Further Blue Riband Contests 173 



their fate whilst the gallant ship sank 

 slowly under their feet. 



The going of the Titanic led to the 

 immediate laying down of a successor, the 

 Britannic, which was rather larger, and 

 was on the stocks when the War broke out. 

 She was ready in 1915, but never took her 

 place in the Atlantic service. I saw her 

 moored in Spithead in July, 1916, and 

 admired her splendid proportions. I won- 

 dered how she would fare, and, with 

 regret, learned that a few months later she 

 was sunk by a mine in Greek waters whilst 

 engaged on War service. It would have 

 been much better to have kept her in the 

 Solent as a huge floating hospital. 



The big ship was very unfortunate in 

 these years for we see that out of six 

 vessels exceeding 25,000 tons, three of 

 them were lost. 



Soon after the Olympic was in service, 

 she was eclipsed in size by the German 

 Imperator. By the irony of fate the nation 

 who so wantonly sank the " Lucy " have 



