About : standard furniture white dresser
Title : standard furniture white dresser
standard furniture white dresser
8:07 am. 21st of november, 1916. his majesty’shospital ship britannic is sailing to the british sea base of lemnos in the aegean sea,where it would take on board thousands of wounded soldiers from the allied campaignsagainst turkey in the first world war. she sails from naples, italy, on a scheduled roundtrip of two weeks from southampton. the britannic is the third and final ship of the olympicclass; the youngest sister of the rms olympic and the infamous rms titanic. increased competition among transatlanticliners and great expectations from passengers, led designers to make significant changesto her accommodations. this would set britannic’s design apart from her two older sisters. thirdclass was given new entrances. second class
would be given the luxury of their very owngymnasium. first class passengers would enjoy many new improvements. these included a largera la carte restaurant and new reception room on b deck, where the elite passengers woulddine in unparalleled style. a playroom, where children could play instead of using one ofthe palm courts like on olympic and titanic. a lady’s hair dresser salon, in additionto the barber shop. new sitting rooms were added on c-deck, as a result of the parlorsuites having proved so popular on olympic and titanic. keeping up with transient expectations,first class would see the addition of many private bathrooms and washrooms for cabins.although basic on olympic and titanic, the swimming pool on britannic was to be completelyredecorated to keep up with the trend of sumptuous
swimming baths on german liners. even thealready luxurious spaces such as the grand staircase were also improved. the boat anda deck entrances were modified to accommodate a welt pipe organ. ultimately, this musicalinstrument was never installed, but it still survives today. the decorated wrought ironpanels designed to conceal the pipes on the organ were eventually auctioned off in londonafter the war. many of britannic’s luxurious fittings were never installed due to the conversionto a hospital ship in 1915. these were sold off in three separate auctions in london andbelfast in 1919. when the first world war broke out, constructionof the britannic was placed on the backburner. harland and wolff, the builders, shifted theirwork towards the war effort. the allied invasion
of gallipoli showed that the british admiraltywould need larger ships to transport their wounded home from the far off battlefieldsof the mediterranean. the cunard ocean liners mauritania and aquitania were requisitionedinto troop ships. this was also done with the white star liner olympic, the first sisterof the britannic. finally, the war office decided to pay for the finalization of whitestar’s britannic under the condition that it would be used as a hospital ship for theduration of the war. after the war ends, the ship would be scheduled to return to the handsof the white star line. over 3,300 bunks were installed on britannicto accommodate the patients. the ship was painted white with a green band broken byred crosses: the internationally recognized
designation for a hospital ship. both sidesof the war had hospital ships under these markings, and both sides of the war agreedto care for whatever wounded they could. therefore, it was understood that neither side shouldattack a hospital ship of any nationality. prior to britannic’s voyage, the germansubmarine u-73 had laid two mine barriers in the kea channel, totaling approximately12 mines. now, mines are indiscriminate killers. mines were not meant to target a hospitalship like britannic, but rather it was laid where the germans thought they would interdictbritish naval traffic going into and out of greek ports. “my name is cpl. jack waugh, of the royalarmy medical corps. i had just finished breakfast
and had come up on deck. i sat down on thehatchway while one of our chaplains with his map out was showing us different places ofinterest on the nearby shorelines.†when britannic hit one of the contact fuseson the mine, the mine detonated. the resulting explosion created an expandinggas bubble, lifting britannic’s bow with it. it twisted britannic’s hull a bit; slightlywarped her frame, which resulted in the watertight doors in boiler room 6 and 5 becoming jammedin their tracks in the full open position. “at breakfast, a muffled explosion rangout from the lower decks. the ship vibrated more than it shook. the vibrations passedus, smashing the furniture and windows and echoed off into the distance. moments later,the vibrations echoed back, smashing more
glass and crockery around us. these vibrationsreverberated from one end of the ship to the other for over a full minute. nurse ada garland, voluntary aid detachment.†“i had just had my bath and was now shavingin my cabin - which was about 10 yards distant from the point of contact. i was thrown veryforcibly across the cabin with sundry articles of gear on top of me. the boat lifted twiceand everything seemed to dance, and the fumes from the explosions temporarily blinded me. fifth officer gordon fielding.†“some were killed by the explosion itself.in the stewards’ quarters, the bunks fell
