Cathay as "Cathay" (in a number of spelling variants) as well. The name occurs in the writings of Giovanni da Pian del Carpine (c. 1180–1252) (as "Kitaia"), William of Rubruck (c. 1220–c. 1293) (as "Cataya" or "Cathaia"). Rashid-al-Din Hamadani, ibn Battuta, Marco Polo all were referring to Northern China as Cathay, while Southern China, ruled by the Song dynasty, was "Mangi", "Manzi", "Chin", or "Sin". The word "Manzi" (蠻子) or "Mangi" is a derogatory term in Chinese meaning "barbarians of the south" ("Man" was used to describe unsinicised Southern China in its earlier periods), and would therefore not have been used
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