Naval mine ship, HMHS "Britannic", which was the sister ship of the RMS "Titanic." During World War II, the U-boat fleet, which dominated much of the battle of the Atlantic, was small at the beginning of the war and much of the early action by German forces involved mining convoy routes and ports around Britain. German submarines also operated in the Mediterranean Sea, in the Caribbean Sea, and along the U.S. coast. Initially, contact mines (requiring a ship to physically strike a mine to detonate it) were employed, usually tethered at the end of a cable just below the surface of the
Sister ship an . The most famous sister ships were the White Star Line's , and . As with some other liners, the sisters worked as running mates. Other sister ships include the Royal Caribbean International's and . "Half-sister" refers to a ship of the same class but with some significant differences. One example of half-sisters are the First World War-era British s where the first two ships had four guns, but the last ship, , had two guns instead. Another example is the American s of the Second World War that came in "long-hull" and "short-hull" versions. Notable airships include the