down on top of the men, and everything collapsed,while i believe the emergency stairs were blown away. the water ran in in great volumesin the forward compartments. the fumes in the alleyways were something stifling- notsulfurous, but something poisonous and unearthy. assistant chief engineer joseph wolfe.†“my first impression was that we had hita mine and that would probably be safe. i gave orders to clear the lifeboats and havethem made ready to be sent away should it necessitate. captain charles bartlett. 21st of november,1916†captain charles bartlett came onto the bridgestill wearing his pajamas. his first orders
were to sound the emergency quarters alarmand to close the watertight doors. he wasn’t aware at that point that the forwarddoors were jammed in the open position. he ordered the engines to stop and the lifeboatsbe swung out and readied for lowering. at the same time, he gave the order to the wirelesstelegraph operators to send out an sos call for distress. “i ordered the sending out of the sos signalby wireless, but we were not receiving any replies whatsoever. we were for a while underthe impression that the apparatus was down all-together, but they continued sending themessages out regardless of response.†what the wireless operator didn’t know wasthat the explosion had caused britannic’s
hull to flex a bit, whipping the foremast,and breaking some of the connections to the wireless aerial strung between the masts andthe transmitter in the ship’s silent room. what this meant was that britannic could stillsend out and sos message, but she could not receive any reply. “i was on the bridge waiting for orders.my heart was in my mouth, but when i saw the captain standing there, cool and quiet, ithought to myself it’s all right, and felt a deal more comfortable, and i went to thelocker and got out the captain’s megaphone according to orders, and i stood alongsidethe captain on the bridge to see if he had any orders for me. the ship seemed to be leaninga bit to the starboard side and she still
seemed to be going ahead a little. second freemantle scout troop patrol leaderjames vickers.†“i permitted my staff to return to theircabins, so long as it was done with haste. we’re all too familiar with the dangersof ships sinking; the lusitania was only a year ago and the titanic was only three yearsago. nurse matron of the hmhs britannic miss elizabethanne dowse.†“as we were walking out of the saloon thesignal went and blasts rang out from the siren; not until then would i believe that therewas any danger. i distinctly remember, as we quietly walked down the beautiful marblestaircase and along the long corridor; where
the sun streamed in the portholes lightingup all our lovely cabins, this was goodbye to everything. our ship was sinking. how fast,we didn’t know. as the conditions of the situation continueto deteriorate, the captain realizes that his ship is in serious trouble. the greekisland of kea looms only a couple of miles in the distance. captain bartlett orders aturn towards it in an effort to beach the ship. if the britannic can be beached, a dangerousevacuation would be avoided and the ship could possibly be salvaged. the crew immediately began to uncover andswing out the boats. britannic’s 55 lifeboats were arranged on the deck and numbered muchdifferently than on titanic. on the forward
starboard side were boats 1a through 1c, consistingof large 34 foot rowboats. amidships in single-acting davits, were twelve 30-foot boats, as wellas 12 collapsible boats similar to those found on titanic. these were numbered 2 to 2a thru13 to 13a respectively. the middle set of gantry davits held 12 more34 foot boats: 14a thru 14f and 15a thru 15f. the after-most gantry davits held 10 34 footboats and two 34' thornycraft motorboats. these were numbered 16a thru 16f and 17a thru17f. aft on the shade deck, where originally twomore gantry davits were designed to be installed, here welin davits held 2 30 foot boats and2 collapsibles, 18, 18a, 19 and 19a. at the end of the sinking, of the 55 boats on board,only 35 boats would be launched.
the first boat to leave the britannic left at 8:20 am. a group of frightened firemen swungthe boat out and climbed aboard themselves, lowering the boat with only a handful on board,despite its capacity of around 65. however, assistant commander to the britannic captaindyke ordered the boat to rescue people as they jumped overboard, so these seats werenot entirely wasted. “immediately i swung out two boats whichwe promptly rushed by the stewards followed by my working crew of about a dozen sailors.as this was only a sudden panic, i was able to persuade them to get back to their positions.i must say that my sailors were wonderful after this first panic, and not one offeredto leave the ship before receiving his orders.
