During the First World War the Admiralty requisitioned 14 ships, which were converted into Dummy Battleships.  These were a mixture of Cargo ships and Passenger Liners, which, with a bit of the ‘Blue Peter’ treatment of canvas and wood, were transformed to look like Battleships of the Grand Fleet, with suitable ballast and complete with gun turrets, masts and the like.

The idea behind this project was to confuse the Germans into thinking that the Royal Navy had more capital ships than they did, and whether this subterfuge worked is not known.  The Dummy Battleship project did not last for long and all of the ships concerned were converted for other duties, eight of them went on to serve in the RFA, either as Tankers, Store Ships or in one case as a Kite Balloon Ship, and this is the story of those ships.

Here is a potted history of the ships that went on to serve in the RFA Service, with, where possible their service history after the First World War.