COBI H.M.H.S. Britannic Set 1681

COBI's H.M.H.S. Britannic is a 1:700 model built from 636 blocks, 38.5 cm long, supplied with a display stand and a plaque carrying the ship's name.

The cranes swing, the propellers and rudder turn, and the model carries the hospital-ship livery the real vessel wore: white hull, a green band along her length and the red crosses that were meant to keep her safe. Every marking is printed onto the blocks — this set contains no stickers — and nothing needs gluing or painting.

The ship that never carried a passenger

Britannic was the third and last of the Olympic-class liners, laid down after Titanic sank and redesigned because of it: a double hull along the boiler and engine rooms, watertight bulkheads carried higher, and enormous gantry davits able to launch lifeboats even with the ship listing badly. She was finished as a hospital ship in 1915 and never took on a fare-paying passenger.

On 21 November 1916 she struck a mine in the Kea Channel in the Aegean and sank in 55 minutes — faster than Titanic, despite every improvement. Almost everyone got off: 30 died out of 1,065 aboard, most of them in two lifeboats launched too early and drawn into the still-turning propellers. She remains the largest ship lost in the First World War. Jacques Cousteau found the wreck in 1975; she lies on her side at 120 metres, largely intact.

One detail links all three sisters. Violet Jessop was aboard Olympic when a cruiser rammed her in 1911, aboard Titanic in 1912, and aboard Britannic in 1916. She survived all three and lived to 83.

In the COBI range

Note the scale. COBI builds most of its warships at 1:300; this model is 1:700, the same as the Titanic set 1680, so the two sisters stand correctly beside each other. They will not match the 1:300 vessels.

Specifications

Pieces: 636 · Scale: 1:700 · Age: 7+
Model dimensions: 38.5 × 12 cm (15.2 × 4.7 in)