HMS Anne ( 1915 ) HMS " Anne " was a seaplane carrier of the Royal Navy used during World War I . Converted from the captured German freighter " Aenne Rickmers " , the ship ' s two aircraft conducted aerial reconnaissance , observation and bombing missions in the Eastern Mediterranean and Red Sea during 1915 – 17 even though the ship was not commissioned into the Royal Navy until mid - 1915 . She was decommissioned in late 1917 and became a Merchant Navy collier for the last year of the war . " Anne " was sold off in 1922 and had a succession of owners and names until she was scrapped in 1958 . Description . " Anne " was long , had a beam of , and a draught of . She was rated at . The ship had one propeller shaft powered by one triple - expansion steam engine that used steam generated by an unknown number of coal - fired boilers . " Anne " had a maximum speed of . Career . The merchant ship SS " Aenne Rickmers " was built by Rickmers of Bremerhaven in 1911 . On the outbreak of war in August 1914 , she was seized whilst in Port Said , Egypt and was requisitioned for service under the Red Ensign of the British Merchant Marine in January 1915 to operate seaplanes . No special modifications were made to the ship ; the aircraft were stowed on the aft hatch covers and handled with her cargo booms . " Aenne Rickmers " operated two French Nieuport floatplane s that had been off - loaded by the ; they were flown by French pilots with British observers . For the first two months of 1915 , the ship and her aircraft supported Allied operations in Syria , Palestine and the Sinai Peninsula . Aside from reconnaissance duties , they delivered and recovered Allied agents as well as observed for ships performing coastal bombardments . On 4 March , " Aenne Rickmers " was ordered to join several Allied ships that were going to bombard Smyrna , Turkey . A week later , she was torpedoed by the Turkish torpedo boat " Demir Hisar " . The ship was hit by one torpedo in the Number 1 cargo hold ; this was full of timber which limited water ingress and saved her from sinking . " Aenne Rickmers " arrived at Mudros the following day to begin repairs , but the repair crew was withdrawn a week later to work on the damaged battlecruiser . The seaplane carrier ( another merchant conversion ) arrived on 20 March to load her aircraft and crew , leaving only a five - person skeleton crew behind . During a storm on 6 April , the ship dragged her anchors and ran aground on a sandy beach . She was temporarily repaired there and refloated on 12 May , sailing to Alexandria , Egypt two days later for permanent repairs and to off - load her cargo . This was completed by 18 June , but the ship lay idle until the end of the month when she was provided with an Arab crew and sailed to Port Said . " Aenne Rickmers " rendezvoused with the French armoured cruiser on 18 July at Scarpanto and the carrier searched the Turkish coast for U - boat bases and observed while the French ship bombarded coastal installations . The ship then returned to Port Said where she was fitted with a 12 - pounder gun . " Aenne Rickmers " was commissioned into the Royal Navy on 5 August 1915 and renamed HMS " Anne " the same day . She rendezvoused with " Jeanne dArc " and the French pre - dreadnought battleship around 13 August and observed while they bombarded Turkish installations in Haifa . On 17 August , aircraft from both " Anne " and " Raven II " spotted for " Jeanne dArc " as she bombarded Tarsus and then assisted " Jeanne dArc " and " Jauréguiberry " on 30 August as they captured Ruad Island . In early September , the ship assisted the French as they evacuated Armenia n troops and civilians from Alexandretta and the surrounding area and then resumed her earlier work of reconnaissance and espionage . " Anne " lost her first aircraft when it suffered an engine failure whilst on a reconnaissance mission over Beersheba on 9 October . The ship had her bottom cleaned in Alexandria during November and lost another aircraft , again over Beersheba , on 22 December . In January 1916 , she was assigned to the East Indies and Egypt Seaplane Squadron together with the carriers , and " Raven II " . The squadron was under the command of the General Officer Commanding , Egypt and its primary duty was to watch Turkish positions and movements in southern Palestine and the Sinai in early 1916 . Around 17 April , " Anne " was attacked by two German aircraft , but was not damaged . A few days later , she discovered a U - boat base at Makry , whilst operating near Kastellorizo . The ship loaded aboard the French seaplane contingent in Egypt at the end of the month , and delivered it to Malta on 9 May for transfer , including her own Nieuports , to the . Her aircraft had made a total of 118 flights since she began operating them in January 1915 and only two had been lost . Later that month , " Anne " exchanged her existing 12 - pounder for an anti - aircraft gun of the same calibre and was back at Port Said by 21 May . She lay idle there until mid - June when she began transporting military supplies between Port Said and several ports in the Red Sea . This lasted until 2 August when she embarked British seaplanes , including Short Type 184 , Sopwith Schneider and Baby floatplanes , and she observed for the on 10 August as the latter ship bombarded Mersina . The East Indies and Egypt Squadron reassembled in late August with " Raven II " , " Anne " and " Ben - my - Chree " and the aircraft from the three carriers attacked the Turkish supply dump at El Afule for thirty minutes . The squadron then steamed south along the Palestinian coast where they encountered two Turkish supply dhow s . One was sunk by the escorting while the other was captured . The squadron flew off seven aircraft that attacked an encampment at Bureir and a nearby railroad viaduct . One of " Anne " s seaplanes was lost during this mission and the pilot was captured . Despite the loss , her aircraft bombed Turkish installations at Tull Keram , Nablus , Ludd and Ramleh before returning to Port Said on 27 August . A few days later , " Anne " replaced " Raven II " , after that ship had been damaged by an air attack on 1 September , on an expedition into the Red Sea to support the Arab Revolt against the Turks . She rendezvoused with the elderly cruiser and " Dufferin " of the Royal Indian Marine ( RIM ) and they arrived at Rabigh on 9 September . The ship briefly ran aground off Yenbo , but got off and was able to observe for " Fox " and " Hardinge " of the RIM as they shelled Turkish positions near Wejh on 13 September . Aside one brief visit to Suez to recoal , " Anne " remained in the area while her aircraft flew bombing and reconnaissance missions until she was relieved by " Raven II " on 26 October . The ship was idle at Port Said for the rest of the year other than one trip to Cyprus transporting coal . In January 1917 , " Anne " returned to the Red Sea and joined " Hardinge " and the Armed boarding steamer " Suva " . Together with some 500 Arabs , the crews of the three ships made an amphibious landing and captured Wejh . The ship returned to Suez on 27 January and seems to have been used only as a collier until she was paid off on 8 August . Commercial service . " Anne " served as a collier under the Red Ensign from 29 January 1918 until the end of the war under the management of F . C . Strick and Co . She was sold in 1922 to S . N . Vlassopoulos of Greece and was renamed " Ithaki " . The ship was sold to a Romanian company in 1939 and renamed " Moldova " ; she was then transferred to Panamanian registry in 1942 with the same name . " Moldova " was sold in 1949 to Wallem & Co . and renamed " Jagharat " in 1954 . She resumed her former name of " Moldova " in 1955 and arrived at Hong Kong to be scrapped on 8 November 1958 .