By the early 1900s, though, Cunard was faced with many other ships from several countries also competing with it for passengers going across the Atlantic. This caused the company to build three new ships, larger and faster than the ones before them. They were named RMS "Mauretania", RMS "Lusitania" and RMS "Aquitania". Theses ships made Cunard back into a leading shipping line, even though "Lusitania" was sunk during World War I by a German submarine, killing 1,200 people.