Charles Alfred Bartlett

British merchant seaman and navy officer

Known forCaptain of the HMHS Britannic

Commodore Charles Alfred Bartlett CB CBE RD (21 August 1868 – 15 February 1945) was a merchant seaman and Royal Naval Reserve officer, who achieved command status with the White Star Line shipping company, including as captain of HMHS Britannic.

Biography

Born in London, Bartlett served six years with the British-India Steam Navigation Company before joining the White Star Line in 1894.[1] He was appointed as an officer in the Royal Naval Reserve in 1893.[2] He is perhaps best remembered as the captain of the Britannic from 1915 to November 1916, when the ship was sunk off Greece by a German-laid mine. After the war he served as Royal Naval Reserve aide-de-camp to King George V. Bartlett was known as "Iceberg Charlie" to his crew due to his alleged ability to detect icebergs miles away.[3] He retired in 1931 and died in a nursing home in Waterloo near Liverpool on 15 February 1945 at age 76.[4]

In popular culture

Captain Bartlett was portrayed by John Rhys-Davies in the 2000 Fox Family Channel movie Britannic.

References

  1. ^ The last log of the Titanic, By David G. Brown. Pg. 127
  2. ^ "No. 26440". The London Gazette. 12 September 1893. p. 5221.
  3. ^ Sea breezes: the ship lovers' digest, Volume 45, pg. 144
  4. ^ Sea breezes: the ship lovers' digest, Volume 45, pg. 233

External links

  • webpage on Britannic with photo of Captain Bartlett Archived 27 May 2016 at the Wayback Machine
  • formal portrait
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