyage tended to believe that she sank in one piece like I had, despite the survivors insisting she was cut in half. Titanic's bow was in fairly good shape despite the plunge to her resting place. I couldn't see where the iceberg hit though. I found her stern and was even more horrified at its condition. I hurried away in fear and returned to my wreck miles upon miles away.

Over the years, I learned I was declared a British war grave, an act to keep potential divers and looters from going into my body without a permit. I was in shallow enough water that people could do it without the use of a submersible. I watched many expeditions to my body come and go. More often than not I would explore and meet with other wrecks. I avoided Titanic at all costs, the memory of her mangled stern forever burning in my spirit. She never made an attempt to find me perhaps because she couldn't bear to leave her resting place for a long time. Her death had been most horrific.

You may call me vain or shallow that I couldn't bear to seek out the Spirit of the Titanic because of the state of her stern but I can't help it. Because of my fear, I couldn't make the voyage in December of 1974 to the Great Lakes to meet with the ships who sank there. I was soon brought up to date with stories told to me by the Spirit of the Lusitania who met her end similar to mine. She kept me informed of Titanic who was growing lonely for people on the ocean floor. I, at last, made peace with myself when I was brought news in 1985 that people found her. I'll never seek her out but she probably doesn't even know about me. Nowadays, I pass the time, thinking of my death and not regretting anything. I was proud to serve, even for a short time. I'm not as famous as my sister ship but I know others think of me and keep my alive. I am the Spirit of the Britannic.