Converted Liner in Wartime

Why Liners Can Be Converted into Troopships

In wartime ocean liners are usually converted into ships that are to carry troops. There are reasons for which liners are able to be modified into troopships. One of them is that men are the critical component of a country’s military power and the vessels are so large that they can ferry a large number of men over the ocean. The second reason would be that merchant ships are fast, so when faced with undersea threats or those overhead, speed is what people can rely on. Third, unlike ships featured with the capacity of taking troops, some can be refitted to become merchant ships with arms which go hunting on the sea for counterparts from rivalries. On top of all the abovementioned, hospital ships come into being upon modifications and wards are designed for the wounded from battlefields to safe places.

What Conversion Is Like

Usually a ship has all kinds of spaces and facilities for different purposes to meet passengers’ needs, but some of them will be of no use when a war takes place, which therefore removed to make room for military purposes, beds for instance.  

The defensive attribute of arms is important to warships. However, sometimes the arms are not meant to be used in aggressive attacks, but either to defend the ship from unexpected assaults of other waterborne armed vehicles or against warplanes by lowering their attacking precision.

Another thing to take into account is to make the troopship in protective colors, also known as camouflage. In fact, this application has caused a heated debate whether it is useful in practice. Some experts just give credit to it for somewhat calming scared soldiers down. 

How Are Converted Ships after Wars

It is said that the uninstalled items will be kept and then as soon as the war ends re-installed within the ship. But unfortunately, it seems that not many modified liners survived wars. Famous ships in history include Olympic, Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth 2 and the list goes on, which were among those converted into troopships during wartime.

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