Ocean ship

The Ocean ships were a class of 57 cargo ships built in the Second World War for the British Ministry of War Transport. Sixteen were lost to enemy action, and the survivors were sold into merchant service postwar.

Description
The Oceans were of steel construction with a welded hull. They were all nominally 7,174 GRT with a length of 416 ft and a beam of 57 ft. They were built by a variety of shipbuilders in the United States.

History
The Oceans were originally built for the Ministry of War Transport. Five of them were transferred to foreign governments during the war.

Eighteen ships were lost to enemy action during the war, although two were later salvaged and returned to service.

Eight ships were lost in accidents postwar.

The Oceans served until the mid-1980s, with SS Ocean Athlete being scrapped in 1985. SS Ocean Merchant was on Chinese shipping registers as Zhan Dou 26 until 1992.