fifth officer gordon fielding.â€â€œafter a certain interval, the steering gear having apparently failed, i turned theship to port to head for land under her own steam. i had tried compensating for our jammedrudder by running the engines on one side of the ship harder than the other.†the ship begins to lose control as the helmsmanreports steering failure. for one reason or another, the steering gears no longer respond.the captain tries to use the propellers to steer the ship; using higher power on theport side that would turn the ship slowly to starboard: towards kea. “i snatched up my coat, rug, and lifebeltand commenced along the corridor to the wards
to see if help was needed with the patients.it was a terrible sight, men who could barely walk struggling to climb the stairs. the screamsand shouts could be heard all over the ship as the badly injured were being moved. weall helped until the very last minute when we heard the cry of our dear brave matronsaying, ‘hurry up, my dear children!’ nurse ada garland.†“i broke off from the group and enteredmy cabin. i indulged in a few bites as i pocketed my possessions. a ring my friend had givenme and my clock, of course. this clock was the most precious gift a friend had givenme. then there was my prayer book and my toothbrush. the latter was because i complained aboutnot being able to acquire a toothbrush while
on board the carpathia after the sinking ofthe titanic. i was now experienced with surviving shipwrecks. one might even call me an expert.i was advising people that they should wear their coats over their lifejackets and notthe other way around. should they find themselves in the water, they will need to drop off theircoats, which becomes harder when the lifebelt is over it. despite my frequent advice, ifound myself having accidentally done the opposite.†“most of us put on our coats and all tookour lifejackets and started for the boat deck, when part way up the emergency exit, an officerhailed us with “you better hurry up ladiesâ€. then we knew there was more cause to hurrythan we thought and as soon as we got on top
we realized that something dreadful had happened.†panic was beginning to spread around the peopleidling on the decks. fresh in their minds were the sinkings of titanic and lusitania.within only the first few minutes of the explosion, the ship took on a noticeable slant towardsthe bow and a list to starboard. this only increased the panic. instead of waiting fororders, a handful of lifeboats were launched without authorization from the overseeingofficer. some of the boats cleared the sinking ship, but not all. “the ship had taken on a heavy list to starboard;then she began to dip heavily forward. the ramc were paraded on deck and i am proud tosay that anyone would have taken it for an
ordinary everyday parade; everyone was ascalm and as collected as it was possible to be. i never thought for a moment that shewould go down as sharp as she did. cpl. jack waugh. royal army medical corps.†the first ship to receive britannic’s distresscalls was the destroyer hms scourge. the naval auxiliary hms heroic also received britannic’sdistress call. the responded to it, saying that they were steaming to the rescue, butbritannic’s wireless operator never received the message. “and as we were being lowered we were almostthrown out by the boat catching the side. however, we eventually reached the water.
the propellers were now on water level, andseveral of the boats were drawn in the whirlpool. the boat i was in, directly the pulleys weretaken off, was drawn right to the propellers, and then came the decisive moment of my life. i could not swim, yet as i looked and sawmen being cut up by those terrible blades, i made a quick decision. my chum could swim,so he dived over the side. i looked after him; we were now almost to the blades, soi jumped into the sea as well. the blades were beating the boats down, andthe wreckage was keeping me under and i could not rise, try as i would. how long this wenton i don’t know, but to me it was terribly long; and i had ceased to struggle, neverexpecting to come out alive, as i was almost
gone. i remember my thoughts then were these: hisis the end. what a death. i saw my dear wife and dear little children as plainly as ifthey were standing before me. then, as if by magic, i caugh a breath of fresh air. “my name is henry pope; i’m a 15-year-oldsea scout. there wasn’t any excitement, as everyone knew their boat stations and wentto them without stopping to look for their kits. the sea scouts on the lifts worked themfor as long as they could, but the ship soon listed so much to starboard that they hadto give up and go up to the boats.†“i had lowered two of them down to about6 feet above the waterline. in spite of the
curses of the men in the boats, i kept themthere until definite orders from the bridge to launch the boats. fifth officer gordon fielding†“we didn’t have much success getting awayfrom the ship’s side. the britannic was still pushing forward under her own steam. suddenly, all the men in the boats began leapinginto the sea. no shouts- just splashes as they leapt for it. within moments, i foundmyself to be the only occupant of these lifeboats, but it didn’t take me long to find out thereason. britannic’s huge propellers were churningand mincing up everything near them- men,
