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
Gil Eannes (ship) hospital ship, "Gil Eannes" served also as maritime authority, mail ship, tug, icebreaker and general support ship for the Portuguese fishing vessels. "Gil Eannes" was designed to replace a ship with the same name, as hospital and support ship for the Portuguese White Fleet. The first "Gil Eannes" was the former German merchant ship "Lahneck", captured by the Portuguese authorities in 1916. "Lahneck" was then renamed "Gil Eannes", being transformed and employed as auxiliary cruiser by the Portuguese Navy, during World War I. In 1927, she was adapted to hospital ship and sent, for the first time, to the seas