although punctuated by incidents. This was not the case for her sister, the , which sank on her maiden voyage on 15 April 1912, resulting in several changes to maritime safety practices. As for the third sister, , she never served her intended purpose as a passenger ship, as she was drafted in the First World War as a hospital ship, and sank to a naval mine in 1916. At the same time, France tried to mark its presence with the completion in 1912 of owned by the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique. Germany soon responded to the competition from the British. From 1912 to 1914, Hamburg America Line completed a trio of liners significantly larger than the White Star Line's Olympic-class ships. The first to be completed, in 1913 was . She was followed by SS Vaterland in 1914. The construction of the third liner, , was paused by the outbreak of the First World War. The First World War was a hard time for the liners. Some of them, like the Mauretania, , and Britannic were transformed into hospital ships during the conflict. Others became troop transports, while some, such as the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, participated in the war as warships. Troop transportation was very popular due to the liners' large size. Liners converted into troop ships were painted in dazzle camouflage to reduce the risk of being torpedoed by enemy submarines. The war was marked by the loss of many liners. Britannic, while serving as a hospital ship, sank in the Aegean Sea in 1916 after she struck a mine. Numerous incidents of torpedoing took place and large numbers of ships sank. Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse was defeated and scuttled after a fierce battle with off the coast of west Africa, while her sister ship served as a commerce raider. The torpedoing and sinking of Lusitania on 7 May 1915 caused the loss of 128 American lives at a time when the United States was still neutral. Although other factors came into play, the loss of American lives in the sinking strongly pushed the United States to favour the Allied Powers and facilitated the country's entry into the war. The losses of the liners owned by the Allied Powers were compensated by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. This led to the awarding of many German liners to the victorious Allies. The Hamburg America Line's trio (, Vaterland,