Order of the Bath and foreign nationals may be made Honorary Members. The Order of the Bath is the fourth-most senior of the British Orders of Chivalry, after The Most Noble Order of the Garter, The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, and The Most Illustrious Order of St Patrick (dormant). In the Middle Ages, knighthood was often conferred with elaborate ceremonies. These usually involved the knight-to-be taking a bath (possibly symbolic of spiritual purification) during which he was instructed in the duties of knighthood by more senior knights. He was then put to bed to dry. Clothed in a special
SS British Chivalry SS British Chivalry SS "British Chivalry" was a British oil tanker sunk by a Japanese submarine in the Indian Ocean in 1944. The steel-hulled ship was built by Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company of Jarrow in northern England for the British Tanker Company, the transportation arm of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. Launched on 24 January 1929, the ship was long and in the beam, and powered by a 553 nhp quadruple expansion steam engine which gave her a top speed of . On 22 February 1944 "British Chivalry" was sailing alone in the Indian Ocean, south-west of Addu Atoll in