rip1912 wrote:
Hey, thanks, Mark! I've wondered about Britannic's furnishings for quite awhile now. I found that info very interesting.
I really appreciate it.

Titanic King wrote:
Man, you sure do no alot of things about Titanic, Olympic, and Britannic.

Mark Chirnside, June 8th 2001:

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…In March 1917 Harland & Wolff gave a final cost of £1,947,797 5 shillings 10 pence, for the cost of the ship, including roughly £26,000 (£28,000?) of expenditure incurred ‘for equipment and outfit, including furniture, fittings, electro plate, linen, etc.’ However, an amount of £18,784 9 shillings 11 pence is deducted from the figure, giving a £12,000 cost included in the ship…

This £18,784 9 shillings 11 pence figure is deducted due to expenditure of equipment ‘retained on shore at Liverpool and Southampton, or with suppliers,’ which seems to refer to furnishings and fittings at storage in those two places when Britannic was originally completed as a hospital ship at Liverpool in December 1915, and in September 1916 hurried to Southampton when luxury fittings were removed and some more hospital fittings were put on as she lay off Cowes.

Now, if roughly £18,000 of fittings was off the ship, and the remaining £12,000 included in the cost of the ship and lost with her, can anybody provide an estimate regarding the complete cost of her fittings, and we could estimate how much was where? A further point is that some fittings may not ever have been manufactured, while we know some were auctioned in 1919 after being kept in storage since 1915, perhaps at Belfast which would be another quantity, but more likely from those at Liverpool and Southampton.
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(I hope Eric doesn’t mind me re-posting extracts from his earlier post in this thread, but it’s on this board in any case if you check that link.)

Eric Sauder, June 10th 2001:

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An auction of fittings from Britannic was held on 4 July 1919 and the items scattered to the wind. The whereabouts of a few Britannic fittings is known.

*A pub in Belfast that has a few bits and pieces of her Dining and Reception Rooms and some suite details.

*A private flat in Belfast has a large amount of paneling from two of her best suites.

*A collector in Germany has had a fair bit of luck tracking down some fittings and paneling from her first-class staircases among other things.

*Some of it wound up on other ships. A bed that found its way onto Olympic was sold at auction a number of years ago. It was stamped "433" and sold for just over $1,000. (My guess is that a fair number of Britannic items were placed on Olympic. After all, these were fittings from a nearly identical sistership, and there would have been no reason for White Star to "unload" a lot of the furniture at auction when it could simply be placed in storage and put on Olympic or another liner when their fittings wore out or were broken.)

*The bookcase from her second-class Library was going to be auctioned about eight years years ago. Shortly before the sale, the auction house was contacted by someone acting on behalf of a private party, who was interested in purchasing it before it went to auction. The sale was made, and it turned out that the annonymous purchaser was Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

*And a huge amount of paneling was discovered just a few years ago in a warehouse in Belfast. (It was subsequently sold, but off hand I can't remember to whom.)

As for the woodwork at the Billingham Arms Hotel in England that supposedly comes from Britannic's first-class Smoking Room, although it looks similar to that on Britannic, remember that the only surviving image of Britannic's Smoking Room is a *rendering* not a photograph. Hardly conclusive proof. Also, a lot of the paneling carved at the time was quite similar in style. To be honest, there was nothing special about what was produced for the White Star Trio. As evidence, look at the Holland America ships of the time. They were all built by H&W, and many, many fittings and furniture are identical to those on Olympic, etc. Until I see some proof that the woodwork came from Britannic (perhaps the tell-tale hull number or room name on the back of one of the panels), I really can't add it to my list of "known" fittings.

Although I've seen copies of the catalogues for Mauretania, Aquitania, and Olympic dispersal sales, one has never turned up for Britannic that I know of.

Eric Sauder.


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I hope you find this information interesting.