Cathay that now they "were" living in the Great Cathay. This all made them quite convinced that Cathay is indeed China. China-based Jesuits promptly informed their colleagues in Goa (Portuguese India) and Europe about their discovery of the Cathay-China identity. This was stated e.g. in a 1602 letter of Ricci's comrade Diego de Pantoja, which was published in Europe along with other Jesuits' letters in 1605. The Jesuits in India, however, were not convinced, because, according to their informants (merchants who visited the Mughal capitals Agra and Lahore), Cathay – a country that could be reached via Kashgar – had a
SS Cathay (1924) overloaded escorts and brought the survivors to Freetown without further incident. On 5 February 1942, the "SS Cathay" was returned to P&O and refitted as a troopship by the Bethlehem Steel Corporation at Brooklyn; it entered service again on 30 April of the same year. The "SS Cathay" was part of Operation Torch, which consisted of British and American troops invading French North Africa. It disembarked troops west of Algiers at the beginning of Operation Torch on 8 November 1942. While the "SS Cathay" was returning to the port of Bougie, Algeria from Algiers on 11 November 1942, it was