White Star Line naval mine, while in service as a hospital ship. "Britannic" was the largest loss for the company, and also the largest ship sunk during the conflict. 1916 also saw the loss of the liner "Cymric" which was torpedoed off the Irish coast in May, and also of the cargo ship "Georgic", which was scuttled in December with its cargo of 1,200 horses still on board, after being intercepted in the Atlantic by the German merchant raider . 1917 saw the loss of the liner "Laurentic" in January which struck a mine off the Irish coast and sank with the loss
Sinking of the RMS Titanic sight the awful spectacle ... Then, with the deadened noise of the bursting of her last few gallant bulkheads, she slid quietly away from us into the sea." "Titanic"s surviving officers and some prominent survivors testified that the ship had sunk in one piece, a belief that was affirmed by the British and American inquiries into the disaster. Archibald Gracie, who was on the promenade deck with the band (by the second funnel), stated that ""Titanic"s decks were intact at the time she sank, and when I sank with her, there was over seven-sixteenths of the ship already under water,