RMS Mauretania (1906) and launched with passengers. When "Britannic", working as a hospital ship during World War I, sank in 1916 after hitting a mine in the Kea channel the already davited boats were swiftly lowered saving nearly all on board, but the ship took nearly three times as long to sink as "Lusitania" and thus the crew had more time to evacuate passengers. "Mauretania" departed Liverpool on her maiden voyage on 16 November 1907 under the command of Captain John Pritchard, and on the return voyage captured the record for the fastest eastbound crossing of the Atlantic, with an average speed of
German Type U 66 submarine under the command of "Kapitänleutnant" Ludwig Güntzel. Six days into her first war patrol, "U-68" encountered the British Q-ship (Q-ship number five) off Dingle and was sunk with all hands. "U-68" sank no ships during her brief service career. "U-69" was laid down on 7 February 1914 (yard number 206) by Germaniawerft at Kiel and launched on 24 June 1915. She was commissioned on 4 September 1915 under the command of "Kapitänleutnant" Ernst Wilhelms. During her service career, "U-69" sank 31 ships with a combined gross register tonnage of 102,875, the largest among them, the 13,441-ton armed merchant cruiser .