Engelhardts

[Bob Read]

Does anyone know if the collapsibles used on HMHS
Britannic were Engelhardts? There were a number of other collapsible designs available at this time. I believe that H&W even developed their own design. Any information would be helpful.
If you have a specific reference, that would be even better.

Regards,
Bob Read

 

[Brian R Peterson]

Hi Bob,

I don’t have any specific references, however based on the photographs I have seen including a few on the Boat Deck, I believe the Britannic only carried wooden cutters. There may have been Englehardts used that are not in view, but I have not seen any evidence for this.

Best Regards,

Brian

 

[Bob Read]

Brian:

I have a specific reference on collapsibles:
Simon Mills' "Hostage to Fortune". At the back of the book there is a revised rigging plan for
the hospital version of the ship and it shows collapsibles stowed on deck under the lifeboats
held in the Welin davits at the side and stern.
The only question is what design were they?

Regards,
Bob Read

 

[Bob Read]

Brian:
One further note: The rigging plan in Simon Mills' book showing the hospital ship modifications is an H&W plan. Through Michail Michailakis Simon Mills confirmed that the plan was an H&W original plan and not a current update of an old plan.

Photos are all but useless in identifying the type of collapsibles used. Simon further specified that the type of collapsible was not mentioned in the Britannic Specification Book.

Perhaps in the H&W archives held by UFTM one could find an answer. Sadly the UFTM cannot or will not cooperate in making materials from the H&W archive available to the general research community.

Regards,
Bob Read

 

[Brian R Peterson]

Hi Bob,

Thanks for your insight. I am just as clueless as the to designs of the lifeboats, my earlier post was debating the fact that I had not yet seen a photo of the Britannic in which Englehardts were visible.

As for the UFTM and H&W archives, as addressed in other posts, there is not very much they have left to offer and the main of their Olympic Class archives have been stolen to bolster others' personal collections under the veil of research.

Best Regards,

Brian

 

[Bob Read]

Brian:

The question that I would like someone to answer is this:

Would the copying of the numerous pieces of original material in private collections diminish their value? If I have a photocopy of the Mona Lisa, does the original automatically
lose value? My opinion is no.

I have a feeling that the reason many of these items are not shared is because they were ill gotten. At this point I don't even care about that. There is so much information that could be gleaned from these materials that I believe it would make dives on the wreck pale in comparison to the harvest of information that would come from these materials.

Having said all that, I don't see anything on the immediate horizon which would change the status quo. Perhaps when this generation who holds original materials dies, their heirs may disseminate the materials. I probably won't smell too good by then.

As to the collapsible lifeboats on Britannic. The H&W rigging plan for the modified Britannic
does not get specific as to which type of collapsible was used. They could even have been
H&W design collapsibles. The builders of the Fine Art Models 1/48 Titanic stumbled onto this H&W collapsible design and incorrectly used it on their model instead of the Engelhardt design.
The modified rigging plan is the only document that I have seen which shows at least some of the modifications which were made to ready Britannic for hospital service.

The answers to these and other questions about HMHS Britannic may now be among the "lost" documents of H&W or they may be buried in some
long forgotten Admiralty files.

Regards,
Bob Read