HMS Nairana was a passenger ferry that was requisitioned by the Royal Navy as a seaplane carrier in 1917. She was laid down in 1914 as TSS Nairana for the Australian shipping line Huddart Parker, but construction was temporarily suspended after the outbreak of the First World War. The ship was converted to operate wheeled aircraft from her forward flying-off deck as well as floatplanes that were lowered into the water. She saw service during the war with the Grand Fleet, and in 1918–19 supported the British intervention in the Russian Civil War. Nairana was returned to her former owners in 1921 and refitted in her original planned configuration, then spent the next several decades ferrying passengers and cargo across Bass Strait between Tasmania and Melbourne, where she was nearly capsized twice by rogue waves. Nairana was the only Bass Strait ferry not requisitioned for military service in the Second World War, and so became the sole passenger ship with service to Tasmania during the conflict. She was laid up in 1948, wrecked in a storm three years later, and scrapped onsite in 1953–54.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Nairana_(1917)

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

217 BC:

Second Punic War: The Carthaginians under Hannibal executed one of the largest military ambushes in history when they overwhelmingly defeated the Romans. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lake_Trasimene

1826:

Greek War of Independence: A combined Egyptian and Ottoman army began their invasion of the Mani Peninsula, but they were initially held off by the Maniots at the fortifications of Vergas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman%E2%80%93Egyptian_invasion_of_Mani

1898:

In a bloodless event during the Spanish–American War, the United States captured Guam from Spain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_of_Guam

1919:

Admiral Ludwig von Reuter scuttled the German High Seas Fleet in Scapa Flow to prevent the ships from being seized and divided amongst the Allied Powers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scuttling_of_the_German_fleet_in_Scapa_Flow

1948:

The Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine, the world's first stored-program computer, ran its first computer program. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Small-Scale_Experimental_Machine

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

angst: 1. A feeling of acute but vague anxiety or apprehension often accompanied by depression, especially philosophical anxiety. 2. More commonly, painful sadness or emotional turmoil, as teen angst. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/angst

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

One of the fundamental points about religious humility is you say you don't know about the ultimate judgment. It's beyond your judgment. And if you equate God's judgment with your judgment, you have a wrong religion.   --Reinhold Niebuhr https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Reinhold_Niebuhr