SS Justicia
ocean liner
SS Justicia was a British troop ship that was launched in Ireland in 1914 and sunk off County Donegal in 1918. She was designed and launched as the transatlantic liner Statendam, a new flagship for the Holland America Line (NASM), but the outbreak of First World War delayed her completion. In 1915 NASM agreed to let the United Kingdom acquire her and have her completed as a troop ship.
The ship was completed in 1917 and renamed Justicia, with the intention that Cunard Line would crew and operate her. However, Cunard was unable to raise a crew for her, so the Shipping Controller appointed White Star Line to manage her.
Justicia entered service in April 1917, carrying troops from North America to Europe. She escaped a U-boat attack in January 1918, but sank that July off the coast of Ireland after two U-boats hit her with a total of six torpedoes.
The ship was 90 ft (27 m) longer and 9 ft (3 m) broader than NASM's then flagship, the 24,149 GRT Rotterdam, which Harland & Wolff had completed in 1908. Statendam would have been by far the largest NASM had yet owned. Only HAPAG's Imperator class, White Star Line's Olympic class and Cunard's Aquitania were larger.
“SS Justicia” enters the record as ocean liner. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Justicia, ocean and liner can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“SS Justicia” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Justicia, ocean and liner provides the most credible route into that argument.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1142435. Authority coordinates are 55.633, -7.650. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1914, 1918, 1915 and 1917.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “SS Justicia”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow SS Justicia primary sources, SS Justicia archive and Justicia research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “SS Justicia” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.