WSS Admiral Nakhimov, launched in March 1925 and originally named SS Berlin, was a passenger liner of the German Weimar Republic later converted to a hospital ship, then a Soviet passenger ship. On 31 August 1986, Admiral Nakhimov collided with the large bulk carrier Pyotr Vasev in the Tsemes Bay, near the port of Novorossiysk, Russian SFSR, and quickly sank. In total, 423 of the 1,234 people on board died.
WThe Soviet hospital ship Armenia was a transport ship operated by the Soviet Union during World War II to carry both wounded soldiers and military cargo. It had originally been built as a passenger ship for operations on the Black Sea.
WAustralian Hospital Ship (AHS) Centaur was a hospital ship which was attacked and sunk by a Japanese submarine off the coast of Queensland, Australia, on 14 May 1943. Of the 332 medical personnel and civilian crew aboard, 268 died, including 63 of the 65 army personnel.
WSS Colombie was a French merchant ship and later converted to a hospital ship. She was named after Colombie.
WSS Deutschland was a 21,046 gross registered ton (GRT) German HAPAG ocean liner which was sunk in a British air attack on May 3, 1945 when it was in the process of being converted as a hospital ship. All people on-board the Deutschland survived the attack, though two accompanying vessels sank with great loss of life.
WSS Dronning Maud was a 1,489 ton steel-hulled steamship built in 1925 by the Norwegian shipyard Fredrikstad Mekaniske Verksted in Fredrikstad. Dronning Maud was ordered by the Trondheim-based company Det Nordenfjeldske Dampskipsselskap for the passenger and freight service Hurtigruten along the coast of Norway. She served this route as the company flagship until she was sunk under controversial circumstances during the 1940 Norwegian Campaign.
WSS Fuso Maru was a Japanese ocean liner that was torpedoed by the United States Navy submarine USS Steelhead (SS-280) in the South China Sea 280 nautical miles (520 km) northwest of Cape Mayraira, Luzon, the Philippines, at, while she was travelling in Convoy MI-11 from Moji, Japan, to Miri, Borneo.
WMS Jutlandia was contracted by and built for the East Asiatic Company (EAC) in 1934, as a combined passenger and cargo ship at EAC's Nakskov Shipyard, Denmark. Following an extended operational life in which she also served as a hospital ship and a royal yacht, she was finally decommissioned in 1965.
WRMS Lady Nelson was a steam turbine ocean liner which served in passenger service from 1928 to 1968 and operated as wartime hospital ship from 1943 to 1945. One of a class of five sister ships popularly known as "Lady Boats", she was built for the Canadian National Steamship Company (CNS). The five vessels were Royal Mail Ships that CNS operated from Halifax, Nova Scotia and the Caribbean via Bermuda. Lady Nelson was sold to Egyptian owners in 1953 and served as Gumhuryat Misr and Alwadi until she was scrapped in 1968.
WSS 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.
WHospital ships should display large Red Crosses or Red Crescents . The HS Awa Maru was displaying illuminated white crosses on its side when sunk.
WSS Mactan was launched 28 December 1898 as the passenger/cargo ship North Lyell for North Mount Lyell Copper Co.Ltd. intended for service between the west coast of Tasmania and Melbourne. The company no longer needed the ship on delivery in 1899 with resulting sale to Union Steamship Company of New Zealand Ltd. and renaming as Moura. In 1915 upon sale to the Douglas Steamship Company, Ltd. of Hong Kong she was renamed Hai Hong. Upon sale to Philippine operators in 1928 the ship gained the final name Mactan.
WMS Maetsuycker was a Dutch cargo ship and later converted to a hospital ship. She was named after Joan Maetsuycker.
WSS Maid of Kent was a British passenger ferry and later converted to a hospital ship. She was named after Elizabeth Barton.
WHMAS Mallina was a 3,213 GRT cargo ship built by Harland & Wolff, Belfast in 1909 as Mallina for the Australian United Steam Navigation Company for the Rockhampton to Sydney cargo route. She was requisitioned by the Royal Australian Navy in 1914, as a store carrier and collier. She was returned to her owners in 1915. She was sold in 1935 to Machida Shokai Kisen Kaisha, Japan and renamed Seiko Maru, before being sold to Kita Nippon Kisen Kaisha and renamed Siberia Maru No. 3, which was later shortened to Siberian Maru. While steaming in the Sulu Sea, Philippines on 24 September 1944, she was attacked by American aircraft of Task Force 38 and sunk with the loss of 158 of the 2,382 people on board.
WHMHS Newfoundland was a British Royal Mail Ship that was requisitioned as a hospital ship in the World War II. She was sunk in 1943 in an air attack in the Mediterranean.
WMS Oranje, later known as Angelina Lauro, was a Dutch passenger liner, a wartime hospital ship and finally a cruise ship that was burnt out and subsequently lost while being towed for scrap. She sank in a storm in the mid-Pacific, on 24 September 1979. The ship underwent 25 years' service as Oranje, and fifteen as Angelina Lauro. She was a cruise ship for the last seven years of her career.
WSS Pasteur was a steam turbine ocean liner built for Compagnie de Navigation Sud-Atlantique. She later sailed as Bremen for Norddeutscher Lloyd. In the course of her career, she sailed for 41 years under four names and six countries' flags.
WRamb IV was an Italian hospital ship, built at Monfalcone by the United Yards of the Adriatic in 1938.
WThe Robert Ley was a cruise ship of the Nazi Party leisure organization Kraft durch Freude. It was considered the flagship of the KdF fleet.
WMV Saturnia was a Italian ocean liner and later converted to a hospital ship. She was named after Saturnia. She has a sister ship MS Vulcania.
WSS Talamba was a British ocean liner and later converted to a hospital ship. She was named after Tulamba, Pakistan.
WSS Tasman was a 4,922 gross register tons (GRT) Dutch steamship built by Earle's Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Limited, Hull in 1921 for Koninklijke Paketvaart-Maatschappij (KPM), Batavia. With outbreak of the war in the Pacific and the fall of the Dutch East Indies, Tasman was one of 21 KPM vessels that sought refuge in Australia. These ships became the core of the initial Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA) command's permanent local fleet under U.S. Army control. After general service as a transport, the ship was converted to a hospital ship at Melbourne. The ship, under the Dutch flag and Dutch certification under the Hague Convention, served the remainder of the war as a Dutch hospital ship.
WUral Maru was a 6,374-ton Japanese merchant vessel, used as a transport ship and hospital ship during World War II. She was torpedoed and sunk with the loss of some 3,700 lives on 27 September 1944.
WVityaz is a research vessel that was built in 1939 by Deutsche Schiff- und Maschinenbau AG, Bremen, Germany as Mars for Neptun Line, Bremen. She served with the Kriegsmarine during World War II and was seized by the United Kingdom in 1945. She was renamed Empire Forth for the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT).
WSS 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.
WMS Wanganella was an Australian-registered merchant vessel constructed by the Harland and Wolff shipyards and entering service as a trans-Tasman passenger liner in 1933. Originally named Achimota, the liner was acquired by Huddart Parker after the original sale to Elder Dempster Lines fell through.
WThe MV Wilhelm Gustloff was a German armed military transport ship which was sunk on 30 January 1945 by Soviet submarine S-13 in the Baltic Sea while evacuating German civilian refugees from East Prussia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and Estonia and military personnel from Gotenhafen (Gdynia) as the Red Army advanced. By one estimate, 9,400 people died, which makes it the largest loss of life in a single ship sinking in history.