USS Winchester (SP-156) was an armed yacht that served in the United States Navy as a patrol vessel from 1917 to 1919. Prior to and following World War I, Winchester was a private yacht, later renamed Renard. In World War II, Renard was requisitioned for use in the Royal Canadian Navy as a patrol vessel, keeping her name. She was returned to her owners in 1944.
HMAS Ballarat (J184), named for the city of Ballarat, Victoria, was one of 60 Bathurst-class corvettes constructed during World War II and one of 20 built for the Admiralty but manned by personnel of and commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).
HMS Riviera was a seaplane tender which served in the Royal Navy (RN) during the First and Second World Wars. Converted from the cross-Channel packet ship SS Riviera, she was initially fitted with temporary hangars for three seaplanes for aerial reconnaissance and bombing missions in the North Sea. She participated in the unsuccessful Cuxhaven Raid in late 1914 before she began a more thorough conversion in 1915 that increased her capacity to four aircraft. Riviera and her aircraft then spent several years spotting for British warship bombarding the Belgian coast and making unsuccessful attacks on targets in Germany. She was transferred to the Mediterranean in 1918 and returned to her owners the following year.
Asbury Park was a high-speed coastal steamer built in Philadelphia, and intended to transport well-to-do persons from New York to summer homes on the New Jersey shore. This vessel was sold to West Coast interests in 1918, and later converted to an automobile ferry, serving on various routes San Francisco Bay, Puget Sound and British Columbia. This vessel was known by a number of other names, including City of Sacramento, Kahloke, Langdale Queen, and Lady Grace.
Polar Chief was an 8,040 GRT tanker which was built in 1897 as the cargo ship Montcalm. In 1914 she was requisitioned by the Admiralty, serving initially as a troopship. In October 1914, she was converted to a dummy battleship and renamed HMS Audacious. In 1915 she became a depot ship, followed by conversion to a tanker in 1916 when she was sold into Royal Fleet Auxiliary service and renamed RFA Crenella. In 1917, she survived a torpedo attack off the coast of Ireland. In 1919, she was sold into merchant service as SS Crenella.
Lina Fisser was a 1,497 GRT cargo ship that was built in 1912 by Blyth Shipbuilding and Drydock Co Ltd, Blyth as Thyra Menier for British owners. In 1918, she was sold to Belgian owners and renamed Luis Pindal. In 1925, she was sold to Italian owners and renamed Bellini. A further sale in 1928 to German owners saw her renamed Bollan and then Lina Fisser in 1936.
SS Wandilla was a steamship built in 1912 for the Adelaide Steamship Company. The ship operated on the Fremantle to Sydney run until 1915, when she was acquired for military service and redesignated HMAT Wandilla. Initially used as a troop transport, the vessel was converted to a hospital ship in 1916. Wandilla was returned to her owners at the end of the war, then was sold to the Bermuda & West Indies SS Company and renamed Fort St. George in 1921. She was sold in 1935 to Lloyd Triestino and renamed Cesarea before being renamed Arno in 1938. At the start of World War II, the ship was acquired by the Regia Marina for use as a hospital ship. She was sunk by British aircraft on 10 September 1942.
Laura was an 842 GRT coaster that was built in 1908 by Kjøbenhavns Flydedok & Skibsværft, Copenhagen, Denmark for Danish owners. She was captured in 1917 by UC-79 and passed to German owners as a prize of war.
HMAS Koolonga was a 4,260 gross tons cargo ship built by Sunderland Shipbuilding Company, South Dock Sunderland, England, in 1914 and bought by McIlwraith, McEacharn Line Pty Ltd, Melbourne and named SS Koolonga. She was requisitioned by the Royal Australian Navy on 6 August 1914, as a collier and supply ship. She was returned to her owners in late 1915. She was sold in 1937 to Madrigal & Company, Philippines and renamed Paz. She was scuttled during the Second World War at Sourabaya Harbour in 1942 and was later salvaged by the Imperial Japanese and renamed Hatsu Maru. While at anchor in Manila Bay, Philippines on 13 November 1944, she was attacked by United States Navy carrier aircraft and was sunk.
SS Santa Rosa was a passenger/cargo ocean liner in service for the Grace Line and later the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company. The vessel also saw military transport service during both World War I and World War II.
HMS Lothian, was a former cargo ship launched in 1938, as MV City of Edinburgh, which was requisitioned during the Second World War as a troop transport and later converted by the Royal Navy into a headquarters ship in the Pacific. The ship is notable for a mutiny that occurred onboard whilst docked at Balboa, Panama in September 1944.
City of Edinburgh may refer to a number of ships, all named after the city of Edinburgh, Scotland:
Kuroshio Maru was a tanker that was built in 1938 for Japanese owners. She was chartered by the Imperial Japanese Navy and Imperial Japanese Army during World War II: the ship was sunk in January 1945 at Takao, Formosa by American aircraft. Salvaged in 1946, she was allocated as a war prize to China and renamed Yung Hao, but was forced to remain at Hong Kong by the British. She was requisitioned by the Admiralty during the Korean War and allocated to the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. She was to have been named RFA Surf Pilot but due to her poor condition she did not serve in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. She served as Surf Pilot, a tender to HMS Terror until 1958 and was subsequently scuttled off Pulau Aur, Malaya in 1960.
TrSS St Petersburg was a passenger vessel built for the Great Eastern Railway in 1910.
TSS Hantonia was a passenger vessel built for the London and South Western Railway in 1911.
The steamship Kerry Range was a 5,800-ton general cargo freighter, armed with 4.7-inch (119 mm) guns, that had been built by the Northumberland Shipbuilding Company and launched on 27 November 1915. While serving as a Royal Navy armed transport she was damaged in a fire, with loss of life, in Baltimore, Maryland, in October 1917. Investigating officials, after the fire, were convinced the vessel was the target of arson, and that the arsonists were German agents—an enemy of the United Kingdom and the United States, during World War I. Several suspects were arrested. However, it was later determined that the fire on Pier 9, that triggered the fire on board Kerry Range, was due to an electrical malfunction that triggered oakum, a flammable product once used to pack seams on ships. Three crew members lost their lives. Firefighting officials towed the blazing vessel away from the pier, to help prevent it igniting nearby Pier 8, and scuttled her. It took over a day to completely put out the fires on the hulk. Some press reports at the time wrote she was a complete write-off. However, the damaged vessel was salvaged and sold to the Steam Navigation Company of Canada in 1918.
The SS Runic was a steamship built at Harland and Wolff in Belfast for the White Star Line which entered service in 1901. Runic was the fourth of five Jubilee Class ocean liners built for White Star's Australia service along with her sister ship SS Suevic, where she ran on the Liverpool–Cape Town–Sydney route. She served this route until she was requisitioned for use as a war transport between 1915 and 1919, before returning to the Australia service.
