RMS Olympic to Belfast where the passengers disembarked. Following "Olympic"s return to Britain, the White Star Line intended to lay her up in Belfast until the war was over, but in May 1915 she was requisitioned by the Admiralty, to be used as a troop transport, along with the Cunard liners and . The Admiralty had initially been reluctant to use large ocean liners as troop transports because of their vulnerability to enemy attack, however a shortage of ships gave them little choice. At the same time, "Olympic"s other sister ship "Britannic", which had not yet been completed, was requisitioned as a
The ships Anne and Little James James" was a pinnace (small ship with sails or oars) of forty-four tons displacement, and for her voyage to America she had come new from the builder’s yard. Per Bradford: “a fine new vessel of about 44. tunne, which the Company had built to stay in the Countrie.” She was a small ship with about ¼ the tonnage of "Anne" and had a total crew of probably not more than fifteen men. Her captain was an Adventurer named Emmanuel Altham, a young man of age 23 of English landed gentry from Essexshire and a novice at the business of sailing.