Page 15 - Danny Ranchuk

This is the Troop ship Lady Nelson that Danny’s future bride sailed in to Canada. The Lady
Nelson was built in 1928 by Cammell Laird of Birkenhead, on the Wirral in England.

Lady Nelson was torpedoed by U-161 while alongside at Castries, St. Lucia. Fifteen
passengers and three crewmen were killed. The ship sank at the wharf but was refloated in
late March and towed to Mobile, Alabama for repairs.
The Canadian Government decided to convert Lady Nelson to a hospital ship to bring home
Canadian wounded. Canadians had previously been sent home for treatment on British
hospital ships but as casualties mounted from fighting in North Africa, the British asked
Canada to provide its own hospital ships. Although informally called HMCS or HMCHS
Lady Nelson by her crew, she remained owned by Canadian National Steamships, under
charter by the Canadian Department of National Defence and retained a civilian crew of 75
from the Canadian Merchant Navy and 100 medical staff from the Canadian army. As a
hospital ship, Lady Nelson made 30 crossings of the Atlantic and brought 25,000 wounded
Canadians home. When fighting ended in Europe in June 1945, Lady Nelson was switched
to returning Canadian soldiers and war brides.
Lady Nelson returned to civilian duties in 1946. In 1952 the two surviving Liners out of the
five built, Lady Nelson and Lady Rodney were sold. After being refitted at Alexandria and
then renamed, they were used to carry passengers in the Mediterranean and Red Seas.
Under her new owner, the Khedivial Mail line, Lady Nelson was renamed Gumhuryat Misr,
later becoming Alwadi in 1960 until she was scrapped in 1968.