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
The Ship that Never Returned The Ship that Never Returned The Ship That Never Returned is an 1865 song written by Henry Clay Work, about a ship that left a harbor and never came back. A reason for the ship not returning isn't given in the lyrics. However, the line, "and their fate is yet unlearned", implies that the reason is unknown. The song became so popular that Carl Sandburg's collection "American Songbag" recorded an adaptation from the Kentucky mountains. The tune formed the basis of "Wreck of the Old 97", about a 1903 train wreck; recorded by Vernon Dalhart in 1924, and many others