HMS Otranto was an armed merchant cruiser requisitioned by the British Admiralty when World War I began in 1914. Built before the war for the UK–Australia run as SS Otranto, she was primarily used in the war to search for German commerce raiders. She played small roles in the Battle of Coronel in November 1914 when the German East Asia Squadron destroyed the British squadron searching for it and in the Battle of the Falkland Islands the following month when a British squadron annihilated the Germans in turn.
RMS Alcantara was an ocean liner which entered service just weeks before the start of World War I, was converted to an armed merchant cruiser in 1915, and was sunk in combat with the German armed merchant cruiser SMS Greif in the Action of 29 February 1916.
RMS Arlanza was a 14,622 GRT ocean liner of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company. She was built in Belfast in 1912 for RMSP's scheduled route between England and South America. She was a Royal Navy armed merchant cruiser from 1915 until 1920. She returned to civilian liner service in 1920 and was scrapped in 1938.
RMS Transylvania was a British ocean liner. She was launched on 11 March 1925 for the Anchor Line and was the sister ship to the SS California and RMS Caledonia. She was converted into an armed merchant cruiser, pennant F56 during World War II. On 10 August 1940, HMS Transylvania was torpedoed and sunk by the German U-boat U-56.
HMS Salmon was a second-batch S-class submarine built during the 1930s for the Royal Navy. Completed in 1935, the boat fought in the Second World War. Salmon is one of twelve boats named in the song "Twelve Little S-Boats".
SMS Bremen was the lead ship of the seven-vessel Bremen class of light cruisers, built for the German Kaiserliche Marine in the early 1900s. She and her sister ships were ordered under the 1898 Naval Law that required new cruisers be built to replace obsolete vessels in the fleet. The design for the Bremen class was derived from the preceding Gazelle class, utilizing a larger hull that allowed for additional boilers that increased speed. Bremen was armed with a main battery of ten 10.5 cm (4.1 in) guns and had a top speed of 22 knots.
German submarine U-74 was a Type VIIB U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II.
RMS Ophir was an Orient Steam Navigation Company steam ocean liner that was built in 1891 and scrapped in 1922. Her regular route was between London and Sydney via the Suez Canal, Colombo and Melbourne.
RMS Empress of France, formerly SS Alsatian was an ocean liner built in 1913-1914 by William Beardmore and Company at Glasgow in Scotland for Allan Line. In total, the ship's service history encompasses 99 trans-Atlantic voyages, 5 trans-Pacific voyages, and 8 other cruises in addition to her war service.
Bremen was a blockade-breaking German merchant submarine of World War I. Developed with private funds and operated by the Norddeutscher Lloyd Line, she was one of the first of seven U-151-class U-boats built and one of only two used as unarmed cargo submarines.
RMS Atrato was a UK steamship that was built in 1888 as a Royal Mail Ship and ocean liner for the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company. In 1912 she was sold and became the cruise ship The Viking. Late in 1914 she was requisitioned and converted into the armed merchant cruiser HMS Viknor. She sank in 1915 with all hands, a total of 295 Royal Navy officers and men.
The U-boat campaign from 1914 to 1918 was the World War I naval campaign fought by German U-boats against the trade routes of the Allies, largely in the seas around the British Isles and in the Mediterranean, as part of a mutual blockade between the German Empire and the United Kingdom.
SM U-21 was a U-boat built for the Imperial German Navy shortly before World War I. The third of four Type U-19-class submarines, these were the first U-boats in German service to be equipped with diesel engines. U-21 was built between 1911 and October 1913 at the Kaiserliche Werft in Danzig. She was armed with four torpedo tubes and a single deck gun; a second gun was added during her career.
The action of 29 February 1916 was a naval engagement fought during the First World War between the United Kingdom and the German Empire. SMS Greif, a German commerce raider, broke out into the North Sea and Admiral Sir John Jellicoe dispatched Royal Navy warships to intercept the raider. Four British vessels intercepted the commerce raider Greif. The armed merchant cruiser RMS Alcantara and Greif fought a brief engagement before British reinforcements arrived when both were severely damaged, both being sunk.
RMS Victorian was the world's first turbine-powered ocean liner. She was designed as a transatlantic liner and mail ship for Allan Line and launched in 1904.
An armed boarding steamer was a merchantman that the British Royal Navy converted to a warship during the First World War. AB steamers or vessels had the role of enforcing wartime blockades by intercepting and boarding foreign vessels. The boarding party would inspect the foreign ship to determine whether to detain the ship and send it into port or permit it to go on its way.
United States Navy operations during World War I began on April 6, 1917, after the formal declaration of war on the German Empire. The United States Navy focused on countering enemy U-boats in the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea while convoying men and supplies to France and Italy. Because of United States's late entry into the war, her capital ships never engaged the German fleet and few decisive submarine actions occurred.
HMS Ambrose was a steamship that was built for in 1903 as a passenger liner. The Booth Steam Ship Company ran her scheduled on services between Liverpool and Brazil until the First World War.
The second HMS Wivern, was a Modified W-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in World War II.
Edinburgh Castle was a Union-Castle Line steam ocean liner and refrigerated cargo ship that was launched in 1910 and sunk in 1945. In peacetime she was in liner service between Great Britain and South Africa.
United Kingdom