RMS Laconia was a Cunard ocean liner, built by Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson as a successor of the 1911–1917 Laconia. The new ship was launched on 9 April 1921, and made her maiden voyage on 25 May 1922 from Southampton to New York City. At the outbreak of the Second World War she was converted into an armed merchant cruiser, and later a troopship. She was sunk in the South Atlantic Ocean on 12 September 1942 by torpedoes. Like her predecessor, sunk during the First World War, this Laconia was also destroyed by a German submarine. Some estimates of the death toll have suggested that over 1,658 people were killed when the Laconia sank. The U-boat commander Werner Hartenstein then staged a dramatic effort to rescue the passengers and the crew of Laconia, which involved additional German U-boats and became known as the Laconia incident.
CP Ships was a large Canadian shipping company established in the 19th century. From the late 1880s until after World War II, the company was Canada's largest operator of Atlantic and Pacific steamships. Many immigrants travelled on CP ships from Europe to Canada. In 1914 the sinking of the Canadian Pacific steamship RMS Empress of Ireland just before World War I became largest maritime disaster in Canadian history. The company provided Canadian Merchant Navy vessels in World Wars I and II. Twelve vessels were lost due to enemy action in World War II, including the RMS Empress of Britain, which was the largest ship ever sunk by a German U-boat.
SS California was a twin-screw steamer that D. and W. Henderson and Company of Glasgow built for the Anchor Line in 1907 as a replacement for the aging ocean liner Astoria, which had been in continuous service since 1884. She worked the Glasgow to New York transatlantic route and was sunk by the German submarine SM U-85 on 7 February 1917.
SS Dwinsk was a transatlantic ocean liner that was launched in Ireland in 1897 as Rotterdam, renamed C. F. Tietgen in 1906, and renamed Dwinsk in 1913. A U-boat sank her in 1918, with the loss of 23 lives. The ship was built for Holland America Line, but was successively owned by Scandinavian America Line and Russian American Line, and after the Russian Revolution she was managed by Cunard Line.
SS Assyrian was a cargo ship that was built in Hamburg for German owners in 1914, transferred to British owners in 1920 as war reparations and sunk by a U-boat in 1940. She was launched as MS Fritz, and when she changed owners in 1920 she was renamed MS Assyrian. She had been built as a motor ship but in 1925 she was converted to a steamship and became SS Assyrian.
USS Howick Hall (ID-1303) was a cargo steamship that was built in Scotland in 1910 and served in the merchant fleets of the United Kingdom, United States, Italy and Panama. She served in the United States Army in 1917–18 and then the United States Navy in 1918–19. The United States Maritime Commission bought her in 1941, and a German air attack sank her in 1942.
MV Dumana was a British cargo liner that was laid down as Melma, but launched in 1921 as Dumana. The British India Steam Navigation Company (BI) owned her, and ran her on routes between London and India.
SS Gallia was a transatlantic ocean liner of the Compagnie de Navigation Sud-Atlantique built in 1913. Gallia was the Roman name for the province of Gaul.
SS Orteric was a Bank Line cargo and passenger steamship that was built in Scotland in 1910–11 and sunk by a U-boat in the Mediterranean Sea in 1915. In 1911 she took 960 Spanish and 565 Portuguese migrants to Hawaii to work on the sugar plantations.
SS Espagne was a Belgian cargo ship that was torpedoed by the Imperial German Navy submarine SM UC-71 in the English Channel off St Catherine's Point, Isle of Wight, England, while she was travelling from Le Havre, France to Newport, Wales.
SS Glenartney was a cargo steamship that was launched in Scotland in 1911 and sunk by a U-boat in the English Channel in 1918.
SS Tokomaru was a British steam cargo ship built in 1893 as Westmeath by C. S. Swan & Hunter of Wallsend for a Sunderland shipowner. The steamer was sold the following year to Shaw, Savill and Albion Steamship Company, renamed Tokomaru, and converted to a refrigerated ship for their New Zealand and Australian routes. In January 1915 the ship was torpedoed and sank off Le Havre, France.
SS Rio Tercero was a cargo steamship that was launched in England in 1912 as Eboe. She was renamed Fortunstella in 1938, and Rio Tercero in 1941. A U-boat sank her in the Battle of the Atlantic in 1942.
SS Teiryu Maru was a steam cargo ship that was launched in England in 1914 as Northwestern Miller. Furness, Withy & Co managed her until 1927, when Norddeutscher Lloyd bought her and renamed her Augsburg.
SS Blitar was a Dutch cargo steamship that was launched in Rotterdam in 1922 and sunk in the Battle of the Atlantic in 1943. She is notable for having fought off three u-boats in succession for nearly ten hours before U-632 finally managed to sink her. 26 of Blitar's complement were killed.
SS Franz Fischer was an iron-hulled collier that was built in England as Rocklands in 1881, renamed Franz Fischer in 1913, and sunk by enemy action in 1916. She was owned and registered in Britain until 1896, when she passed to German owners. In August 1914 the UK Admiralty seized her and placed her under British civilian management.
SS Belgian Prince was a British cargo steamship that was launched in 1900 as Mohawk. She was renamed Hungarian Prince when she changed owners in 1912, and Belgian Prince after the United Kingdom declared war against Austria-Hungary and its allies in 1914.
SS Falaba was a British cargo liner. She was built in Scotland in 1906 and sunk by a U-boat in the North Atlantic in 1915. The sinking killed more than 100 people, provoking outrage in both the United Kingdom and United States.
SS Aguila was a British merchant steamship that was built in Scotland in 1909. She was one of a small fleet of ships that Yeoward Brothers ran between Liverpool and the Canary Islands, importing fruit to Britain, and carrying passengers in both directions. A U-boat sank her in 1915.
United Kingdom
