On the same day messing, watch, and sleeping arrangements were made, ammunition was taken aboard and stored in the magazines, together with a limited number of small arms, in addition to the marines’ rifles: and so unremitting had been the work of all engaged, and so efficient the organisation evoked by the crisis, that the _Carmania_ was actually at sea as a fully equipped armed cruiser by Friday, August 14th, only a week after she had entered port as an ordinary first-class Atlantic liner. With her later adventures we shall deal in a moment, but before doing so let us follow the adventures of the other three vessels that were converted into armed cruisers. The _Aquitania_, fitted with 6-inch guns, sailed on August 8th, but unfortunately was damaged in collision and on returning to port was dismantled at the end of September. From May to August, 1915, she was employed in carrying troops, when she was fitted out as a Hospital Ship, in which capacity she continued to work until April of the following year. She was again requisitioned as a Hospital Ship in September, 1916, plying between England and the Mediterranean until Christmas. She was then laid up by the Government for the whole of 1917, and in March, 1918, was again put into commission by the Admiralty as a transport, and played an important part in bringing American troops to Europe at that critical time. The _Caronia_ had a somewhat longer career as an armed cruiser. She was commissioned on 8th August, 1914, by Captain Shirley-Litchfield, R.N., with Captain C. A. Smith, Cunard Line, as navigator. She sailed from Liverpool on August 10th, for patrol duties in the North Atlantic, being attached to the North American and West Indies Station, under the command of Rear-Admiral Phipps-Hornby, with Halifax (N.S.) as base. She was employed on the usual patrol duties, stopping, boarding and examining shipping. In the very early days of the war, she captured at sea and towed into Berehaven the four-masted barque _Odessa_, and, some little time after, she took over from a warship and towed to Halifax a six thousand ton oil tanker. Eight 4.7-in. quick-firing guns were originally mounted in the _Caronia_, but, on her return to England for refit in May, 1915, they were replaced by a similar number of six-inch. She was at sea again in July, 1915, for another commission on the same station, with Captain Reginald A. Norton, R.N., in command, and Captain Henry McConkey, Cunard Line, as navigator. She remained away until August, 1916, when she returned to this country to pay off. The _Caronia_ was then employed in trooping between South and East Africa and India until her return to the Company’s service. During the whole of this time, she was manned chiefly by mercantile marine ratings, enrolled for temporary service in the R.N.R. for the duration of hostilities.