boats, and everything were just one ghastlywhirl. i turned to leap into the sea, but i hesitated.i forced myself into the water, but was unable to swim. then hit on the head repeatedly by somethingsolid. i believe it was either a piece of a boat or the propeller itself. it hit methree times on the head. terrible blows that made my brain rattle, but fortunately it hitme where my hair was the thickest. an arm grabbed me and pulled me to the surface.it gripped me and moved as mine did. i grabbed it back as i surfaced, but to my horror foundthat it was merely a severed arm and part of a torso. as the great white liner steamedaway from me, i saw to my horror a severed
head to my left, floating, despite havingbeen cracked open like a sheep’s head severed by a butcher. wreckage of every sort was everywhereas the ship slowly ploughed into the distance.†“the men in my boats, still hanging on thefalls 6 feet above the water witnessed this disaster, and i must say they ceased cursingabout not being released.“ “i saw that boat with its poor, patheticcrew get dragged into the churning propellers. i suppose i was shaken to the core, but icould not show this. if i dared reveal fear, it would spread like a brush fire on the veldt.i sat there, emotionless, for what emotion could i have expressed if not fear and sorrow? nurse matron miss elizabeth anne dowse.â€
“water began flooding the forward holdsrapidly and water was reported in the numbers 5 and 6 boiler rooms, so i stopped the enginesand ordered all boats possible to be sent away, but to stand by close to the ship.†“two lifeboats were smashed to splintersby the propeller blades, but the blades stopped briefly just before a third boat came intotheir death grip. three men stayed in the boat and pushed against the blades to movethe boat away. lt. col. henry stewart anderson, royal armymedical corps.†“having climbed into our lifeboat we werelowered away only to discover halfway down that the plug wasn’t in the bottom of ourboat. there we were suspended in mid air whilst
that important item was found. down we werelowered again. it took some time before we managed to get away from the tremendous structureof the boat.†“i know that women can be brave, but i neverdreamed they could rise to such heights of cool, unflinching courage as those nursesdid when under miss dowse, the matron, they lined up on deck like so many soldiers, andunconcernedly and calmly waited their turn to enter the boats. we men are proud of them,and we can only hope england will hear of their courage. they were magnificent.†britannic glided to a stop with the propellerslifting out of the water as the bow sank deeper into the sea. the forward port lifeboat davit,a standard welin davit, became inoperable
due to increasing starboard list. 3 boatsare launched in quick succession from the aft port gantry davit, which could accommodatemore of a list than the standard welin davits. “with the forward lifeboat gantries outof commission, i moved aft and successfully launched another fully loaded boat. i thenhooked on the five-ton motor launch when the first officer came up saying he had ordersfrom the captain to leave in this boat and to take charge and pick up any survivors fromthe smashed boats. as this officer had been nearly drowned in the wreck of the arabic,he was somewhat excited and urgent.†“the second alarm was sounded and captainbartlett told me to go and get into my boat. i walked along the boat deck to my boat andthe first officer told me to get into the
motor launch, which was soon being lowered.i got in and in doing so, my foot got jammed between the side of the ship and the motorlaunch.†“i filled the motor launch with thirty ramcand two or three sailors and launched it under the charge of the first officer.†“my boat was lowered to the water. 4 oarsand four men to each oar. we pulled for our lives to clear the suction. while pullingaway something hit me on my left eye; but did not take much notice at the time. bloodbegan running down my face. after we got clear of the danger of the ship, we started to rescueour comrades that was in the water. we had no one to man our boats, so we carried onourselves.
we had pulled one out of the water and givinghim treatment, we saw another that was nearly dead, so we pulled towards him. on reachinghim, we tried to pull him into our boat. but we failed as our boat had so many people init; it overturned and we were in distress. pvt. samuel edwin williams. royal army medicalcorps†because of the heat of a buttoned up steamship,even in november, the medical staff, against all operating procedures in a war zone, openedthe portholes to allow ventilation; to get some fresh air to circulate throughout theship before the wounded were brought on board. but this meant that as the water reached theportholes of e deck, those portholes now gave the water multiple entries into the hull.the flooding of the ship now intensifies.
