Ocean Liner - at War

At War

Ocean liners played a major role in World War I. Large ocean liners such as the Mauretania and Olympic were used as troopships and hospital ships while smaller ocean liners were converted to armed merchant cruisers. The Britannic, sister to the Titanic and Olympic, never served on the liner trade for which she was built, instead entering war service as a hospital ship as soon as she was completed—she lasted a year before being sunk by a mine. Some other liners were converted to innocent-looking armed Q-ships to entrap submarines.

In 1915 the Lusitania, still in service as a civilian passenger vessel, was torpedoed by a German U-boat with many casualties. Ocean liners were also used in World War II as troopships. The Normandie caught fire, capsized and sank in New York in 1942 while being converted for troop duty. The majority of the superliners of the 'twenties and 'thirties were victims of U-boats, mines or enemy aircraft. The Empress of Britain was attacked by German planes, then torpedoed by a U-boat when tugs tried to tow her to safety. She was the largest British ocean liner to sink during World War II. Germany's speed queen the Bremen in 1941 fell victim to an arsonist, believed to be a disgruntled crew member, and became a total loss. Italy's giants, the Rex and the Conte di Savoia were respectively destroyed by the British RAF and the retreating German forces. The United States lost the American President Lines vessel the President Coolidge when she steamed into an Allied mine in the South Pacific. No shipping line was untouched by World War II.

More recently, during the Falklands War, three ships that were either active or former liners were requisitioned for war service by the British Government. The liners QE2 and Canberra were requisitioned from Cunard and P&O to serve as troopships, carrying British Army personnel to Ascension Island and the Falkland Islands to recover the Falklands from the invading Argentine forces. The P&O educational cruise ship and former British India Steam Navigation Company liner Uganda was requisitioned as a hospital ship and, after the war, served as a troopship until an airport was built at Stanley that could handle trooping flights.