HMS Polyphemus (1881) HMS Polyphemus (1881) The third HMS "Polyphemus" was a Royal Navy torpedo ram, serving from 1881 until 1903. A shallow-draft, fast, low-profile vessel, she was designed to penetrate enemy harbours at speed and sink anchored ships. Designed by Nathaniel Barnaby primarily as a protected torpedo boat, the ram was provided very much as secondary armament. It has been suggested that H. G. Wells’ fictional HMS "Thunder Child" from his novel "The War of the Worlds" may have been based on this ship, in part because he described "Thunder Child" as an ironclad torpedo ram, and "Polyphemus" was the only ship
HMS Royal Ulsterman HMS Royal Ulsterman Commissioned in 1936, HMS Royal Ulsterman was a 3,250 ton passenger ship which, along with her sister-ship, , sailed the Glasgow-Belfast run for Burns and Laird Lines Ltd. During the Second World War, "Royal Ulsterman" served as a Royal Navy Reserve troop transport, taking part in nearly all of the major Allied amphibious operations of the European war, including the Dunkirk evacuation; Operation "Neptune" (the amphibious part of the D-Day landings); and the liberation of the Channel Islands. Commissioned HMS, "Royal Ulsterman" landed elements of the British Expeditionary Force for operations in Norway in 1940. Subsequently, the