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The April mystery ship is the tug Knocker White, which was built by T. van Duijvendijk at Lekkerkerk, Netherlands as the Thames lighterage tug Cairnrock in 1924 for Harrisons (London) Ltd. She originally had a 400ihp steam compound engine from Crabtree & Co, Great Yarmouth.
In 1960 she was sold to Alfred E. White, who fitted a pair of Petters diesel totalling 600bhp and geared to a single shaft. Renamed Knocker White, she was operated by W. E. White & Sons (Towage) Ltd of Erith until the end of the 1970s, when the company largely ceased operations.
Sold for scrapping at Erith in 1983, she was saved and purchased for restoration by the Museum of London, where she remains, moored in front of the museum in West India Dock. With little background, the photo is hard to locate, but was definitely taken on the Thames or Medway.
David Asprey, Shoeburyness, Essex
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Can anyone identify this ship? She has LH371 on her hull, but where and when was she built? What are her funnel markings? Where was the photograph taken? And when? And who was she operated by?
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Can anyone identify this ship? Where and when was she built? Where was the photograph taken? And when? And who was she operated by? After many correct answers to the March Mystery Ship, this one may prove more challenging.
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The mystery ship was ordered from Yarrow by the Ghanaian Navy to serve as Fleet Flagship and Presidential Yacht. She was to have been named Black Star, but President Nkrumah was overthrown and the new government cancelled the order before the ship was launched. Yarrow completed her in 1968 and put her up for sale. Eventually the Royal Navy purchased her, refitted her and named her HMS Mermaid, pennant number F76, and put her into service in 1972. As the picture shows her without the pennant number, apparently on tow, I suspect she is on her way to be refitted. The RN sold her to the Malaysian Navy in April 1977 and she was renamed KD Hang Tuah. She currently serves as a training ship in Malaysia.
Peter Clarke, Staines
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I believe the mystery ship to be USS Lexington, CV-2, built by Bethlehem Steel at Quincy, Massachusetts. She was laid down on 8 January 1921, and commissioned as CV-2 on 14 December 1927. The photograph shows her on the Panama Canal and possibly dates from early 1928. She had passed into the Pacific by mid-1928 and ran trials off Southern California, achieving 34.59 knots while producing 202,973shp. She then did the San Pedro Sound to Hawaii trip at an average speed of 30.7 knots, to join the Pacific Fleet. By 1929 she was at Puget Sound Navy yard.
Lexington was similar to USS Saratoga, and both passed through the canal on several occasions, but the vessel in the photograph does not exhibit the differential funnel markings applied to the class after the shambolic Fleet Problem 1X exercise of 1929-30, so it must be Lexington. The only difference I can see between the two ships is in the arrangements of the forward tower superstructure above the range finder. Lexington was lost on 8 May 1942 after being hit by torpedoes at the battle of the Coral Sea.
Sandy McAuslan, Renton
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Can anyone identify this tug? Where and when was she built? Where was she operated? Where was the photograph taken? And when? And did she move around different ports during her career?
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 The Mystery Ship is Royal Mail Lines’ steamer Alcantara, built in 1926 at Harland & Wolff, Belfast, drydocked at Alexandra, Egypt in November 1939 for major hull repairs after colliding with Cunard’s Franconia and conversion into an armed-merchant cruiser, as one of her six-inch guns can be seen on the fore deck. Her forward dummy funnel was removed at the same time and replaced with anti-aircraft guns. She returned to commercial service in 1948 and was used until 1958, when she went to breakers.
A. Frost, Sunderland
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Can anyone identify this naval ship? Where and when was she built? Which navy operated her? Is she still in service anywhere in the world?
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