The RMS Queen Elizabeth was an ocean liner operated by Cunard Line. With Queen Mary she provided weekly luxury liner service between Southampton in the United Kingdom and New York City in the United States, via Cherbourg in France.
USS Culgoa (AF-3) was a refrigerated supply ship in the United States Navy.
HMS Hermes was a British aircraft carrier built for the Royal Navy and was the world's first ship to be designed as an aircraft carrier, although the Imperial Japanese Navy's Hōshō was the first to be launched and commissioned. The ship's construction began during the First World War, but she was not completed until after the end of the war, having been delayed by multiple changes in her design after she was laid down. After she was launched, the Armstrong Whitworth shipyard which built her closed, and her fitting out was suspended. Most of the changes made were to optimise her design, in light of the results of experiments with operational carriers.
USS Rainbow (AS-7) was the only ship in the United States Navy by that name. The ship was originally converted to a distilling ship in 1898, and then converted again in 1917 to a submarine tender.
A hell ship is a ship with extremely inhumane living conditions or with a reputation for cruelty among the crew. It now generally refers to the ships used by the Imperial Japanese Navy and Imperial Japanese Army to transport Allied prisoners of war (POWs) and rōmusha out of the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies, Hong Kong and Singapore in World War II. These POWs were taken to the Japanese Islands, Formosa, Manchukuo, Korea, the Moluccas, Sumatra, Burma, or Siam to be used as forced labor.
SS Léopoldville was a 11,509 GRT passenger liner of the Compagnie Belge Maritime du Congo. She was converted for use as a troopship in the Second World War, and on December 24, 1944, while sailing between Southampton and Cherbourg, was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-486. As a result, about 763 US soldiers and 56 of the ship's crew died.
HMS Carlisle was a C-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy, named after the English city of Carlisle. She was the name ship of the Carlisle group of the C-class of cruisers. Carlisle was credited with shooting down eleven Axis aircraft during the Second World War and was the top scoring anti-aircraft ship in the Royal Navy.
SS Earnmoor was a tramp steamer that sank during a storm in 1889. The survivors drifted for 21 days in an open boat and were allegedly forced into cannibalism to survive.
RMS Empress of Canada was an ocean liner built in 1920 for the Canadian Pacific Steamships (CP) by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company at Govan on the Clyde in Scotland. This ship—the first of three CP vessels to be named Empress of Canada—regularly traversed the trans-Pacific route between the west coast of Canada and the Asian waters until 1939.
SS Hsin Wah, now also known as the SS Xinhua, was a steamship owned by China Merchants Steam Navigation Company, navigating between Canton City, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. She was built in 1921 by Napier & Miller in Glasgow. The ship was seized by pirates of Bias Bay in 1928 and saved by the SS Zhongshan. She sunk in 1929 when grounded on northern rocks of Waglan Island south-east of Hong Kong Island, with a loss of between 300 and 400 lives.
The SS Bokhara was a P&O steamship which sank in a typhoon on 10 October 1892, off the coast of Sand Island in the Pescadores, Formosa. Of the 150 people who perished, eleven were members of the Hong Kong cricket team.
SS Empire Clansman was a 2,065 ton collier which was built in 1942 for the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT). She saw service mainly in British coastal waters during the Second World War, before running aground and being badly damaged in 1945. She was subsequently salvaged and returned to service for several companies after the war, under the names Sheaf Field, Corfield and then Spyros Amrenakis, before being wrecked for a second and final time in 1965.
HMS Foxglove was an Acacia-class minesweeping sloop of the Royal Navy. She saw service in World War I and World War II.
Leander was a 989 GRT coaster that was built in 1925 by Atlas Werke AG, Hamburg, Germany. The British Royal Navy captured her in November 1939 and impressed her into service as Empire Crusader. She was bombed and sunk in 1940.
Empire Dell was a 7,065 GRT CAM ship that was built in 1941 by Lithgows Ltd, Port Glasgow, United Kingdom for the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT). She served until May 1942, when she was torpedoed and sunk by U-124 whilst a member of Convoy ONS 92.
The Irene incident of 1927 was a significant event of the British anti-piracy operations in China during the first half of the 20th century. In an attempt to surprise the pirates of Bias Bay, about sixty miles from Hong Kong, Royal Navy submarines attacked the merchant ship SS Irene, of the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company, which had been taken over by the pirates on the night of 19 October. The British were successful in thwarting the hijacking though they sank the ship.
Habib Marikar was a 7,067 GRT cargo ship that was built in 1943 by Short Brothers Ltd, Sunderland, Co Durham as Empire Duchess for the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT). She was sold into merchant service in 1949 and renamed Braemar Castle. A further sale in 1950 saw her renamed King James.
The MV Tulagi was a merchant ship built in 1939 and operated by the Burns Philp shipping line to carry cargo between the Pacific Islands and Australian ports. With the outbreak of World War II the Tulagi formed part of the Allied merchant navy fleet supplying the war effort throughout the Pacific and Indian Ocean theatres.
Elizabeth was launched at Liverpool in 1801. She made one voyage for the British East India Company (EIC). She wrecked, with great loss of life, in December 1810 early in the outward leg of a second voyage to India for the EIC.
The SS Dongola, launched 14 September 1905, was a steam-powered passenger liner of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O), at various times used as a Royal Navy troop ship and hospital ship.
United Kingdom
