Britannic

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Britannic may refer to:

• Britannic: (adj: British) - "Her Britannic Majesty", a reference to the culture and people of the British Isles and the English-speaking countries of the former British Empire; and to the ethnic individuals of those cultures. It can also refer to the Anglosphere.^[1]
• Britannia: (Latin: Britannia), the original Latin name the Roman Empire gave to Britain. Deriving from Pretannia, Diodorus's Greek rendering of the indigenous name pretani, Britannia became the preferred Roman term for the island of Great Britain.[1][2]

• Three ships built as transatlantic ocean liners for the White Star Line by Harland & Wolff in Belfast.
  • SS Britannic (1874): The only one of the three to hold the Blue Riband with an average speed of almost 16 knots. Her sister ship was the SS Germanic. In 1887, she collided with SS Celtic but both ships remained afloat.
  • HMHS Britannic (1914): Was sister to RMS Olympic and the ill-fated RMS Titanic that was originally going to be called the RMS Gigantic. While she was being fitted out, World War I broke out and she was used as a hospital ship in the war effort. On November 21, 1916, she struck a naval mine and sank in 55 minutes. 30 men were killed out of 1,066 on board. She was never used for the transatlantic passenger service she was designed for.
  • RMS Britannic (1929): Was one of the first liners to be powered by diesel engines. Her sister was the RMS Georgic. She served as a troop ship in World War II and was scrapped in 1960.
• Britannic (film), a 2000 film based on the true story of the HMHS Britannic.