Britannic (film)

Britannic is a fictional romantic drama film directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith. It stars Edward Atterton and Amanda Ryan as star-crossed lovers on the forgotten sister ship of the RMS Titanic: the HMHS Britannic. The film's co-stars include Jacqueline Bisset, Ben Daniels and John Rhys-Davies.

Plot[]

In 1916, the Britannic has been refitted as a hospital ship for wounded soldiers fighting on the Western Front and elsewhere. Among the nurses who are to serve aboard her is Lady Lewis (Jacqueline Bisset), who is being delivered to Greece via Naples, where her husband has become Ambassador for Great Britain. Travelling with her is Vera Campbell (Amanda Ryan), an operative of British Intelligence posing as Lady Lewis' governesss. Campbell is constantly unnerved by the voyage, having survived the sinking of the RMS Titanic four years earlier, losing her husband in the process.

Meanwhile, a German spy has boarded the Britannic posing as the ship's chaplain, Chaplain Reynolds (Edward Atterton), and soon discovers that the Britannic is indeed carrying small arms as was believed - although he is unaware that Captain Bartlett (John Rhys-Davies) has placed the small arms aboard as a means of protection against mutiny. Under the articles of war, Reynolds considers his actions against the Britannic to be legal (any attack on a hospital ship in wartime is considered to be a war crime) and sets about initiating a series of sabotage attempts to try and either take over the Britannic or otherwise sink her, including allying himself with the Irish stokers, all members of the Irish Republican Army, to mutiny and take over the ship.

Over the course of the film, each sabotage attempt is foiled by Vera Campbell - with the eventual co-operation of the ship's crew. Unaware that Campbell is responsible, Reynolds finds himself growing attracted to Campbell whilst the voyage continues. However, Campbell soon discovers Reynolds' true identity, Campbell confronts him in the boiler room where he tells her he is going to sink the ship

Reynolds drops a bottle of explosives down to the coal bunker, blowing a hole in the Britannic's port side bow. The ship tries sailing for Kea island seven miles away but the beaching operation causes her to founder even faster. Campbell discovers that William, one of Lady Lewis's children, has disappeared. Reynolds helps her and they manage to get William to a lifeboat before it is lowered. Another massive explosion from the engine room causes Reynolds to be trapped in a flooding room. Campbell helps him escape and they make their way through the ship, swimming through flooded rooms, vents, grates, and corridors, eventually making it outside by swimming through a porthole and climbing aboard an empty lifeboat that was already lowered into the water, but still attached by its ropes to the davits.

Campbell and Reynolds notice a lifeboat filled with people getting pulled into the still spinning propellers. They watch in horror as the boat and its occupants are smashed to pieces by the spinning blades. Reynolds ties Campbell to a line thrown to them from a nearby lifeboat. Despite her protests that they both can be pulled to safety, he throws her into the sea after kissing her. Soon after, the lifeboat's ropes break and it begins to also get sucked into the propellers. Reynolds decides to commit suicide, staying aboard the lifeboat as it is smashed by the blades. A few moments later, the Britannic rapidly capsizes, causing her funnels to fall as she sinks beneath the waves. A British battleship, HMS Victoria (which earlier helped the Britannic fend off a U-boat attack), arrives to rescue the survivors. Reflecting on her experience, Campbell quotes the poem "Roll on, Thou..." from Childe Harold's Pilgrimage by Lord Byron.

Cast[]

Edward Atterton as Chaplain Reynolds/Major Ernst Tillbach
Amanda Ryan as Vera Campbell
Jacqueline Bisset as Lady Lewis
Ben Daniels as Townsend
John Rhys-Davies as Captain Charles Alfred Bartlett
Bruce Payne as Doctor Baker
Alex Ferns as Stoker Evans
Eleanor Oakley as Sarah Lewis
Archie Davies as William Lewis
Ed Stobart as Mayfield
Adam Bareham as Britannic's Radio Operator
David Lumsden as German Radio Operator
Wolf Kahler as Captain Kruger
Philip Rham as Jurgens
Daniel Coonan as Seamus
Daniel Tatatrsky as Martin
Martin Savage as Sweeney
Francis Magee as Reilly
Niven Boyd as Captain Helm
David Begg as Armed Sailor
John Atkin as Guard
Sean Baker as Colonel Marston

Errors[]

Historical Inaccuracies[]

The ship did not sink at early morning before sunrise, but between 8:12 and 9:07 in the morning in broad daylight.
The ship did not carry any passengers of any form except for military medical personnel, wounded soldiers and chaplains. It also did not carry any wounded soldiers on its last voyage. Due to the ship sailing to pick up soldiers at the British base at Lemnos, Greece.
An Irish crew member claims the attempt armed takeover of the Britannic is in revenge for the Black and Tans. Britannic sank in 1916. The Black and Tans were not sent to Ireland until after 1918.
- The Black and Tans were former British soldiers who had previously fought in the First World War that were sent into Ireland as special constables of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) to combat against the Irish Republican Army (the successors to the Irish Republican Brotherhood) in the Irish War of Independence from 1920 to 1921.
  - The name came from the combined black and khaki uniform they wore. After the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty that saw the disbandment of the RIC, many of the Black and Tans who had remained in Ireland were recruited in the Royal Ulster Constabulary, while some travelled to the British Mandate of Palestine and were recruited in the Palestine Police Force.
The only 30 deaths were when two lifeboats were launched before orders were given due to the captain's stubborn attempt to beach the ship, lifeboats were sucked into the propellers. The propellers were stopped after orders were given, but in the movie, the propellers were never stopped, and the two life boats were sucked in after all the other life boats had been launched.
In the movie, the ship reaches Naples at November 19th. But in real life, it reached Naples at November 17th
The lifeboats that were destroyed by the propellers were on the starboard side, but in reality, the starboard propeller was stopped so that the ship could steer to starboard to reach land and in reality, any lifeboats destroyed by propellers were destroyed by the port side propeller, as that one was the only side propeller still running.
Britannic's Captain was Charles A. Bartlett but is misspelled as "Barrett".
In reality, the ship sank with a ever-so-increasing starboard list up until its final moments with the final plunge taking approximately 12 minutes, but in the movie, the water reaches the bridge with no list before the ship quickly and suddenly capsizes to starboard to sink.
The ship departed from Southampton at 2:23 P.M. and not overnight.
After Britannic sinks, the ship is shown making a long descent to the ocean floor. However, the ship only sank in 400 feet of water; less than half the length of the vessel. In reality, the stern of Britannic was still on the surface as the bow crashed onto the seabed.

Continuity[]

Vera Campbell is wearing a different undergarment or girdle when she wakes up from spending the night with Chaplain Reynolds then when she arrived at his cabin the night before.

Plot holes[]

It is not possible for a WWI submarine while submerged to shadow a steamer for several days. The steamer is too fast.
There were never any German spies on board; wreck investigations have also revealed that there were no weapons on board, as the evidence shows that the sinking was caused by a mine followed by secondary coal storage explosions, not a bomb. Indeed, a hospital ship carrying weapons would have been a violation of international laws.

Britannic (film)

Contents

Plot[]

Cast[]

Errors[]

Historical Inaccuracies[]

Continuity[]

Plot holes[]

Videos[]

Trailer[]

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References[]

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