SS Ceramic was a steam ocean liner built in Belfast for White Star Line in 1912–13 and operated on the Liverpool – Australia route. Ceramic was the largest ship serving the route until P&O introduced RMS Mooltan in 1923.
The second 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 subsequently a troopship. 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.
SS City of Benares was a British steam-powered ocean liner, built for Ellerman Lines by Barclay, Curle & Co of Glasgow in 1936. During the Second World War the City of Benares was used as an evacuee ship to transport 90 children from Britain to Canada. The ship was torpedoed and sunk in September of 1940 by the German submarine U-48 with the loss of 258 people out of a complement of 406, including the death of 77 of the evacuated children. The sinking caused such public outrage in Britain that it led to Winston Churchill cancelling the Children's Overseas Reception Board (CORB) plan to relocate British children abroad.
Ellerman Lines was a UK cargo and passenger shipping company that operated from the late nineteenth century and into the twentieth century. It was founded in the late 19th century, and continued to expand by acquiring smaller shipping lines until it became one of the largest shipping firms in the World. Setbacks occurred through heavy losses to its merchant fleet in the First and Second World Wars but were overcome in each case.
German submarine U-48 was a Type VIIB U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II, and the most successful that was commissioned. During her two years of active service, U-48 sank 51 ships for a total of 299,477 GRT and 1,060 tons; she also damaged four more for a total of 27,877 GRT over twelve war patrols conducted during the opening stages of the Battle of the Atlantic.
SS President Coolidge was an American luxury ocean liner that was completed in 1931. She was operated by Dollar Steamship Lines until 1938, and then by American President Lines until 1941. She served as a troopship from December 1941 until October 1942, when she was sunk by mines in Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides at the Espiritu Santo Naval Base, part of current-day Vanuatu. President Coolidge had a sister ship, SS President Hoover, completed in 1930 and lost when she ran aground in a typhoon in 1937.
USS Refuge (AH-11), was a hospital ship of the United States Navy during World War II. The ship was built in 1921 by the New York Shipbuilding Corp., of Camden, New Jersey, as SS Blue Hen State, but was renamed President Garfield in 1923 and then SS President Madison in 1940 for service with American President Lines. Acquired by the Navy from the War Shipping Administration on 11 April 1942 the ship was commissioned as the transport USS Kenmore until conversion to a hospital ship.
RMS Mooltan was an ocean liner and Royal Mail Ship of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O). She was ordered in 1918 and completed in 1923. She served in the Second World War first as the armed merchant cruiser HMS Mooltan (F75) and then as a troop ship. She was retired from P&O service in 1953 and scrapped in 1954.
SS City of Nagpur was a British passenger steamship. She was built in 1922 by Workman, Clark and Company, Belfast for Ellerman Lines Ltd of London. She was registered in Glasgow. She was sunk in the Second World War in 1941.
SS City of Venice was an intermediate ocean liner that was launched in 1924 in Northern Ireland for Ellerman Lines. In the Second World War she was a troop ship. In 1943 a U-boat sank her in the Mediterranean, killing 22 of the crew and troops aboard.
SS City of Johannesburg was a British cargo steamship that was sunk in 1942. She was built by Barclay, Curle & Co, of Whiteinch, Glasgow in 1920, for Hall Lines of Liverpool, a subsidiary of Ellerman Lines, being launched as SS Melford Hall. She was renamed SS City of Johannesburg in 1926.
Spreewald was a German passenger-carrying freighter built in 1922 by Deutsche Werft at Hamburg for the Hamburg America Line. The ship was renamed Anubis in 1935, but reverted to Spreewald in 1939. On 31 January 1942 when returning to Germany in disguise, she was sunk by U-333.
The Children's Overseas Reception Board (CORB) was a British government sponsored organisation. The CORB evacuated 2,664 British children from England, so that they would escape the imminent threat of German invasion and the risk of enemy bombing in World War II. This was during a critical period in British history, between July and September 1940, when the Battle of Britain was raging, and German invasion forces were being amassed across the English Channel.
SS Letitia was an ocean liner built in Scotland for service with the Anchor-Donaldson Line. She continued to serve with its successor company Donaldson Atlantic Line. At the start of the Second World War in September 1939, the British Admiralty requisitioned the ship for service and had it converted to serve as an armed merchant cruiser. She was withdrawn from this service in 1941 to become a troop ship.
Lesbian was a 2,352 GRT cargo ship which was built by Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson Ltd, Newcastle upon Tyne in 1923 for Ellerman Lines Ltd. She was seized in 1940 by the Vichy French forces.
British Corporal was a 6,972 GRT tanker that was built in 1922 by Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company, Jarrow, Northumberland, United Kingdom. She was built for the British Tanker Company.
SS Volendam was a 15,434 GRT ton ocean liner operated by Holland America Line. She was built in 1922 by Harland & Wolff Ltd, in Govan, Glasgow. Her 15,450 GRT sister ship TSS Veendam was built by Harland & Wolff the following year. She operated on transatlantic routes between Europe and the USA, sailing the Rotterdam – New York and Rotterdam – Halifax service.
RMS Nova Scotia was a 6,796 GRT UK transatlantic ocean liner and Royal Mail Ship. In World War II she was requisitioned as a troopship. In 1942 a German submarine sank her in the Indian Ocean with the loss of 858 of the 1,052 people aboard.
City of Edinburgh may refer to a number of ships, all named after the city of Edinburgh, Scotland:
SS Broompark was a British cargo ship which was torpedoed by a U-boat on 25 July 1942 and sank three days later. Launched in October 1939, it was operated by the Denholm Line. In June 1940 as part of Operation Aerial it brought 33 French scientists including Lew Kowarski and Hans Halban, and their families to Britain before the Fall of France. They brought with them 26 cans containing 185 kilograms (408 lb) of heavy water, machine tools, and $10 million in diamonds. The ship was torpedoed on 21 September 1940, but made port under its own steam.
United Kingdom 
Glasgow 
