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RMS Majestic was a British passenger liner owned by the White Star Line. An Olympic-class liner and sister of the famed Titanic, Majestic was launched in 1912 and departed Southampton on her maiden voyage on 10 September 1913. During the First World War, less than three years into service, the Majestic was struck and sunk by an Imperial German mine on Sunday, 21 May 1916 in the Irish Sea, killing 1,110 of the 1,912 people aboard. It was one of the largest marititime loss of life during the war.

Titanic disaster
Majestic was nearing completion at Harland and Wolff when Titanic struck an iceberg and sank on her maiden voyage on 15 April 1912. Following the foundering of Titanic, the launch of Majestic, originally scheduled for the following month, was delayed several months as work halted on her and investigations were conducted on the Titanic disaster as well as White Star. Throughout the summer of 1912, many last-minute design changes

Last voyage
On Monday, 15 May 1916 Majestic departed New York for Southampton at 13:00 carrying 1,832 passengers and crew, barely two thirds of her full capacity. During this time, the demand for steamships making transatlantic crossings had fallen very low due to the height of the war in Europe. After the Lusitania disaster one year earlier, passengers were particularly wary to make the journey. Due to this, the number of Majestic's monthly crossings had been reduced from two to one and she had been laid up in New York since her arrival there on 29 March. Commodore Thomas James Attenborough, a vetern captain with more than 30 years' service with the White Star Line, had been assigned to the Majestic just prior to her departure from New York and this was his first time commanding the ship. Though accepting of the duty, Attenborough was notably wary of commanding such a large and conspicuous vessel as the Majestic during wartime. Just two months earlier, Imperial Germany had extended the zone of submarine warfare much further around the British Isles and reports of heightened submarine activity in the area that lay directly in Majestic's path had been reported. Despite this and other well-known risks, when Majestic left her pier in New York on 15 May, she was carrying more passengers than she had done on any crossing since the autumn of the previous year.