Divers have recovered artifacts from the Britannic, sister ship to the Titanic, for the first time since the ocean liner sank in the Aegean Sea more than a century ago after striking a mine during World War I.

Greece’s Culture Ministry announced Monday that an 11-member deep-sea diving team conducted a week-long operation in May to recover the artifacts, which include the ship’s bell, and the port-side navigation light.

Designed as a luxury cruise liner and launched in 1914, the White Star Line’s Britannic was requisitioned as a hospital ship during the First World War and was heading towards the island of Lemnos when it struck a mine and sank off the island of Kea, about 75 kilometers (45 miles) southeast of Athens, on Nov. 21, 1916.

The vessel, the largest hospital ship at the time, sank in less than an hour.

Thirty of the more than 1,060 people on board died, when the lifeboats they were in were struck by the ship’s still turning propellers.

The wreck lies at a depth of 120 meters (nearly 400 feet), making it accessible only to technical divers.

The 11-member dive team used closed-circuit equipment in a recovery operation organized by British historian Simon Mills, founder of the Britannic Foundation, the Culture Ministry said.

Conditions on the wreck were particularly tough due to currents and low visibility, the ministry said.

Among the items raised to the surface using lift bags were artifacts reflecting both the ship’s utilitarian role and its luxurious design: the lookout bell, the navigation lamp, silver-plated first-class trays, ceramic tiles from a Turkish bath, a pair of passenger binoculars, and a porcelain sink from second-class cabins.

The artifacts are now undergoing conservation in Athens and will be included in the permanent collection of a new Museum of Underwater Antiquities under development at the port of Piraeus.

The museum will feature a dedicated World War I section, with the Britannic as a centerpiece.