“i rounded up another boat with 75 men,mostly ramc’s. as the britannic was now very badly listing to starboard and we wereon the high side, we had much difficulty in getting this boat away. she nearly capsizeda few times before she cleared the ship. it was now impossible to launch any more boatsfrom the port side.†“the ship seemed to stop settling a little;she gave me hope that she had stabilized herself. i passed word to stop lowering the boats aswe again attempted to work the ship towards land.†“at this point, i had about six sailorsand 30 ramc’s who were said in the next boat calmly waiting for me to put them inthe water. they didn’t realize it was impossible.
with this crowd, i went to britannic’s midshipisland and we threw overboard to starboard all the collapsible rafts and deck chairswe could find. this was the first time i had thought i might have a chance at saving myown life. a little bit of hope that i felt. i can’t explain it.†when the starboard list reached 10 degrees,launching of port boats from even the gantry davits was no longer possible. crews on thatside gave up trying to lower boats and began throwing deck chairs and liferafts into thewater below. and despite the growing list, it seemed to the crew on board that the rateat which britannic was sinking had slowed, so captain bartlett ordered the lifeboat launchingto be paused and the engines started again
in attempt to reach kea island. “i saw the sixth officer struggling to gethis boat in the water at one of the lower points of the ship. i got some rather nastyrope burn as we tried maneuvering this boat by the ropes. we almost lifted this boat overthe side. i put in all the remaining men with the sixth officer and kept two or three withme to manage the control breaks during launching. once the boat was in the water, the two menand i slithered ourselves down the rope and into the boat.†the forward motion of the ship only dug thebow deeper under water. water was reported to be flooding the vessel at a record rate,so the captain ordered the britannic to stop
for one final time. “i gave the order for all to leave the ship,passing word to the engine room and blowing the whistle for the last alarm; the abandonship signal. two long blasts of the whistle.†“she seemed just like a pitiful, dumb animaltortured, her sirens blasting for help up to the last.†“captain c. a. bartlett, the commander ofthe britannic, stayed on the bridge giving orders to the officers through his speakingmegaphone as the ship was going down under his feet. he’d not leave until the waterlapped over him.†“the ship was sinking very quickly then,going by the head and listing to starboard
and soon the water came to the bridge. assistantcommander dyke having reported to me that all had left the ship. i told him to leave,and shortly after i followed him. we barely left the bridge; walking into the water bythe forward boat gantry on the starboard side. the funnels fell just moments later.†“one of the quartermasters had gone belowearly in the sinking to find supplies of bread from the ship’s pantries to stock the lifeboats.he came out onto the deck to find the bridge submerged and the ship rapidly dropping inthe water. he dropped the bread and leapt into the sea, with mere seconds to spare beforethe vessel had disappeared.†“when we reached the deck, the foremostof the four funnels was touching the water
and the bows were completely submerged. we jumped eighty feet into the sea from thesecond class quarters on c deck and after swimming clear, we watched the awesome sightof the mighty liner sinking. “it was indeed sad to watch our ship, slowlybut surely sinking. we could hear her boilers rumbling off like thunder under the waterand her immense funnels, through which one could have driven a coach-and-four, were rippedup with as little difficulty as we should have in tearing a piece of paper.†“as she sank in only 480 feet of water andthe ship sank almost vertical and was 890 feet long, she touched the bottom.â€
“i had supervised over the constructionand launch of the britannic; i skippered her, and i watched her founder. to have been ableto witness a vessel her whole life from birth to death is surely a unique circumstance. captain charles bartlett, hmhs britannic.21st of november, 1916.†his majesty’s hospital ship britannic sankin 55 minutes; three times the time it took for the lusitania to sink, but one third ofthe time it took the titanic to go down. out of 1,066 souls on board, there were only 30casualties in the sinking; far fewer than most other shipwrecks of this size. 21 weremembers of the crew, and 9 were members of the royal army medical corps. britannic remainsthe largest passenger shipwreck on the ocean
floor.