I am currently volunteering at the Ballast Trust where I have begun scanning and uploading some of the merchant shipping photographs held at the Ballast Trust from the William Lind Collection.

The picture below depicts one of the photographs from the William Lind collection.

This is the S.S "Amerika" built by Harland & Wolff, Belfast, in 1905.  Her story begins in 1910 where "Amerika" was the first ship to carry an extra-tariff restaurant, created by Charles Mews's of Ritz Carlton fame.

In 1912 she transmitted an iceberg warning just hours before the RMS Titanic struck the fatal iceberg that caused it to sink. In 1914, with the outbreak of WW1, "Amerika" hid in Boston util the Americans entered the war where she was renamed "America", and carried troops across the Atlantic.

Check out the Ballast Trust's flicker account for more photographs and other interesting stories by clicking the link here.

~ Joanne Savage, Volunteer